Week in Review: Summer Arts

Exploring Nature, Culture, Art & Community

July 20, 2025

Welcome to the East End Beacon’s redesigned Week in Review!

Summer Arts Edition

Exploring the Porous Boundaries Between Culture & Nature

Detail from Artist Ellen Wiener’s “Margin & Scree with Sprung Geography.”

There’s no better representation of human culture than a much-loved book, and it’s not just the words on the pages that represent humans’ striving for understanding and meaning. Every bit of paper pulp, every stitch in the binding, is a way of wrapping our collective quest for understanding in an expression of art and love.

Southold-based artist Ellen Wiener’s work has always been a thread through the liminal spaces between knowledge, myth, wonder and the natural world, and her new exhibition, “Green Shade,” opening Sunday, July 20 at Dan Welden’s gallery in the Sag Harbor woods, continues to stitch together these worlds.

Art at Nature’s Edge, Reflecting Our Impact

By Anne Sherwood Pundyk

Natural boundaries, such as the edge of a forest or the bank of a stream, can be at cross-purposes with legal borders like property lines and zoning designations. On the North Fork, where threats to the natural environment are running high, it is important to weigh the relationship between these two types of demarcations. 

Sarah Sze’s new site-specific installation, “Markings, Calls and Songs,” at Landcraft Garden in Mattituck, quietly invokes a natural order under siege. She was selected by curator Ugo Rondinone to be Landcraft’s 2025 Sculpture in the Garden artist.

“Markings Calls and Songs” by Sarah Sze. |. Anne Sherwood Pundyk photo

On The North Fork

Nurturing an Art Colony, While Caring for a Treasured Hall

Artist Carol DeVito organized this year’s Art Show & Sale at Brecknock Hall

It’s no secret among the people who live at the retirement community Peconic Landing, in Greenport, that the place is a bit of an art colony. You don’t have to leave the sprawling campus to find inspiration — from nature, from the extensive sculpture gardens throughout the grounds, and from other members of the community, whose work hangs in the halls and meeting spaces of the community center.

The Government Beat

This Week on the East End

The five East End Town Supervisors at the LIA Forum

BUSINESS SPEED DATING WITH THE FIVE EAST END TOWNS

Say you wanted to start a business on the East End, but weren’t sure where to start it. The Long Island Association, in its first “State of the East End” breakfast July 9 at the Inn at East Wind in Wading River, asked each of the five East End town supervisors to share their elevator pitch for why you should start a business in their town.

The Enclaves resort hotel site in late February, 2024, as clearing bega

AFTER FINANCING SETBACKS & CONSTRUCTION DELAYS, THE ENCLAVES’ SITE PLAN APPROVAL IS RENEWED

As neighbors of the site that is slated to become “The Enclaves” resort hotel in Southold have complained about the large piles of sand and lack of work being done there over the past several months, the hotel’s developers received an extension of its site plan approval from the Southold Town Planning Board Monday evening, July 14.

J. Petrocelli’s proposed rendering for Riverhead’s Town Square.

RIVERHEAD TO HOLD TUESDAY HEARING ON PETROCELLI’S QUALIFICATIONS FOR TOWN SQUARE MASTER DEVELOPER

The Riverhead Town Board is holding a special meeting this Tuesday, July 22 at 6 p.m. to hold a “Qualified & Eligible Hearing” to examine the qualifications of its chosen developer for its Town Square project, J. Petrocelli Contracting.

Irrigation of streets and sidewalks would be prohibited under Southold’s proposed irrigation code.

AT WATER COMMITTEE’S URGING, ODD/EVEN WATERING IS BACK IN SOUTHOLD’S PROPOSED IRRIGATION CODE

When the Southold Town Board held a public hearing June 24 on a proposal to limit lawn irrigation, the board had decided prior to the meeting to remove key provisions recommended by the town's Water Advisory Committee, including requiring property owners to adhere to odd/even day watering schedules and to not irrigate between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

In the Streets

“Good Trouble” Rallies Honor John Lewis

In Hampton Bays, Riverhead and throughout the country on Thursday afternoon, July 17, residents gathered to rally in remembrance of Civil Rights legend John Lewis on the fifth anniversary of his death, remembering his guidance to “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”

In Our Hearts

At Orient Church’s Urging, Rural & Migrant Ministry to Deepen Outreach Here

Rural & Migrant Ministry, an outreach program to farm workers formed in 1981 by a consortium of New York State churches, has been a part of the East End's support network for immigrant workers here for decades.

UPCOMING EVENTS

A Great Week for the Arts

☕ Saturday, July 26

Women of Detour

Join the women of the DETOUR VI exhibition at East End Arts in conversation with Heart of the East End Host Gianna Volpe.

🛋 Saturday, July 26

A Look at Creative Leadership

This North Fork Contemporary salon will bring together three distinguished leaders from the art world to explore the evolving landscape of creative leadership.

🖼 Saturday, July 26

The Rites of Spring Music Festival brings a slice of King Cake to the East End with a performance by Real East End Brass at Southold’s Custer Institute.

ON THE AIR

Behind the Headlines

At this week’s Behind the Headlines on 88.3 WLIW-FM, Beacon editor Beth Young joins a panel discussing the impact of government funding cuts for public media stations across the country, hotels and short-term rentals, and the state of the Riverhead Democrats’ Town Board candidate race.

A Final Note

“I find comfort in contemplating the sunflowers.” — Vincent Van Gogh

See you next Sunday,

Beth