The Parrish Art Museum celebrates Thanksgiving weekend with the Holiday Party + Market on Friday and Saturday, November 25 and 26, at the Museum in Water Mill. The weekend includes shopping at exclusive vendors, art activities for families, and a festive benefit Patron Cocktail Party on Friday from 5–8pm, with music, hors d’oeuvres, silent auction, and book signings by artists Alex Beard, April Gornik, Mary Heilmann, Susan Meisel, and Donald Sultan; novelist Erica Abeel; and God’s Love We Deliver board member Jon Gilman. Proceeds from the Friday evening benefit support the Parrish’s year-round programs. Tickets for the benefit cocktail party start at $150.00.

The Holiday Party + Market weekend continues the tradition of the Museum’s popular Parrish Presents, a mainstay of the holiday season for the community that was held during Thanksgiving weekend for decades. On Friday from noon to 5pm, and Saturday, from 10am–5pm, visitors to the Museum can shop at the gift market, which features vendors Grain Surfboards, Haverhill Fine Jewelry, India Hicks, LSC Designs Fine & Estate Jewelry, Merrichase, Rose Randolph Cookies, Slater Zorn, Tenzin’s Scarves, and Utopia Bath, Ltd.

Parrish Members will receive a 20% discount on full price items at the Museum Shop, which will be open all weekend. On Friday and Saturday from 11am–2pm, children and their caregivers may participate in art activities including gallery tours and art projects in the studio inspired by works on view. On Saturday, from 1-3pm, Michelle Halstead will lead drop-in origami activities for all ages. Throughout the weekend, all visitors to the may enjoy Artists Choose Artists, the museum’s juried exhibition featuring the work of seven established artist jurors and the fourteen participants they selected, as well as the newly installed permanent collection, featuring nearly 100 works.

Parrish Members will receive a 20% discount on full price items at the Museum Shop, which will be open all weekend. On Friday and Saturday from 11am–2pm, children and their caregivers may participate in art activities including gallery tours and art projects in the studio inspired by works on view. On Saturday, from 1-3pm, Michelle Halstead will lead drop-in origami activities for all ages. Throughout the weekend, all visitors to the may enjoy Artists Choose Artists, the museum’s juried exhibition featuring the work of seven established artist jurors and the fourteen participants they selected, as well as the newly installed permanent collection, featuring nearly 100 works.

The Patron Cocktail Party benefit on Friday evening features a live music, open bar, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, shopping at the gift market, and book signings featuring Parrish Art Museum collection artists Gornik, Heilmann, Meisel, and Sultan. Authors in attendance include:

1. April Gornik, contributor, and God’s Love we Deliver Board Member Jon Gilman, who will sign copies of the organization’s first cookbook which Gilman compiled with longtime volunteer, the late Christopher Idone.

2. Mary Heilmann, signing Mary Heilmann: Looking at Pictures, Whitechapel Gallery (August 2016), which explores the artist’s approach to abstraction through her writings and over 100 illustrations of her paintings, works on paper, furniture and ceramics from her five-decade career.

3. Susan Meisel, signing the fully illustrated, Shop Cook Eat New York: 200 of the City’s Best Food Shops, Plus Favorite Recipes, Rizzoli (September 2016)—an insider’s tour of more than 150 of the best-loved and most-visited culinary outlets in the city.

4. Donald Sultan, signing Donald Sultan: The Disaster Paintings, Prestel (November 2016): a survey of the monumental landscape series by the artist, who works at the intersection of abstraction and realism.

5. Erica Abeel, signing copies of her novel Wild Girls, Texas Review Press (November 2016)—the story of three college friends from the ‘50s who blaze their own path in love and work.

6. Alex Beard, artist and author, signing A Brush with Nature, Glitterati (October 2016), and his three children’s books: The Jungle Grapevine, Crocodile’s Tears, and MonkeySee, Monkey Draw (Harry N. Abrams).

Tickets for the Cocktail Party start at $150 for Members and benefit the Parrish Art Museum’s year-round programs. Visit parrishart.org or call 631-283-2118 ext. 150 for more information or to purchase tickets. [ Photo credit: Tom Fitzgerald, www.society-in-focus.com]