Letter of Support: Brooks-Park Arts and Nature Center 9/7/23

Click here for a PDF of this letter.

September 7, 2023

Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and Members of the Town Council
Town of East Hampton
159 Pantigo Road
East Hampton, New York 11937

Dear Supervisor Van Scoyoc and Members of the East Hampton Town Board:

The Preservation League of New York State and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are writing to voice our support for the local advocates behind the Brooks-Park Arts and Nature Center (BPANC) and their management plan for the Brooks-Park Home and Studios in Springs.

The Preservation League of New York State empowers all New Yorkers to use historic preservation to enrich their communities, protect their heritage, and build a sustainable future. The National Trust for Historic Preservation works to save America's historic sites; tell the full American story; build stronger communities; and invest in preservation's future. Both of our organizations have identified the James Brooks and Charlotte Park Home and Studios as an incredibly important site worth saving. The Trust listed the Brooks-Park site as one of their 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2022, with the League including the site among its Seven to Save shortly after. Since those listings, we have worked closely with the BPANC volunteers and have been continuously impressed by their dedication to creating a vital community asset at the Brooks-Park site.

With the Building Conditions Report from Michael Devonshire of Jan Hird Pokorny Associates recently completed in March of this year, the Town is poised to stabilize, and eventually restore, these buildings. BPANC is ready to work with the Town to find a future for Brooks-Park. Both James Brooks and Charlotte Park were seminal figures in the 20th Century Abstract Expressionist art movement. Their home and studios are a physical testament to their work and this important moment in American history. But the Brooks-Park site is also a place to experience nature, just as James and Charlotte did as they made art there. BPANC seeks to create inclusive educational programming and arts-related activities alongside “the discovery, research, and experience of its eleven undisturbed acres of natural habitat, bringing focus to these two acclaimed artists, the unique community in which they lived and worked, and the trail system that runs through parts of the property.”

We strongly encourage the approval of their management plan and a path forward for the Brooks-Park site.

Sincerely,

Jay DiLorenzo                                                           
President, Preservation League of NYS                    

Seri Worden
Senior Director of Preservation Programs, National Trust for Historic Preservation