Ruth Appelhof: Moving On From Guild Hall, but Not Out of East Hampton
In the Ruth Appelhof version of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” those stepping up to list the ways Guild Hall might look without her contributions over the past 16 years as director would cite the huge renovation and restoration of the East Hampton arts institution’s building and theater, the expansion of public programs to more than 270 per year, or the consistently well-received art shows in the museum.
As it turns out, residents of East Hampton and the regional artistic community will have to imagine the institution without her. Last week, she announced her retirement at the end of 2016 to the staff and board. A search for a successor will begin over the next few months.
Seated at the round white table in her sunny basement office on Friday, she said it was time to reinvigorate the institution with younger blood and new ideas. At the same time, long-simmering personal plans for two books will finally take precedence, a return to the scholarship she mostly put aside to tackle the administrative responsibilities of her job.
Asked to rank the challenges that she faced in 1999 and her greatest successes, she said the first and most significant thing she sought to improve was community involvement in the institution. “One thing I learned early on is that the community here is invested in Guild Hall and has a real sense of ownership about its programs.” She added that, at the time she started, the criticism she was hearing was that “Guild Hall wasn’t in touch with the community and nobody knew what we were doing.”
By visiting a number of service organizations, she discovered the full range of East Hampton’s diversity and developed confidence to present varied programs to bring different audiences into the institution. As time went on, Guild Hall grew its offerings to include a variety of musical acts, talks on food and fashion, films, dance, simulcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, and free discussions and “how-tos” in its Table Talk series. These programs attracted more than 50,000 visitors to Guild Hall this year, a record.
Ruth Appelhof and her husband, Gary Adamek, who has been a dedicated volunteer at Guild Hall, dancing during this year's summer gala. Barry Gordin
A brief survey she circulated showed that “plays were at the top of everyone’s list and something in 1999 that Guild Hall was not doing.” She concluded that the desire for more theater came from earlier memories of Inez Whipple’s tenure as director in the 1960s, the old “Straw-Hat Circuit” of summer stock plays, and the Yale Repertory Theater’s visits.
Productions at the John Drew Theater such as “Equus,” “Clever Little Lies,” and this year’s “All My Sons,” were unqualified successes. She said they also represent a realization of her commitment to that fundamental community desire. They — along with off-season offerings of Shakespeare and other smaller productions, the free play readings, first produced by Naked Stage and now the JDT Lab, and other one-night theatrical presentations — have made Guild Hall a destination once again for live theater, but for also dance and music.
In the museum, Guild Hall has maintained its community institutions such as the Members Show and Clothesline Art Sale. It still gives solo shows to the top honors winner of the Members Show. At the same time, its summer exhibitions bring internationally known artists with historical or current ties to the South Fork into the galleries, such as the current Roy Lichtenstein show. She estimated that the permanent collection has grown about 25 percent since she arrived.
None of this could have happened without a building to put them in, and it was revealed on a tour during her very first board meeting that the structure needed a major overhaul. “There was mold in the basement and asbestos in the attic,” she recalled, and those were just the things that needed major remediation. Inefficient use of space and antiquated facilities were the norm throughout the building. It took several years, a Robert A.M. Stern redesign, and a $17 million capital campaign, but Guild Hall emerged new and restored in 2010.
She credits Josh Gladstone and Christina Strassfield with forming the core of a staff that has doubled since her arrival along with its budget. Ms. Strassfield had left to raise a family, but came back to the museum after her children reached school age. Mr. Gladstone steered the theater from its dark days to where it is today, including conceiving the JDT Lab to offer free readings and performances of works in progress during the off-season.
“The board has been helpful in a different way,” she said. “They don’t always have a particular program they’re interested in, but they see the big picture, which is hugely helpful. I’m just the middle man.”
Recently, the board approved her latest initiative, an artists-in-residency program in a house on Dunemere Lane that Guild Hall purchased last year. The residency will welcome three participants, each in a different field — art, performance, and letters — as well as an administrator for each eight-week period. Those participating will take part in community events such as readings and performances of their works in progress and will work with artists and writers who live on the South Fork. They will also participate in programs with local schools. An indirect but allied goal is to attract these younger artists to the region permanently to continue the rich tradition associated with it.
Although Ms. Appelhof is not originally from here, she found her way out to East Hampton as many did, through the invitation of Lee Krasner. The Skaneateles, N.Y., native was working on a bibliography of Krasner while pursuing her master’s degree, and the two connected in New York City. It went well enough that Krasner immediately agreed to Ms. Appelhof’s request to interview her for her master’s thesis and invited her out to Springs for the summer of 1974.
“I had an orange Ford Pinto. I picked her up in front of her New York City high-rise and it turned out neither of us had any idea how to get to the Hamptons,” Ms. Appelhof recalled. Although they figured it out, she also discovered that Krasner didn’t drive and needed someone to get her around. “So this is why I’m here,” Ms. Appelhof recalled thinking.
Krasner was interviewed, but “every night I would type up my notes and the next day she would take a big magic marker and cross out all the good stuff.” Ms. Appelhof kept the tapes, however, and is having Syracuse transcribe them for a potential book that will be her first project post-retirement. She also wants to pursue having her dissertation on Emily Carr, a Canadian artist and friend of Georgia O’Keeffe, published.
Scholarship is very important to her. In addition to directing other art institutions, she has taught and earned four degrees, including her doctorate, at Syracuse after 30 years of study. The degrees took so long because she went to school on the G.I. Bill as a war orphan. The program only funded one course a semester. When she wasn’t attending school, she worked several jobs and raised two children on her own. She was a fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art and has taught at several universities, including Syracuse and the University of Birmingham in Alabama.
Since she has more than a year to cement her legacy, she will continue to pursue ways to leave a lasting mark on the institution. She aims to be less cautious in some of the seasonal programming to explore more experimental modes of performance. Another key goal is to increase Guild Hall’s endowments from their current $4.5 million to a larger cushion. “I want to ensure the staff is taken care of. There’s a need for more staff or better control of programs. That balance is always a worry to me.”
She would like to see a more stable funding base. “It would be great if we had many more contributors, foundations and individuals, who were giving us funding that we can count on every year.” In the current model, she has used a “concierge approach” in building donors’ interest in specific programs with a narrow focus so that they can be directly involved and better see the results of their contributions, but it is a case she has had to make every year. “I need to make sure those people are committed over the long term.”
Although she wants to walk away completely and let a new director have his or her say, it may be difficult to stay away entirely. Her husband, Gary Adamek, has been a dedicated volunteer to the institution, whether he is greeting people at a splashy show or reception or setting up tables and writing the checks to the artists for the Clothesline Art Sale. Even if she can keep herself away, she wondered if he could after all these years.