The structure sits on half an acre of land. When there were plans for it as a home, it had six bedrooms and seven and a half bathrooms, an indoor spa, lofted and double-height living spaces, and wood-beamed ceilings. There are also double-height floor-to-ceiling windows in the main living spaces.
Image courtesy of: Curbed Hamptons
The Church in Sag Habor opened this past spring after a L-O-N-G history as the Methodist Church of Sag Harbor. Since 1832 until 2008, the historical location served the needs of locals; however now, the structure will serve people in a different way.
Co-founded by two artists, Eric Fischl and April Gornik, the renovated art center has been a dream for quite some time. Fischl, a longtime resident of the area said (courtesy of The New York Times), “This opening is the culmination of the vision of a lifetime. We want the Church to stand as a beacon of hope and renewal through continual exploration and reinterpretation, which is the domain of the arts.”
TImage courtesy of: The New York Times, photographed by: Michael Heller
Previous to Fischl and Gornik purchasing the property, plans were for the former place of worship to be transformed into the private residence of a Los Angeles-based architect and gallerist. However, that abruptly stopped in 2015 and the house sat, covered in scaffolding and bright green building wrap, for three years.
When new landowners purchased the property, they had grand plans to create an arts center dedicated to exploration and innovation. The grey stone ground floor and white panel siding were both restored, and five big aluminum-clad windows can be found throughout the main and second floor of each side of the building. From inside, uninterrupted views of Sag Harbor and many of the town’s historic buildings are visible.
The ambitious couple last year.
Image courtesy of: Sag Harbor Express
Luckily, the building’s exterior remained, “as is,” even as the interior was dramatically altered. The couple from North Haven have an undying love of Sag Harbor and had made it their mission to create an “arts incubator” as a sidekick to the other cultural institutions that opened up in the little village. Thankfully, the interior space was rehabbed and renovated to feature and showcase the structure’s “historic bones;” and in addition to offer spaces for individual creation and communal performances.
As Fischl told Kathryn G. Menu from Sag Harbor Express, “We talk a lot about possible collaborative efforts, where we are bringing people in of different disciplines to work together on something that neither one of them would be doing elsewhere or on their own. Or we could be bringing local people to work with specific people in craft or from the arts world.” Gornik added, “With one little stipulation. The people who come here should interact with the community in some way — with the schools, through public talks. In some way, they should be interacting with this place because what we are focused on is ‘place’ and we want people who understand the importance of that.” That seems fair enough!
Original writing on the truss support beams of the original Sag Harbor United Methodist Church.
Image courtesy of: Sag Harbor Express
The ground level is a workspace and the main floor is used for exhibitions and programs. The upper floor’s footprint is just half the size of the main building; and as a result, one side remains open to the historical and beautifully restored rafters. The top floor includes an office, a library, and a meeting space for artist and community partners.
An artist-in-residence program is also located on the ground and main floors towards the rear of the building. Fischl and Gornik already have a plan for the residency program… they envision a first-year residency of three or four artists that will work in five week stretches. In addition, educational opportunities and public programs for artists of all ages and caliber will be offered throughout the year.
Some of Fischl’s portraits on display. These were all painted in oil on frosted Mylar. The portraits were originally photographs that were digitally reproduced and applied to the glass windows of The Church.
Image courtesy of: Eric Fischl
The twenty portraits that Fischl painted for The Church overlook the building’s “creative spaces.” The subjects span through the centuries from the 18th to the 21st, and they are as different in race and gender as is possible. From almost every creative discipline, these faces have either lived in Sag Harbor or had a personal connection to the eclectic village.
Among those is John Steinbeck and James Salter; in addition to George Balanchine and some lesser known names such as Hal McKursick (a jazz saxophonist) and dark sheep Lady Caronline Blackwood, heiress to the Guinness fortune who eloped to Paris with Lucian Freud; she herself was a journalist, novelist, biographer, and critic who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
This is a research project that Fischl thought would be short-lived; however after he began investigating, he realized that there were so many artists with a personal connection to Sag Harbor. The first set of twenty are his… and every year, he plans to rotate to a new bunch of portraits painted by someone else. Tying in the personal connection to The Church has been one of the missions… certainly well thought out and fully investigated. We can’t wait to see how this dream-project evolves!