ARTISTS RESIDENCY INITIATIVE

As The Church celebrates its 5th anniversary, we are pleased to announce an initiative to secure a permanent home for visiting artists.

By acquiring our Residency House, we will preserve another historic Sag Harbor building for the arts while ensuring that artists continue to live, work, and create as part of our community for generations to come.

Why It Matters

Artists need time, space, and support to do their best work. For generations, Sag Harbor has been a place where artists come to find inspiration. Today, rising housing costs increasingly make that difficult. A permanent Residency House ensures that artists remain part of the community's future.

The Residency House

The founding vision of The Church placed artists at its center, with a residency program at the heart of the institution. As the organization grew, the residency moved to leased housing just steps away. Today, we have the opportunity to acquire that house as a permanent asset of The Church. Located at 136 Madison Street—the original parsonage of our historic church—the house accommodates up to five artists at a time. More than 50 artists have already called it home.

The Opportunity

Our goal is $1.75 million to acquire the property, cover closing costs, and establish a reserve for its future care. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of April Gornik and Eric Fischl, the property is being made available to The Church at well below market value. Howard and Nancy Marks have established a $1 million matching challenge, and The Church's Board of Directors has already committed $500,000.

Join Us

We invite you to please consider a donation to the Artists Residency Initiative. We would not be who we are without the support of our entire community, and without the support of everyone who makes the church unique, including attendees and workshop participants, authors, thinkers, musicians and dancers, filmmakers and cartoonists, artists, and creatives of all stripes. Thank you for your consideration!