Future Exhibitions
We are thrilled to announce our 2026 Exhibitions!
The Church joins cultural organizations locally and nationally in taking inspiration from the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States for our 2026 exhibitions.
Each of the four exhibitions builds on this theme by exploring visionary ideas, individuals, and art central to the history of our region and country, told from the point of view of guest curators who are well positioned to share these stories.
Martha Graham: Collaborations
Curated by Oliver Tobin
JANUARY 18 – MARCH 22
About the Exhibition:
Martha Graham: Collaborations marks the 100th anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company—The Church’s first artist- in-residence back in 2021. This exhibition explores Graham’s revolutionary vision through the partnerships that shaped modern dance, spanning sculpture, stage design, lighting, and music.
Artists featured include Martha Graham, Isamu Noguchi, Aaron Copland, Jean Rosenthal, Donna Karan, Halston, and generations of dancers. This celebration of collaboration underscores Graham’s legacy as a profoundly influential artist whose modern language of movement continues to resonate worldwide.
Exhibition programming will include two live performances with contemporary Martha Graham Company dancers, a film screening, talks, guided tours, and more.
About the Curator:
Oliver Tobin is a former dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company and a certified Regisseur of Graham’s repertory. In 2016, Tobin was appointed Director of Martha Graham Resources, overseeing the preservation and stewardship of the Company’s archive, spanning 1894 to 2021, and facilitating its relocation to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He also developed the Company’s digital archive and has curated Graham-focused exhibitions for Google Arts & Culture, SFMOMA, and Museum Folkwang.
Image of Martha Graham in Frontier, 1937. Photo by Robert Fraser. Courtesy of Martha Graham Resources.
A THOUSAND WORDS:
Photography at The New Yorker
Curated by Elisabeth Biondi
APRIL 4 – MAY 31
About the Exhibition:
The New Yorker magazine celebrated its 100th Anniversary in February 2025. For almost 70 years, only illustrations were used for articles in the publication. In 1992, when Tina Brown was named Editor-in-Chief, she broke with tradition by introducing photography, immediately naming Richard Avedon as the magazine’s first exclusive staff photographer and subsequently naming Elisabeth Biondi as its first Visuals Editor in 1994, where she remained through 2013.
During this time, nine additional individuals were named staff photographers for the periodical: Ruven Afanador, Mary Ellen Mark, Gilles Peress, Sylvia Plachy, Platon, Robert Polidori, Steve Pyke, Martin Schoeller, and Max Vadukul. These ten artists are the subject of this exhibition, highlighting images that showcase their groundbreaking work, which changed the visual nature of the magazine. The selected photos further serve as powerful documentation of major moments in our shared political, popular culture, and social experiences of the time.
In the following years, with the inclusion of the work of exceptional artists who came to shape the visual language of the publication, photography became a vital part of the identity of The New Yorker. Since David Remnick was named Editor-in Chief in 1998, photography has continued to be an integral part of the magazine.
About the Curator:
Elisabeth Biondi has been an independent curator, teacher, and writer since 2011. Before, she was the director of photography of The New Yorker for 15 years, Stern Magazine in Germany and Vanity Fair magazine in New York. Elisabeth has been a resident of Sag Harbor since 1997.
Image: Richard Avedon, Malcolm X, Black Nationalist Leader, New York, March 27, 1963. The Museum of Modern Art, The Family of Man Fund, Object No. 480.2009. © 2025 The Richard Avedon Foundation.
THIS LAND:
Considering The American Landscape
Curated by Donna De Salvo and Seph Rodney
JUNE 21 - SEPTEMBER 6
About the Exhibition:
For Summer 2026, we invited two esteemed curators, Donna De Salvo and Seph Rodney, to respond to the prompt: What is the American landscape? Together, the pair are assembling an exhibition that explores the past and present of our country, as told through a pointed selection of works that reflect on vital themes at the core of our experience.
This Land will be accompanied by concerts, performances, lectures, and tours, creating a dynamic cultural program that draws thousands of visitors. This exhibition invites audiences to contemplate the beauty, complexity, and contradictions of the American landscape—past and present—while imagining its future.
About the Curators:
Donna De Salvo is currently Senior Adjunct Curator at Dia Art Foundation, where she recently co-curated Steve McQueen’s commission, Bass at Dia Beacon. She is the former Chief Curator and Deputy Director of Programs of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and held senior curatorial posts at Tate Modern, London, and the Parrish Art Museum.
Seph Rodney is an independent curator, writer, and cultural critic who contributes regularly to Hyperallergic, the Guardian, the New York Times, and others; and was the co-curator, with Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher and Katy Siegel, of Get in The Game: Sports, Art, Culture at SFMoMA in 2024.
DEAR MAZIE
Curated by Amber Esseiva
OCTOBER 4 - DECEMBER 27
About the Exhibition:
Dear Mazie is a group exhibition inspired by the life and work of Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984), the trailblazing artist and educator who became the first known Black queer woman to practice as an architect in the United States. Meredith was the founder of Azurest South in Virginia and Azurest North community in Sag Harbor. This exhibition was curated by Amber Esseiva, Senior Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Esseiva has commissioned 11 contemporary artists, designers, and architects to create responses to Meredith’s multifaceted legacy for this show. At The Church, the exhibition will be expanded to include commissioned by artists of the East End. The exhibition was organized by the ICA at VCU, where it was on view from September 2024 - March 2025; it is currently on view at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles through March 1, 2026.
Dear Mazie marks the first time that The Church will host a traveling exhibition from another institution - a fitting homecoming for Amaza Lee, a cultural figure of central importance to Sag Harbor's history (she is even one of the icons depicted on our windows!).
Featuring contributions by AD—WO (Emanuel Admassu and Jen Wood), The Black School (Shani Peters and Joseph Cuillier), Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Kapwani Kiwanga, Abigail Lucien, Practise (James Goggin and Shan James), Tschabalala Self, and Cauleen Smith.
About the Curator:
Amber Esseiva is currently Senior Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at the ICA at VCU, and was formerly the Curator-at-Large for the Studio Museum in Harlem. She has curated projects at The Judd Foundation, A.I.R Gallery, and the Glasgow International. Esseiva holds a BA in Art History from VCU, and an M.A. from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College.