The Watermill Center

The Watermill Center
Name	The Watermill Center
Location	Water Mill, New York
Established	1992
Founder	Robert Wilson
Type	Laboratory for performance, visual arts, interdisciplinary research

The Watermill Center The Watermill Center is an arts laboratory and cultural institution in Water Mill, New York, founded by avant-garde director Robert Wilson. It serves as a residency program, exhibition venue, and performance space that has hosted collaborations among artists, choreographers, writers, composers, filmmakers, curators, and scientists. The Center is noted for its interdisciplinary projects, international fellowship programs, and large-scale outdoor installations attracting participants from institutions such as New York University, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and companies like Brooklyn Academy of Music.

History

The Center was established in 1992 by Robert Wilson following his work on productions for venues including La MaMa, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Opéra National de Paris, Lincoln Center, and festivals such as the Venice Biennale and the Festival d'Avignon. Early momentum drew collaborators from the worlds of theater and visual art, including Philip Glass, Marina Abramović, Laurie Anderson, Merce Cunningham, and Trisha Brown. The site has evolved through relationships with patrons and institutions like the National Endowment for the Arts, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Ford Foundation, and collections associated with Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and Whitney Museum of American Art. Over decades the Center expanded its facilities and programming amid critical intersections with events such as the Armory Show and partnerships with curators from MoMA PS1, Serpentine Galleries, and the Centre Pompidou.

Architecture and Grounds

The Watermill Center occupies historic properties in the Hamptons region near Southampton (New York), incorporating vernacular structures alongside purpose-built studios and performance halls. The campus includes landscaped gardens, outdoor stages, and a distinctive white box performance building influenced by scenography and set designs associated with Brechtian theater practitioners and modernist architects like Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. The grounds host site-specific works resonant with practices from artists such as Richard Serra, Sol LeWitt, Robert Rauschenberg, and Isamu Noguchi, and have been used for installations echoing archaeological presentations seen at institutions like the British Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Programs and Residencies

Residency programs at the Center attract participants from international programs including the Fulbright Program, Mellon Fellows, Rhode Island School of Design, Cooper Union, California Institute of the Arts, Royal College of Art, National Institute of Design (India), and conservatories such as Juilliard School and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Fellowships have supported artists connected to movements involving Fluxus, Dada, Surrealism, and contemporary practices associated with figures like Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama, and Ai Weiwei. The Center runs summer intensives, long-term studio residencies, and producing residencies that collaborate with curators from Venice Biennale, directors from Metropolitan Opera, choreographers from New York City Ballet, and composers from Berlin Philharmonic.

Exhibitions and Performances

Public programs include exhibitions, experimental theater, music, film screenings, and performance pieces. The venue has premiered works with collaborators ranging from Philip Glass and Meredith Monk to directors associated with Royal Shakespeare Company and ensembles like Theater of Voices and Bang on a Can. Curators and artists presenting at the Center have ties to institutions such as Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and festivals including South by Southwest and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Performances often reference scenographic histories linked to practitioners like Adolphe Appia and productions comparable to those at La Scala and Guthrie Theater.

Collections and Archives

The Center maintains archives of production materials, scores, designs, photographs, and ephemera related to residency projects and historical collaborations. Archival holdings parallel collections at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, and Library of Congress. Holdings document collaborations with artists and ensembles such as Tadeusz Kantor, Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski, John Cage, and Robert Mapplethorpe, and include notebooks, models, and recorded rehearsals used in scholarly research and exhibitions at museums like The Frick Collection and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Education and Community Outreach

Educational initiatives connect with schools and organizations including Public School 1 (PS1), Brooklyn Museum Education, South Hampton School District, and university programs at Princeton University and Rutgers University. Workshops, internships, and youth programs draw on pedagogical methods from practitioners such as Suzuki Method founders, conservatory training at Curtis Institute of Music, and choreography curricula linked to Martha Graham School. Community outreach has included partnerships with nonprofits like Creative Time, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and cultural diplomacy programs associated with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Funding and Governance

Funding and governance have involved boards, trustees, and donors connected to foundations and institutions including Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Ackland Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and private patrons with histories at institutions such as Metropolitan Museum of Art. Governance practices reflect nonprofit norms similar to those at New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, with advisory relationships spanning galleries like Gagosian Gallery, auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's, and academic partners including Barnard College and Pratt Institute.

Category:Arts organizations in New York