East Hampton has been considered a haven for artists for generations. For a prime example, one need look no further than the Art Barge, a center for art education beached permanently at Napeague Harbor.
Officially known as the Victor D'Amico Institute of Art, the barge began as a pilot program of the Museum of Modern Art. In 1955, the museum's education department launched an exploratory program of art classes headed by Victor D'Amico (1904-1987). Held at Ashawagh Hall in Springs, the summer painting course was meant to determine if such classes were viable in the long term.
That year, 57 students signed up, paying between $18.75 (about $220 in 2024) and $80 (about $935 today) per person. The students included housewives, lawyers, doctors, and, in one case, a textile manufacturer. The course itself focused on both naturalistic and impressionistic painting, with subjects taken from a variety of local landmarks like the Montauk Lighthouse and Duryea's Lobster Dock.
D'Amico was so impressed by the students' efforts that he decided an exhibition celebrating their achievements was needed. This was not included in the program's original budget, but with contributions from the students themselves a small show at Ashawagh was held on July 30, 1955. Though only 40 paintings were shown, attendees numbered between 400 and 500 and included art world potentates like Rene d'Harnoncourt, director of the Museum of Modern Art, Ray Prohaska, an illustrator and painter, and Julien Levy, a Works Progress Administration artist and art educator.
This course and others that followed it were so successful that in 1960 D'Amico decided the program deserved a permanent home, leading him to buy the Navy barge that would become the Art Barge that stands to this day.
Julia Tyson is a librarian and archivist in the Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Library.
