Saving Brooks-Park
An effort is underway to preserve and restore an abex artist couples home and studio for the benefit of the public.
A rendering for the restored studio of artist James Brooks, by Scott Bluedorn.
An abandoned house and studio have long stood in the backwoods of Springs on acres of land bought by the town of East Hampton in 2013, awaiting an on-again, off-again fate of demolishing until the recent formation of a group formed to save them indefinitely and transform the site into a center for the intersection of art and nature.
Enter the Brooks-Park Art and Nature Center, the vision of several dedicated individuals (the author himself included) who have lobbied the town to save and stabilize the buildings owing to their unique and important history as the home and studios of abstract expressionist couple James Brooks and Charlotte Park, seminal figures of the movement beginning in the early 1950s.
The mission of the Brooks-Park Arts and Nature Center is to experience the beauty of the natural world while celebrating the artistic legacies of the artists through the restoration of their home and studios and the woodlands surrounding them. The center will focus on inventive and inclusive educational programming, arts-related activities, and the discovery, research, and experience of its eleven undisturbed acres of natural habitat, bringing focus to the intersection of art and nature that is so important to the area as an arts colony.
Rendering of main house that would become a nature center, by Scott Bluedorn. (Above)
Current condition (Below).
The structures on the Brooks-Park property, designated a town historic landmark in 2014, tell a compelling story of the couple’s life and practice. They moved to East Hampton in 1949, creating a home and studio on a bayside bluff in Montauk, part of an historic fishing village that overlooked Fort Pond Bay there. When the studio was destroyed by Hurricane Carol in 1954, they picked up the surviving cottage and relocated it by barge to Neck Path in Springs. The new property offered sanctuary while placing them within the vibrant artist community in Springs. In 1959, Brooks built the 1,300 square foot studio in which he would work throughout the remaining years of his career. Later, a small wood frame building was moved to the property and eventually served as Charlotte Park’s studio. All three buildings still stand; each of them is in dire need of restoration and preservation. The first mission of the Brooks-Park Art and Nature Center is to restore the properties.
Among the principal concerns of the Brooks-Park Art and Nature Center are ecological sustainability and the use and implementation of systems that ensure the protection of wildlife habitats and our eco-system utilizing best practices: biodegradable materials, the utilization of solar power, eco-friendly water use, and energy efficiency.
James Brooks studio in its current condition. (Above)
Interior rendering for studio restoration as a functioning arts space, by Scott Bluedorn. (Below)
The Brooks-Park property represents a unique opportunity to examine the lives of two of our country's most significant artists whose lives and artistic practices commingled with the beauty, refuge, and grandeur of the natural world. Their migration from East 8th Street in Manhattan to Neck Path in Springs illustrates aspects of the east end that have called so many artists to its shores. In celebrating the lives of Charlotte Park and James Brooks, we hope to engage the public in the simple reverie, cultural richness, and flora and fauna the that surrounds us here.
Through engagement in the environment as well as programming that explores the artist's home, studios, social life, and history, our community will be invited to view archival films, videos, and photographs, to hike within this protected wilderness, to participate in workshops, exhibitions, seminars, and presentations, and to expand their knowledge and appreciation of the cultural sanctuary found in Springs.
For more information please visit https://www.brooks-parkarts.org/ and support the efforts to save Brooks-Park!