2019 Artists-in-Residence Program At The Watermill Center To Welcome Nearly 20 Participants

The Watermill Center is a Hamptons interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts and humanities. Each year they host an Artist-in-Residence program that will commence March 12, 2019 with an unparalleled group. Afua Ansong (Ghana), Andrina Smith (USA and Shinnecock Nation), Cleek Schrey (USA), Colectivo Zoológico (Chile and France), Emily Furr (USA), Jeffrey Perkins (USA), Judith Hertog (Netherlands), Laurie Lambrecht & Toni Ross (USA), Lynsey Peisinger (USA), Mallory Catlett / Restless NYC (USA), Matthew Craven (USA), Maya Watanabe & Agustina Munoz (Argentina and Peru), Mountain Time Arts (USA), Ni’Ja Whitson (USA), Raja Feather Kelly (USA), and Sasha Wortzel (USA) have been selected as the Center’s Artists-in-Residence for next year.

The Artist-in-Residence Program gives artists an opportunity to utilize the Center’s impressive art collection, library, archives, and grounds as a home and workshop. Artists leave the year-long program enriched and inspired in their professional work. Distinguished and international committee members diligently choose Artists-in-Residence. These members range from artist to journalist to academics to other cultural leaders.

“When I first came to Watermill, I was delighted and surprised to find that it was a creative environment that encouraged artists to engage with a range of artistic mediums and projects,” explained returning artist Lynsey Peisinger. “Many institutions, including schools, residencies and arts organizations, strive to make artists self-define and self-describe in a very linear and compartmentalized way. At Watermill I have never had the impression that I had to have a strict answer to the question ‘what kind of artist are you?'”

Mallory Catlett of Restless NYC, Mountain Time Arts and Judith Hertog will begin the Artist-in-Residency Program on March 12, 2019. Catlett will work on Nova Express, the final concert of a trilogy based of the works of William Burroughs, while Mountain Time Arts develop the libretto and set design for their site-specific opera, Standby Snow: Chronicles of a Heatwave, addressing historic and contemporary tensions generated by drought and fire in southwestern Montana. Hertog plans on developing several chapters of Circling Lhasa, a nonfiction account of her journey investigating the politics of Tibetan Buddhism and life in Tibet under Chinese communist regime.

The Artist-in-Residence Program began in 2006 when the Center opened as a year-round facility for the community. During each residency, artists present their work to the public as part of In Process @ The Watermill Center. Past residents have presented work that was created and developed at The Watermill Center at festivals and venues including the New Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kitchen, Roulette, PS122, American Realness, Clocktower Gallery, Performa, Vienna’s Donaufestival, Kampnagel in Hamburg, CPR – Center for Performance Research and the Baryshnikov Arts Center, among others. To date, The Watermill Center has hosted over 640 residents.

Watermill Center is located at 39 Water Mill Towd Road in Water Mill. For more information, call 631-726-4628 or visit www.watermillcenter.org.