The Heckscher Museum of Art Presents the Long Island Biennial 2010

Written by Judith A. Jedlicka Friday, 26 November 2010 20:29

HUNTINGTON, NY.- As part of its 90th Anniversary Celebration, The Heckscher Museum of Art is pleased to present its inaugural Long Island Biennial featuring artworks by Long Island professional artists. This juried exhibition will run from July 31 to September 26, 2010 at The Heckscher Museum of Art. In collaboration with The Heckscher Museum, Cinema Arts Centre is presenting video and film entries in September for the Biennial.

Contemporary artists are an important constituency of The Heckscher Museum of Art. August Heckscher, who established the Museum in 1920, actively collected contemporary art of his day. Throughout its history the Museum has maintained an interest in and commitment to contemporary artists, especially those on Long Island. The Biennial offers Long Island's current artists a venue to show their works to a broad public, and it enables The Heckscher Museum to continue its 90-year tradition of providing cultural experiences that enrich the lives of all who live on and visit Long Island.

More than 250 artists working in Nassau and Suffolk counties submitted entries in a variety of media, style and subject matter. Entries were juried by three prominent members of the arts community: Dr. Isabelle Dervaux, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawings, The Morgan Library and Museum, New York; Renato Danese, Danese Gallery, New York; and Richard Lippe, collector of American art, Long Island. For the exhibition, 44 works were selected, representing a cross-section of Long Island’s vibrant art scene. All of the submitted entries may be viewed online in The Heckscher Museum of Art Long Island Biennial Gallery.

The Long Island Biennial 2010 is a collaborative venture with Huntington’s Cinema Arts Centre. Cinema Arts received 19 video and film entries, juried by: Alexandra Brodsky, Filmmaker; Michael Tuckman, Film Distributor; and Livia Bloom, Film Curator. Winning entries will be screened in late September at Cinema Arts Centre.

The Heckscher Museum of Art serves the community of Long Island through the presentation of great art and art education programs. Since its creation, the Museum has operated with the assumption of the inherent civic value of publicly accessible art.

In 1920 the German-American industrialist and developer August Heckscher opened the Museum and surrounding park for the benefit of the people of Huntington and the surrounding region. Operated by a private foundation, the Museum presented works by Old Masters such as Lucas Cranach, Gustave Courbet, François Girardon, and Henry Raeburn as well as important American painters like Edward and Thomas Moran, Asher B Durand, and George Inness. One can detect a certain Romantic spirit in the preference for images of Venice and the American West within the original collection. In the era before World War II, Long Island was essentially rural with an array of large country estates along the north shore. Figures like Henry Clay Frick, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Theodore Roosevelt owned large estates along the North Shore. For a decade, the Museum enjoyed a charmed existence.  Visit : http://www.heckscher.org/

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