After three years of renovations, East Hampton’s Guild Hall opened again earlier this summer. WSHU spoke with the hall’s executive director, Andrea Grover, about changes made to the physical space, as well as cultural shifts the institution has implemented over nearly a century.
WSHU: Andrea, This hall is more than 90 years old. Tell me what the space stood for originally and what these extensive renovations signify.
AG: Absolutely. Well, I'm going to turn back the clock to when Guild Hall opened in 1931. It was one of the first multidisciplinary centers in the country. So by that, I mean combining a museum, a theater and an education space, all in equal weight and related to each other. There was a civic aspect to Guild Hall from the very beginning.
So now, jump forward 90 years, It was a total infrastructure replacement where it was needed. For the galleries, we needed bigger doors, taller ceilings and more wall space. We needed an art handling and receiving area. We need a better lighting system, and we wanted to bring in some natural light as well. Then in the theater, that meant that we needed a new way of presenting audio and video… better sight line. So it really was about making the experience as accommodating as possible to today's artists, whether it's in performing or visual arts or hybrids of both.
WSHU: I want to talk about the hall’s evolution in terms of the subject matter that it embraces. Who are we seeing on the stage now, versus nearly a century ago?
AG: So we're not thinking of diversity as an occasional, you know, we turn an occasional eye to, but that our program is more representative of who is in our community. So yes, you'll notice that we have a very broad range of performers and presenters this year.
I think we sent a very positive message, with Billy Porter being the opener. Not only is he interdisciplinary, having won a Tony and an Emmy and a Grammy – multiples of those. Also, you know, he's a performer of color. He's also a queer performer. He's very open about being HIV positive and having, you know, had lots of kind of trials early in life. And this is all woven into the way he presents his art. So I think we're really looking at representation at Guild Hall and making sure that we're balancing the scales in some ways.
WSHU: This is a storied building — a storied space. Completely truthfully, tell me if you think it’s haunted.
AG: 100%. I feel like the artists and performers of the past are all still part of Guild Hall, whether that's, you know, just energetically, or just a narrative that I like to imagine, you know, I walk through the building, and I think, “Oh, Thornton Wilder was on our stage in his own production of our town. Or Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse were here during dance festivals. Alfonso Osorio used to hang the members’ exhibitions, which included people like Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner.” So, the history of Guild Hall is very palpable. And I think that artists today know it. When they enter the building, they think, “Ah, this is the same wall that this legendary figure from art history had hung on,” or “This is the same stage that a great Pulitzer Prize winner, theatermaker, has stood on.” It's a very special place that has paralleled art and performance history.
WSHU: So, haunted with a positive connotation.
AG: Haunted in a good way. I say good night to the spirits at Guild Hall when I'm the last one to leave.
