Artists Wanted for Inaugural Summer Show at Sylvester Manor

This summer, Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island will host Sculpture@Sylvester Manor, an inaugural outdoor exhibition of sculptures, installations and artistic expressions.

Curated by Tom Cugliani, the exhibition will engage a diverse spectrum of artists local to the East End and will take place on the historic landscape of Sylvester Manor from June 21 to September 7. Local artists are invited to submit proposals by visual and/or written documentation by March 1, 2024 to tcugliani@sylvestermanor.org.

Submission guidelines are available at sylvestermanor.org/sculpture.

“Sylvester Manor is delighted to join the growing number of cultural institutions on the East End offering visual arts programming,” said Stephen Searl, Sylvester Manor’s executive director. “Sculpture@Sylvester Manor will add yet another creative dimension to our array of historical, educational and agricultural initiatives through cultural engagement with local artists and the community. We look forward to welcoming the public to experience site-specific sculptures and installations across the manor’s grounds.“

Sylvester Manor’s landscape features woodlands, parkland, coastal shorelines, meadows and formal gardens and represents an early confluence of three distinct cultures: the Indigenous, the European and the enslaved Africans who lived, worked and died on the land. Artists are invited to interpret and reflect on Sylvester Manor’s history in their proposals. Selected artists can install an existing piece, create an on-site work from imported materials, or create an artwork realized from organic material gathered at Sylvester Manor, which will biodegrade back into the landscape.

All artist submissions will be respectfully considered and a final selection will be announced by April 2024.

Exhibition curator and organizer Tom Cugliani brings extensive expertise in the contemporary art world to the project, as well as a lifelong history with Shelter Island and Sylvester Manor. Cugliani’s gallery launched the careers of established artists such as Christian Marclay, Jack Pierson and Charles Le Dray, following which Cugliani served as Marlborough Gallery’s point person for the American painter Alex Katz, in addition to advising numerous private, corporate and public collections.

“Sculpture@Sylvester Manor presents a singular opportunity for artists to reinterpret Sylvester Manor’s position in local culture and the larger community. The aim of this exhibition is to show how this unique locality inspires the creative imagination and to bring deeper understanding of connectivity to the visual artists working here on the East End of Long Island,” said Cugliani.

From 1651 to 2014, Sylvester Manor was home to 11 generations of its original European settler family, reflecting a remarkably intact history of America’s evolving tastes, economies and landscapes. Its timeline encompasses a slaveholding provisioning plantation, an Enlightenment-era farm, and a pioneering food industrialist’s estate, through to its present day iteration as an organic educational farm and historic site of conscience. Sylvester Manor’s mission is to preserve, cultivate and share its history and artifacts, landmark buildings and 236 acres of grounds. Integral to all its activities, Sylvester Manor is dedicated to the inclusion of diversity as a reflective and holistic approach that connects the land to the community and commits to telling the stories of all its peoples, with dignity and respect for all those considered ancestors.