The Parrish Art Museum’s annual Midsummer Party in Water Mill, is a festive social gathering of artists, art collectors, curators, philanthropists, and business leaders from the Hamptons, New York, and beyond. This past Saturday in addition to dining and dancing, guests of the Parrish’s MidSummer Party had the opportunity to preview the inauguration of Platform: Jonah Bokaer, and experience the Museum’s current exhibitions including Radical Seafaring and the Permanent Collection: Connections and Context. This year, the Parrish honored Trustee, art collector, and philanthropist Barbara J. Slifka for her dedication, enthusiasm, and generous commitment to visual and performing arts as well as to environmental and social causes.

A live auction at the event featured private rehearsal access and opening night tickets to the BAM Next Wave Festival’s Rules of the Game by Jonah Bokaer, Daniel Arsham, and Pharrell Williams; Bulgari Lucea watch; private dinner created by Jean-Georges at Topping Rose House, Bridgehampton; connoisseur wine collection; and golf outing at the National Golf Links of America in Southampton; as well as the opportunity to make donations in support of the Museum’s educational programming.

Guests included: Alice Aycock, Jonah Bokaer, Eric Fischl,April Gornik, Steven Ladd, Donald Lipski, Malcolm Morley, Dan Rizzie, Dorothea Rockburne, Donald Sultan, Robert Wilson, Gale and Ira Drukier, Somers and Jonathan Farkas, Jamee and Peter Gregory, Dottie Herman, Sandra Lee, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola, and Terrie Sultan.

Inspired by the Parrish Art Museum’s exhibition Radical Seafaring, Ron Wendt presented the decor for the Midsummer Party in the neutral, honest tones of nautical canvas sails and coir rope rigging which he installed overhead, along with woven basket lanterns, transporting the terrace into a watercraft from a far off land. Twenty-four foot long dining tables featured sun bleached raw cut canvas cloths, while heavy ships rope meandered and coiled down past each diner while driftwood and hand-blown glass vases supported tall water side reeds. As night fell, moving water imagery, projected by Levy Lighting, was cast on the vast sails overhead as guests navigated their way to the dance floor.