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The Watermill Center started as one man’s extraordinary vision and to a great extent it is still that way. Yet Watermill by necessity and by purpose does not stand still. Creativity and new ideas are at the core of the organization.
Looking outward, the Watermill Center must ultimately find a secure place among the imposing group of arts institutions in the Hamptons and looking inward must grow and mature in future decades when Robert Wilson, its founder, is no longer there at the helm. To achieve those ends, the Watermill Center in recent years has enlarged its presence and enriched and refined its pursuit as an incubator of original thinking.
First, in addition to the International Summer Program, a celebrated interdisciplinary collaborative project led by Wilson that brings together talented people from around the world, Watermill now operates a year-round residency program with a focus on breaking new ground and developing challenging new performance works. Together the programs welcome about 150 artists from over 30 countries to the spectacular modern 20,000 square foot building on Watermill Towd Road.
Second, the performance aspects of Watermill have been augmented with a collection of over 7,000 objects of art spanning thousands of years and encompassing cultures and civilizations across the globe. A research library of 6,000 books (and expanding) will soon be open to the public, in the same way that rehearsals and lectures, tours and educational programs have long been been available—all free to the community.
Third, an increased staff of arts professionals now manages the Watermill Center, interpreting and delineating Wilson’s goal of encouraging young and emerging artists to explore innovative ideas while, as its mission states, drawing inspiration from all of the arts and cultures and the social, human, and natural sciences. And it seems to be working. To compose and concoct, to conceive, construct and contrive—all this and more is being forged at Watermill virtually every day of the year.
We recently asked Wilson, about the state of the arts in the Hamptons and the future of the Watermill Center.
How well are the arts and humanities represented in the Hamptons?
What I find very interesting is the diversity. In painting you have traditional 19th century painters, but it has also been a place for de Kooning and Pollock and many other giants of the 20th century. It is a home now to people like Julian Schnabel and others. In theater you have Bay Street, which is more mainstream, or Guild Hall, or Watermill Center, which is more cutting edge and international. I think Long Island is a center for the arts and culture, with strength in its diversity.
How are the collections and the new library at Watermill meaningful for the development of performance works?
My idea of the library is based a little bit on the King’s Library in London where bound volumes are housed with artworks and catalogues. Reference material via computers can be correlated directly with 3D objects. My dream for years was to have a library where one could make a trip around the world. For example, if one sees a work from Mongolia one could hold it in one’s hand, could reference it in a bound volume and one could perhaps watch a video from where it came.
I feel it is important for us as a center for the creation of new works that we have some knowledge about the history of man in order for our community to be rich. We can plan for the future by studying history. Artists are the records and diaries of our times. Their works are the few things that remain of any culture.
How will your vision for the Watermill Center continue in future generations?
It is important for me that I now delegate responsibility to younger generations and lead with a strong doctrine by which the center can function. André Malraux, France’s postwar Minister of Culture, advocated a blance between protecting the art of our past with the art of our times, the art of our community with the art of all communities. The center must do this and maintain an open door. The bible says: "I have set before you an open door and no man can shut it.” We must be a platform for human rights, justice and the dignity of man. And we must do what no one else is doing.
The Watermill Summer Benefit has become the most international (and for many prominent people the most glamorous) single event in the Hamptons. The eighteenth annual benefit takes place on July 30th with the theme, “Voluptuous Panic.” Plan your outfit accordingly. www.watermillcenter.org