"Town Creek, Southold" by Thomas Currie-Bell (1873-1946)

Our Current Fundraising Project:

The Peconic School:  Painters of Long Island's North Fork

SOUTHOLD, NY.  The Southold Historical Society will hold a fundraiser on November 18th, 2006 to support the research and publication a book on the Peconic School of painters titled "The Peconic School:  Painters of Long Island's North Fork."  Like its sister schools in Ogunquit, Cornish, Gloucester, and Woodstock, the Peconic School of painters flourished at a time when the best American impressionist painters were working.  The Society has already raised $37,500 of the $60,000 needed to complete the project.

If this project is funded, it would be the first time that detailed, illustrated information on the Peconic School would be available to the public in book form.  It is an important fact to note that the other schools in the N. E. region have already been written about many times over the past six decades.  During the past fourteen years a number of important works on the schools and art colonies of America have been published.  These included Hamptons Bohemia – Two Centuries of Artists and Writers on the Beach (2002), a book focused on the artists of the famous “Hamptons” on the South Fork of the Island.  The creation of a work on the Peconic School of painting would be an important addition to the more than three-dozen books published already on the other art schools and colonies in the northeastern United States.  The book will include text, illustrations, photographs, maps, and a detailed bibliography.

Until 20 years ago, most people had never heard of the active school of painters that existed on the North Fork of Long Island.  Many knew of the painters who participated in William M. Chase’s school in the Shinnecock Hills but few realized the breadth and depth of the artistic school that began nearly simultaneously on the North Fork.  Noted artists of the Peconic School included Benjamin R. Fitz, Irving Ramsey Wiles, Henry and Edith Prellwitz, and Edward August Bell, all of whom exhibited regularly at the National Academy in New York.  Works by these artists grace the walls of such major institutions as the Parrish Art Museum, Long Island Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This book will, for the first time, bring the works of the artists of the Peconic School to the forefront of the American art world.  It will focus national attention on the impressive body of art that was created on the North Fork of Long Island.  The book will include previously unpublished, thoroughly researched biographical material and archival information.  It will examine stylistic differences among the painters and explore their social and artistic associations, as well as draw attention to the buildings and locations that appear in their work.  For the first time, the Peconic painters, who were drawn to this unique agricultural and maritime landscape, will be recognized, and the rich history of their lives and work here will be preserved.  

Please join us on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 from 6-9 pm at Vineyard 48 in Southold for an evening of food, wine, music and a rare exhibition of paintings from both the Society's and private collections.  We hope to raise at least $20,000 this evening, so come with your checkbook and help make this great project a reality!

To R.S.V.P. or for further information, please call (631) 765-5500.