Where Art & Nature Intersect: LongHouse Reserve, An Interview with Director Carrie Rebora Barratt

LongHouse Reserve, located at 133 Hands Creek Road in East Hampton, is a staple of the unique Hamptons community. It is open year-round as a place to embrace peace, stillness, and the way nature and art coincide—both of which are woven into the fabric of the East End.

LongHouse Reserve was founded by Jack Lenor Larsen in 1991. He purchased the sixteen acres and built it as a private space with an innovative vision to serve the community, which continues to be honored in the years after his passing.

Although the gardens are open year-round and have unique plants and colors to take in during any season, LongHouse will have more hours and events available in the upcoming spring season beginning in April. From April to December, LongHouse Reserve is open Wednesday-Sunday from 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Walk-in visitors are always welcomed, but reservations are encouraged.

Groundbreaking art exhibits and beautiful nature will be plentiful all spring and summer at LongHouse Reserve. Director of LongHouse, Carrie Rebora Barratt, spoke about the mission of the Reserve, Jack’s legacy, the connection between art and nature, and exciting upcoming events and exhibitions for the 2025 season.

What is LongHouse Reserve all about?

Carrie: LongHouse is a place of tranquility and peace for all. [It] sits at the intersection of art and nature. The historic house and 16-acre sculpture garden offers a haven of inspiration and serenity, solace, and creativity. Named one of the top 15 most peaceful places in New York State, LongHouse is the largest open air cultural center on Long Island where the collections, gardens, art, and programs reflect world cultures and foster creative lives.

The sculpture collection features works by Buckminster Fuller, Yoko Ono, Toshiko Takaezu, Grace Knowlton, and Sol LeWitt, with special loans and exhibitions. The gardens are open year-round for enlightenment, education, and enjoyment.

Our next step is to open the historic house, to share works of art and design from around the world engaging us in Jack Lenor Larsen’s superpower—his remarkable arrangements of life and art and design.

When was LongHouse Reserve founded and why?

Carrie: LongHouse was created by artist, collector, and world-renowned textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen (1927-2020), as a case study for living with art in all forms. Larsen loved the East End, first created Round House, an homage to an African form that he honored after many trips. In the 1980s, after over 30 trips to Japan, he created LongHouse, a modernist home inspired by the Ise Shrine at Shinto. He lived in the house, created the garden, always knowing that he was creating it as a sanctuary for all to find peace, beauty, and to inspire creative thought. 

What was the mission when starting out and how has the mission evolved?

Carrie: The mission has always been the same: The mission of LongHouse is to encourage living with art in all forms. Founded by Jack Lenor Larsen (1927-2020), our collections, gardens, art, and programs embrace world cultures and inspire creative life.

What are the programs you offer?

Carrie: Open gardens for wandering and inspiration, a truly magical place for all. LongHouse offers talks about art, gardens, books, design, architecture, and well-being, through a program of walking meditation, yoga, plein air painting, tai chi, and a growing offering of activities that engage visitors of all ages to create with workshops in weaving, needle arts, and making in a variety of materials that we offer to all.

What events are coming up at LongHouse Reserve?

Carrie: LongHouse presents concerts, lectures, conversations, theatrical performances, dog days, dance, song, all across our garden. Our 2025 Luminosity Summer Benefit is July 12, honoring philanthropists Mary Jane and Charlie Brock, and artist Vija Celmins, and the Landscape Lecture returns in September, honoring leaders in horticulture and the science of plants.

Which events are your favorites to host?

Carrie: Our favorite events gather our local community in participatory creativity, families, children, in making crafts to engage the spirit and the mind, and all take place outdoors in the fresh air. 

How do you keep art in mind with everything you do?

Carrie: Art is all around us–plants, trees, sculpture–everything we do at LongHouse is about engaging all of the senses and all of us.

What are the must-see attractions and exhibitions at LongHouse Reserve?

Carrie: Our iconic must-see is the Fly’s Eye Dome inspired by Buckminster Fuller, a utopian icon based on the all-seeing eye of an insect, offering all the moment of clarity to stand within the eye and see or to stand outside and be seen. Our visitors are seeing and seen, witness to the world around us. 

Are there any upcoming or current exhibitions you are particularly excited about?

Carrie: Our 2025 season celebrates works by Jill Platner and Vadis Turner, artists working with forms that conjure connection to our past, mythology, and beauty. Their work joins work by Maren Hassinger–monument made of sticks collected on our green property–and Yoko Ono’s iconic all white chess set, Play it by Trust, a game in which all are the same and there is no winner or loser.

How can the community get involved with LongHouse Reserve?

Carrie: Visit, walk, enjoy, rest. We welcome all who wish to spend an hour or a day, rest on a beautifully designed chair, under a gorgeous tree, come and stay. We also welcome volunteers and are always looking for interns.

What’s your favorite thing about being located in the Hamptons?

Carrie: The air is clear and clean, the light is extraordinary. Everything at LongHouse is bathed in the air and light of the rarified island environment that makes everything and everyone look more beautiful.

Tell us about the East End and the LongHouse Reserve community?

Carrie: The LongHouse community is local and seasonal. As of 2021, we are open year-round to serve all. Most think of the East End as a summer place, yet LongHouse is beautiful in all seasons, open to all for snowdrops and witch hazel in winter, daffodils and allium explosions in spring, cherry trees and azaleas in spring, the full richness of lush green in summer, and an explosion of fall color.

What is unique about LongHouse Reserve that can’t be found or replicated anywhere else?

Carrie: Jack Lenor Larsen, our founder, was first a weaver, which influenced his approach to gardening, layers and textures and colors in wide swathes and bits and pieces. LongHouse is home to a catalogue of very special plants, yet is the arrangement of all that takes your breath away. LongHouse is jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring, creating joy that is hard to find in our world. 

Is there anything else you want to share about LongHouse Reserve?

Carrie: Just wait until we open the house. The residence is poised to be open for public tours, soon to be recognized as an historic property, and we look forward to welcoming visitors to view Larsen’s collections of world art, design, furniture, glass, ceramics, baskets, and more, an indoor experience that will redouble the awe felt in the garden.

Our next step is to open the historic house, to share works of art and design from around the world, engaging us in Jack Lenor Larsen’s superpower—his remarkable arrangements of life and art and design.

To learn more about LongHouse Reserve and plan your visit, click here.