Painter and sculptor Eric Fischl is recognized internationally for his work, some of which is influenced by his upbringing on Long Island. He’s set to receive an achievement award from Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts in late April, with particular recognition for co-founding Guild Hall’s artist-in-residence program, Guild House. WSHU’s Eda Uzunlar sat down with Fischl ahead of the dinner to learn more about his legacy in the community.
WSHU: You helped create Guild Hall's artist-in-residence program almost a decade ago. What was the motivation for that?
EF: Yeah, see, the area that we live in on the East End has a long, deep, rich history of artists who have come out here, have worked out here, have impacted the culture out here. Over the years, it's become more and more expensive to live out here, and that precludes young artists from being able to find a place to live, get a foothold, and integrate into the history and the arts community out here. So the thought of trying to create opportunities for young artists, that even though they can't live out here, they can bring their energy, their insights, their enthusiasm, and be a part of the community, even for the short term, that also feeds the community in terms of stimulation, which is important to us.
WSHU: Five years later, you and your wife created an art center called The Church in Sag Harbor, which also hosts art residencies and community programs. What made you want to open the arts up a step further?
EF: So, something happened when the Sag Harbor Cinema, which my wife and other community activists were trying to buy, came up for sale, and it burned down. Oddly enough, after it burned down, it became even more urgent to buy it because it could be sold as a retail property. A million dollars was raised very quickly from 50 $100 to $500 donations. So that is saying that there's an awful broad base of people in this community and area that want that cinema to be there. And then the money that came in at the top, the large donations, they came in from artists who were successful in their field. And what it said was that, you know, maybe it's time that artists take control of the destiny of the town that they live in. Bay Street Theater anchors the north end of town, and we have this new cinema, which anchors the middle. And we purchased The Church, which anchors the south end of town, and so it's – the town is actually anchored by cultural institutions.
WSHU: Do you feel like the artist community was able to take that control?
EF: No, it's totally not controllable. It's wishful. But it's impactful. This is a very creative community. It's attractive to creative people elsewhere within a pretty big radius who find themselves continuing to come here for programs that they're excited about. So there is a fluid thing going on, and what I recognized is that artists have to understand that they're a virus. By virus, what I mean is that they form a kind of pattern of heat when they get together, which is a creative heat that is very attractive to developers. My hope was that we could try to keep it to a certain quality of creative life. The fact that you have a community that knows that the world is larger than they are, but they're a part of that world, and that the largeness of the world is diversity itself.
Fischl will be honored with the Chairman’s Award for Service to the Academy at the 39th Annual Academy of the Arts Achievement Awards Dinner in April.
