Annual Box Art Auction Returns To Benefit East End Hospice

Back in 2000, notable artist David Porter, a founding board member of East End Hospice, wanted to create a unique fundraiser for the then-nascent charity by giving local creatives wine boxes or cigar boxes as canvases for their work. The idea was that artists would then donate their finished works to the hospice for inclusion in an auction to raise the money needed to provide care for terminally ill patients on the East End.

More than two decades later, East End Hospice’s inimitable Box Art Auction is stronger than ever and invigorated with new urgency. The 21st annual Box Art Auction benefit will be held Saturday, August 27, at St. Luke’s Church Hoie Hall in East Hampton.

Prior to the main event, the finished boxes will be on view at Hoie Hall next Wednesday and Thursday, August 24 and 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the public is invited to a “Meet the Artists” preview reception on Wednesday evening from 5 to 7 p.m.

This annual auction, in which artists are tasked with transforming a simple box into a work of art, has become a vital source of support for East End Hospice and its commitment to elder care and other end-of-life issues as the organization has grown significantly due the pandemic which brought an increase in full-time residents to the area. As 20 percent of the hospice’s annual revenue is derived from fundraising, events like the Box Art Auction are crucial for the organization and in order to reduce overhead costs, the event is run primarily by internal staff.

Among the artists submitting work for the inaugural auction in 2000 was Arlene Bujese, who designed a mandala inspired by her experiences with art therapy. Now in her 19th year as event chair and auction curator, Bujese, a retired curator who ran galleries in Maryland and Washington, D.C., as well as on the East End, noted in a recent interview that these days, though artists can use any kind of box they choose, little else has changed about the auction.

This year, Bujese says she’s particularly looking forward to the box created by artist Daniel Pollera, who died in March at age 68.

“It’s just a lonely boat, and this was his final farewell to us,” she remarked.

This year’s auction will feature some 80 artists, which is about the maximum number the event can support while still giving adequate space and time to each box. Bujese says she enjoys working on the auction because of the freedom that it gives the artists.

“The only limitation is size,” said Bujuse, who also likes the “upbeat” nature of the auction. “The artists can do any motif — it can be abstract, it can be landscape, we have sculpture, collage, photography, clay, fabric, needlework and metal assemblage.”

Adding to the upbeat vibe of the event is the significant number of artists who have contributed works every year since the auction’s inception for no compensation. Their continued selflessness inspires Bujese.

One of those returning artists is David Slater, who was initially drawn to the auction by the late David Porter, the event’s founder. This year, Slater’s box references the war in Ukraine, with two shells inside of it representing the beauty of life and the tragedy of innocents caught amid conflict. The box itself, Slater says, is a “wooden box, a very nice old remnant of industrial America.”

The box makes use of plastic figures and mosaic tiles, with Slater drawing inspiration from Gaudi’s ceramic work in Barcelona and Sabato Rodia’s Watts Towers in Los Angeles, which he describes as “mind-blowing.” Regarding his process, Slater says he’s “very much spontaneous. It’s sort of like abstract expressionism, where you start out with something small that motivates you to start.”

Over the years, Slater’s appreciation for the hospice event has grown as he has aged.

“I mean, I’m 82 years old, and I realize that life does not go on forever,” he stated. “Hospice is a very humane way to deal with death, so I totally support it.”

Another artist submitting work for the auction this year is Fulvio Massi, an architect from Bridgehampton. He appreciates the auction because “it’s always fun and challenging to deal with an object designed for a very specific function and charge it with new meaning,” he said via email.

Massi’s box for this year’s auction is titled “Lucida,” for which he removed the lid and inserted a mirror to subvert the viewer’s expectations. He thinks of his artwork “as a stratification of events, a representation of time, an accumulation of different temporalities.”

Also donating a box is Water Mill artist Grace Sutton, who, after a long career working for the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, transitioned into creating art. Sutton’s work has spanned all genres and mediums, including abstract, welding, representational and photography.

Sutton first submitted work to the Box Art Auction nine years ago. This year, she says, her box is “inspired by a wall hanging we have in our living room that incorporates many small pieces of Indian weaving and embroidery.”

Reflecting on her work, Sutton stated, “It has a little bit to do with the crazy rush that is washing all over us in these times” adding that it “offers an opportunity to step back and take a longer view of things.” The pattern suggests “an infinitely expandable world beyond the issues of the present moment,” Sutton remarked.

Regarding the event, all three of the artists interviewed said that it represented a good opportunity for them. They appreciated the variety of art present in the auction and the sense of goodwill in the proceedings. Additionally, Sutton said that the Box Art Auction “gives one a deadline and is something I think about throughout the year” when planning her works.

“Art is such a competitive field and many artists get hung up in this idea that they have to make money,” Slater said. “But here are a bunch of artists who, year after year, have just for free done these magnificent things. So I feel quite happy and proud to be part of that group.”

The 21st annual Box Art Auction to benefit East End Hospice is Saturday, August 27, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at Hoie Hall at St. Luke’s Church, 18 James Lane, East Hampton. A silent auction begins at 4:30 p.m., followed by the live auction at 5:45 p.m. with auctioneer Lucas Hunt. Tickets for the benefit are $100 at eeh.org and include wine and hors d’oeuvres. Absentee bids on boxes can be made by those unable to attend. A preview of the boxes will be open to the public at Hoie Hall on Wednesday, August 24 and Thursday, August 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a “Meet the Artists” preview on August 24 from 5 to 7 p.m.