Eight Decades of Ellsworth Kelly Draws A Packed Crowd to the Parrish Over 400 guests… Read More →
After a sold-out pop-up debut, the East Hampton outpost of a downtown Manhattan favorite returns… Read More →
Your Quick SPARK Guide to the Hamptons’ Latest Restaurant and Store Openings and ClosingsOpening /… Read More →
Sometimes it’s worth the Jitney ride … SPARK’s top NYC event picks this week—from a… Read More →
From choice food and wine tastings to top live music events, sizzling film screenings, and… Read More →
A decades-long collaboration between Leslie Gelb and East Hampton artist Chris Liles results in “Wake… Read More →
On the East End, where environmental changes first ripple through whispers before becoming spectacle, hundreds… Read More →
When the garage becomes the destination, not the afterthought. In the Hamptons, scarcity defines the… Read More →
A shrinking opportunity to get into the Hamptons—without overpaying to do it. As the East… Read More →
A behind-the-scenes look at the agents, teams, and headline-making deals shaping the East End market.… Read More →
LongHouse Reserve Opens 2026 Season With New Art and New Leadership
Renée Cox, Sean Scully and William Kentridge debut new works as Lara Sweeney becomes executive director of the East Hampton sculpture garden
After a snowy winter delayed the daffodils, LongHouse Reserve will open its 2026 season April 18 with a Spring Awakening celebration, unveiling major new works by Renée Cox, Sean Scully and William Kentridge.
The 16-acre East Hampton garden — founded by textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen — also begins the season with new leadership. Lara Sweeney has been appointed executive director, stepping into the role as the beloved Hamptons cultural destination enters its next chapter.
A new chapter for LongHouse
LongHouse president Louis Bradbury called Sweeney’s appointment a pivotal moment for the institution.
In the five years since Larsen’s death, LongHouse has strengthened its organizational structure, expanded programming and added significant works to the garden.
Sweeney brings more than two decades of nonprofit leadership and fundraising experience. A Sag Harbor native, she previously served as co-president of the Children’s Museum of the East End, where she helped grow the museum’s operating budget, increase attendance and complete a multimillion-dollar capital campaign.
The role also carries personal meaning.
“My husband and I were married at LongHouse in 2005,” Sweeney said. “Twenty years later, having the chance to help carry out LongHouse’s mission at one of the East End’s most beloved spaces feels like a dream.”
Among the projects ahead: opening Larsen’s home to the public and expanding programming that deepens the dialogue between art, nature and community.
Former executive director Carrie Rebora Barratt, now a curatorial consultant, called the leadership transition a sign of the institution’s continued strength and evolution.
Major sculpture debuts in the garden
This season introduces several important new works to the LongHouse landscape.
Irish American artist Sean Scully will present 48 (2024), a monumental colored stack sculpture translating his signature striped paintings into three dimensions — a meditation on land, sea, sky and light. Scully moved from London to New York in 1975 and spent a formative summer in Montauk in 1982.
Greeting visitors near the entrance will be Renée Cox’s Soul Culture Statue (2025), the New York–based photographer’s first public outdoor sculpture. The seven-foot work draws inspiration from West African funerary sculpture, Peruvian imagery and Japanese Dogū figures while reflecting the artist’s engagement with Afrofuturism.
Two bronze sculptures by William Kentridge will also join the garden this season.
These additions complement LongHouse’s celebrated collection of outdoor works by artists including Willem de Kooning, Sol LeWitt, Yoko Ono, Grace Knowlton, Maren Hassinger, Fitzhugh Karol, Barbara Shawcroft and Toshiko Takaezu.
Returning loans from artists including Mark Mennin, Jill Platner, Kenny Scharf and Vadis Turner will also be on view.
A new exhibition inside the house
Opening May 2, “Things That Look Like Magic: Cheryl R. Riley and Wharton Esherick” explores a cross-generational dialogue between contemporary artist Cheryl R. Riley and pioneering American studio craft figure Wharton Esherick.
The exhibition — curated by Glenn Adamson and Carrie Rebora Barratt — continues LongHouse’s tradition of reinterpreting the domestic spaces and collections assembled by founder Jack Lenor Larsen, encouraging fresh perspectives on the intersection of art, craft and design.
A winter storm claims an icon
This winter also brought an unexpected loss.
The Fly’s Eye Dome, the experimental structure designed by visionary architect Buckminster Fuller and produced by his student John Kuhtik, collapsed during a winter storm.
For years the dome served as both an architectural landmark and gathering place for concerts, talks and performances. LongHouse is now exploring plans to reimagine or replace the beloved structure.
The summer benefit: Beautopia
LongHouse’s annual summer benefit returns June 27 with the theme Beautopia, honoring community champion Bruce Horten and artist Sean Scully.
Guests will explore the gardens, enjoy cocktails and live music, and bid in the evening’s signature art auction before dinner and dancing under the stars.
Talks, performances and workshops all season
Programming throughout the season includes architecture talks by Alastair Gordon marking the 25th anniversary of his influential book Weekend Utopia, along with landscape conversations featuring Julia Watson, Margie Ruddick and Edwina von Gal.
Artist talks and book events will feature Mark Mennin, Jill Moser and James Salomon, with related programming presented in partnership with BookHampton.
The Neo-Political Cowgirls will perform Shakespeare during the summer, and on Aug. 8 virtuoso pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner returns for the annual alfresco recital celebrating Jack Lenor Larsen’s birthday.
Art, nature and community
Hands-on creativity remains central to the LongHouse experience. Weekend visitors will find art-making activities, Friday evening painting classes and Insider/Outsider talks in collaboration with Jeremy Dennis of Ma’s House.
Wellness programming includes Tai Chi, sound baths and meditation, while garden tours explore the property’s chemical-free landscape and thriving habitat for birds and pollinators.
Family-friendly highlights include Dog Days, monthly gatherings for dogs and their owners in partnership with the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons.
A Hamptons destination in every season
While spring’s daffodils and summer sculptures draw visitors, LongHouse remains open year-round — from fall foliage to winter programming and the seasonal LongHouse Illuminated installation — offering one of the East End’s rare places where art, landscape and community meet in the same garden
For more information, visit longhouse.org
