Virtual Panel To Cover Affordable Housing And Preservation

On Friday, January 15, the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill is presenting a special live-stream panel focusing on affordable housing and preservation. Panelists will include East Hampton-based artist Scott Bluedorn – whose Bonac Blind is currently featured in the Parrish Road Show, Southampton Housing Authority Director Curtis Highsmith, Jr., Architect Bill Chaleff, AIA, and Preservationist Josh Halsey. Corinne Erni, Parrish Senior Curator of ArtsReach and Special Projects, will moderate.

Parrish Road Show: Scott Bluedorn: Bonac Blind is an interpretation of duck blinds utilized by hunters for camouflage. The floating, primarily handmade lodging was fashioned from a repurposed duck blind structure. The intentionally ironic solution to the area’s housing shortage could actually be repurposed into a floating tiny house that features off-grid amenities like solar panels, solar batteries, and a hot plate. Bonac Blind is fully functional and decorated with original artwork. The work’s title is a nod to older local families native to East Hampton that are known as ‘Bonackers’ or ‘Bub’s’. The affordable housing shortage has resulted in the departure of many working-class residents, especially those older local families.

“I’m pleased to dig deeper with this distinguished group of experts on housing and preservation to address the issues that Scott Bluedorn raised with his visionary Road Show project, which found great resonance when it was first moored it in the Springs and now at the Parrish Meadow, bringing home some real problems in the Hamptons, which are alienating communities and marginalizing the cultural heritage,” said Erni, who organized Parrish Road Show: Scott Bluedorn: Bonac Blind.

The exhibition was originally moored off Landing Lane, Springs, East Hampton. It was relocated to the Parrish Art Museum Meadow in December 2020.

“The Bonac Blind is a multi-faceted art intervention: A floating, off-grid microhome that references traditional Bonac culture of fishing, farming and hunting while also serving as a comment on the erosion of this culture due to the compound problems of housing crisis, climate change, and modernity,” Bluedorn, who also participated in the Parrish’s 2019 Artists Choose Artists exhibition, noted.

Highsmith’s goal is to establish mixed-income housing opportunities in Southampton Town. Chaleff, LEED AP and principal of Chaleff & Rogers Architects, P.C., is a long-time champion of “Green” architecture, affordable housing and sustainable planning and design. Halsey’s expertise is land and water preservation, as well as biological and environmental aspects in agricultural production at the Peconic Land Trust.

The discussion will commence at 5:00 p.m. There is no fee to attend.

Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For more information, or to register, visit parrishart.org.