The Watermill Center has announced the return of its Artists’ Table Brunch series, offering the community a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process of its Artists-in-Residence. On Saturday, June 5, guests are invited to The Watermill Center for an intimate afternoon featuring a farm-to-table meal by Chef Martine Abitbol and private presentations by theatre director Rachel Dickstein and 2021 Inga Maren Otto Fellow Tomashi Jackson.

“Artists’ Table Brunch celebrates the rich traditions, artistic heritage, and local food culture of Long Island’s East End together with the legacy of The Watermill Center,” says Erin Wainwright, Manager of Special Events & Individual Giving at The Center. “Bringing together artists and art enthusiasts is at the heart of our mission, and after more than a year without on-site events, we can’t imagine a better way to welcome back the community and kick off the summer season.”

Local chef and restaurateur Martine Abitbol has opened kitchens in New York, France, and the East End, including the lauded Le Poème Bakeries and Tearoom in Manhattan. Since her beginning at the Rose Bud in Paris in 1972, Abitbol has developed a unique approach to farm-to-table cooking, informed by her time working on farms in Corsica and in kitchens worldwide. Now a private chef and caterer, Abitbol delights patrons with her delectable offerings and celebrated breads.

Ripe Time is an Obie-winning theatre company founded in 2000 and led by director and deviser Rachel Dickstein. Since 2000, Ripe Time has created eight large-scale ensemble works that have received three Obie Awards and nominations from the Drama Desk Awards, The Drama League, and the Joe A. Callaway Award for Outstanding Direction. Their work has been commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music, CTG, Annenberg Center for the Arts and presented at BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Yale Repertory Theatre’s “No Boundaries,” BAM-Fisher, Baruch Performing Arts Center, The JCC in Manhattan, 3LD Art & Technology Center, Ohio Theatre, PS 122, Clark Studio at Lincoln Center, LaMaMa, ETC, Ko Festival, and Voice and Vision.

Tomashi Jackson is a multi-disciplinary artist who uses the formal properties of color perception as an aesthetic strategy to investigate the value of human life in public space. Her investigation into color perception as an aesthetic strategy began with a close reading of Josef Albers’ instructional text Interaction of Color, 1963. In this text, Jackson observed that the language used to describe the formal interaction of colors mirrored the language of racial segregation found in sources such as United States public policy documents, court proceedings, and other documents that shape the use of public space. Jackson’s investigation of the shared language around color, whether referencing race or formalism, offers a narrative framework from which she constructs her language of abstraction.

Jackson is a recipient of the 2021 Inga Maren Otto Fellowship at The Watermill Center. In our ongoing partnership with the Parrish Art Museum, Jackson will produce a new body of work for her upcoming exhibition, Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim, at the Parrish Art Museum. The Land Claim will focus on the historical and contemporary lived experiences of Indigenous, Black, and Latinx families on the East End of Long Island and how issues of housing, transportation, livelihood, migration, and agriculture link these communities.

Tickets for Artists’ Table Brunch are sold in pods of four or six guests. All food and beverages will be served outdoors. Guests will be seated at least six feet from any other party member. Purchase tickets online HERE. Or, for more information or to inquire about parties of a different size, please email events@watermillcenter.org