Join us for Community Day #09
We are thrilled to invite you to our summer Community Day, featuring a temporary installation of sculptures by artist Tory Fair; a presentation reflecting on writer May Sarton and her beloved pets with Maine Women Writers Collection archivist Jefferson Navicky; tours of our live-work oceanfront residency building, and more.
The goal of our Community Day series is to raise awareness and funds for the work we do to 1) support diverse visual artists and art workers through our residency program; 2) steward our 46 acres of coastal and forested land; 3) host programs open to the public; and 4) promote and share research on our historic legacy.
We hope you can fit us into your summer plans! Read the full program of events below.
Schedule of Events
Wild Knoll’s oak tree in early Spring. Photo by Kerry Constantino.
11am - 2pm
Self-guided tours of Wild Knoll Foundation Garden
A public art project by residency alum Carly Glovinski ‘21, inspired by writer May Sarton, and a short walk from the Surf Point building. The garden will serve as a stage for artist Tory Fair’s kinetic, life-sized sculptures of sunflowers in this one-day-only installation. Flower arrangements from the garden will be made throughout the day and available for a suggested donation of $15.
11am - 12pm
Tours of the building
Check out Surf Point’s artist studios and living spaces. Meticulously planned by Surf Point co-founders Mary-Leigh Smart and Beverly Hallam in the late 1960s (and constructed in the early 1970s), the house features panoramic views of the ocean and is home to our year-round residency program for artists and arts workers.
12pm - 1:30pm
Coppa Magica Truck
Summery treats including gelato will be available from the Coppa Magica truck!
12:30pm - 12:40pm
Remarks by Surf Point Executive Director Yael Reinharz
12:40pm - 1pm
Introduction by Carly Glovinski ‘21 and Artist Talk with Tory Fair
Tory Fair will talk about her installation in Wild Knoll Foundation Garden and share about her process. Tory writes, “My sculptures are direct casts of sunflowers and are made from dirt and silicone. They serve as both memories and as messengers. The mixture of dirt and silicone provides an aggregate that is in mutiny with its form as a flower. […] I view the sculptures as living memories of each flower I am able to harvest in various growing seasons.”
1pm - 1:20pm
“May Sarton and Her Menagerie” with Jefferson Navicky
Renowned poet and author May Sarton published over fifty books of poetry, fiction, journals, and memoirs. At the invitation of Surf Point co-founders, she spent her last decades living at Surf Point’s Wild Knoll. Sarton cared deeply for animals, and they were often her companions in both life and her writing. In this brief talk, MWWC Archivist Jefferson Navicky will share a few anecdotes about Sarton’s pets, as well as a selection of her writing about the animals she so dearly loved. We will also point out one of her beloved pets’ gravestones on the property.
Other highlights:
Local summery treats available to those who come!
All are welcome, including dogs on leash (outdoors only)
Support Surf Point by buying merch and alumni editions, with new items released on August 3!
Walk the trails on our 46-acre property
Explore tidal pools and oceanfront
Visit Buoy Gallery, Corey Daniels Gallery, the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) and make a day of it!
Community Day is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Address and directions to our site in York, Maine will be sent to registered attendees several days before the event. Surf Point is able to host these programs thanks to small-dollar donations from the public.
About our collaborators
Sunflower sculptures by Tory Fair
Tory Fair lives and works in the Boston area. Recent solo exhibitions and projects include presentations at A.D. Gallery in NY, ICA at MECA, Portland, ME; AreaCode Art Fair, Boston; Drive-By Projects, Watertown; and gallery VERY, Boston. Fair’s work has been included in several group exhibitions, including Paper Town, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA; You are Here, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; The Intuitionists, The Drawing Center, NY; and Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City. Her work has been reviewed in publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Sculpture Magazine, and Boston Art Review, among others. She was a recent artist in residence at RAIR, (Recycled Artist In Residency, Philadelphia, PA), a featured artist in VoCA Talks (Voices in Contemporary Art), and has been the recipient of prestigious awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, LEF Foundation, and the Mass Cultural Council. She received her B.A. from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA and M.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA. Fair is Professor of Sculpture at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA.
Carly Glovinski ‘21 makes work that explores the make-do, resourceful attitudes associated with domestic craft and a reverence for nature and the great outdoors. The elements of time and place are embedded in her work, measured by tides and seasonal flower blooms, and marked by labor and repetitive process. She received her BFA from Boston University and is represented by Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York. She has been awarded residencies at Surf Point Foundation in 2021, and the Canterbury Shaker Village in 2020, and grants from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, and the Blanche Colman Trust. Her work has been in major publications such as New American Paintings, ArtMaze Magazine, Hyperallergic, and Vice, and is held in collections including Colby Museum of Art, Fidelity Investments, and the Cleveland Clinic.
Jefferson Navicky is the Archivist for the Maine Women Writers Collection at the University of New England. He has given talks about MWWC authors Ruth Moore, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Kate Barnes, and about the diaries of everyday Maine women. He is also a poet, and has published four books, including Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose, which won the Maine Literary Award for Poetry.
The Maine Women Writers Collection was founded in 1959 by Grace Dow and Dorothy Healy to preserve and make available the writings of Maine women who had achieved literary recognition. Today, we honor the terms of our name by carrying this spirit forward into its 21st-century form. Our holdings concern the Dawnland or traditional territory of Wabanaki people, the state of Maine, and the northern New England region. We collect the work of those who identify as female, femme, transfeminine, gender expansive, or nonbinary. And we hold both published work and unpublished material, such as letters, photographs, diaries, memorabilia, artwork, and other forms of creative work, by authors who may be world renowned, locally known, or anonymous.
Archival photo of Surf Point co-founder Mary-Leigh Smart with one of her many basset hounds. Date unknown.
Archival photo of Surf Point co-founder Beverly Hallam with her dog. Date unknown.