The Watermill Center is a laboratory for the arts and humanities providing a global community the time, space and freedom to create and inspire.
Founded by avant-garde visionary Robert Wilson, The Watermill Center is an interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts and humanities situated on ten acres of Shinnecock ancestral territory on Long Island’s East End. Since 1992, Watermill has welcomed international artists of all disciplines to collaborate, take creative risks and contribute new ideas to contemporary culture
The Watermill Center’s ten acres of grounds and gardens are home to multifunctional studios and living spaces, a collection of over 8,000 artworks and objects, a research library, and the archives of Robert Wilson and the Center. Watermill’s mission is to support artists at all career stages with opportunities to learn, collaborate. and connect with a global creative network.
HISTORY
Searching for a new artistic base and incubator for his work, acclaimed director Robert Wilson found a former Western Union research facility in 1986. Situated on the edge of the Shinnecock Reservation, the former Western Union research facility had been left to the elements for more than two decades. Wilson envisioned Watermill as a laboratory for creative experimentation, where artists could work at the intersection of disciplines, drawing inspiration from nature and Wilson’s extensive collection of art and artifacts.
In 1992, Wilson and The Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation formally established The Watermill Center, launching its first International Summer Program in collaboration with the Trisha Brown Dance Company—a partnership that set the tone for the center’s ethos of cross-pollination and experimental rigor.
In 2006, The Watermill Center opened as a year-round space for artists-in-residence, offering programs to enrich, educate and inspire our East End community.
ROBERT WILSON
Robert Wilson (1941-2025) was among the world’s foremost theater and visual artists. His works for the stage unconventionally integrated a wide variety of artistic media, including dance, movement, lighting, sculpture, music and text. Born in Waco, Texas, he was educated at the University of Texas and Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, Wilson founded the New York-based performance collective “The Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds” in the mid-1960s, and developed his first signature works, including Deafman Glance (1970) and A Letter for Queen Victoria (1974-1975). With Philip Glass, he wrote the seminal opera Einstein on the Beach (1976). He also left his imprint on masterworks such as Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, Brecht/Weill’s Threepenny Opera, Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande, Goethe’s Faust, Homer’s Odyssey, Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Sophocles’ Oedipus.
Wilson’s drawings, paintings, and sculptures have been presented worldwide, and his works are held in numerous private and museum collections.
Wilson was the recipient of two Premio Ubu awards, the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale, an Olivier Award, the Praemium Imperiale Global Art Prize and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the German Academy of the Arts; In France, he was awarded a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters and Officer of the Legion of Honor; Germany awarded him the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit.
www.robertwilson.com