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Discover This Year’s East Hampton Art & Design Days

Taking place from July 9—12, guests will enjoy exclusive access to panels, gardens, artists’ studios, and more

By Celia McGee
Group of people observing a lush garden with a wooden fence and trees in the background under a partly cloudy sky.
East Hampton Art & Design Days. Photo: Courtesy of East Hampton Art & Design Days

Let the golfers have The Maidstone Club and the sailors the Georgica Yacht Racing association, but come the second week in July, the power players in East Hampton are an A-list of architecture and design editors, gardening and décor visionaries, and enviable collectors and dealers, all gathered in a seaside setting famous for its cultural heritage and design-forward summer crowd. It’s where pretty meets privet and chic mixes with Shingle Style.

On July 12, Guild Hall’s second annual East Hampton Design Day will draw an elegant line under the town-wide East Hampton Art & Design Days—co-sponsored by communications and brand development firm NivenBreen, Galerie, Serena & Lily, The Hedges Inn, and Koral Bros, among others—which get underway July 9. The Sunday panels will take to the stage in the Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan Theater, where its whimsical 1930s circus-tent ceiling motif and balloon chandelier have been colorfully preserved as part of Guild Hall’s recent refresh by Peter Pennoyer Architects.

A man in a checkered shirt and cap sits at a table, looking at an open book with a pen in hand, outdoors.
Ed Hollander. Photo: East Hampton Art & Design Days.
A man and a woman smiling, holding a book titled "Light Between the Sand and Sea," standing indoors with a beach-themed decor.
Coco Myers and Jaime Lopez pose with their book, Light, Sand, and Sea: Hamptons Artists and Their Studios. Photo: Courtesy of East Hampton Art & Design Days

As if by some sea rose-scented magic, the first panel will bring the outdoors in; “Design Take Three” will hear interior designers Charlotte Moss and Marshall Watson, both avid gardeners, get to the root of their passion for opulent horticulture, and interiors that connect with them. Galerie editor in chief Jacqueline Terrebonne’s panel, “Design Stories: Reimagining the Past,” swings back in time with Yale architecture dean and TenBerke principal Deborah Berke, Dior Home and Baby’s Cordelia Castellane, and interior designers Bryan Graybill and Alex Papachristidis to explore how best to keep history in step with a now-is-wow aesthetic. The panelists are particularly knowledgable on the subject: Berke recently repurposed a 19th-century beachfront boarding house in East Hampton into a stunning single-family home while Graybill’s own home is a delightful mix of East End tradition and artful whimsy.

Guests gathering on the lush lawn of a large brick and wood house with a balcony under a cloudy sky.
East Hampton Art & Design Days. Photo: Courtesy of East Hampton Art & Design Days
Garden shop entrance with colorful flower bouquets on tables, surrounded by lush green trees and plants.
East Hampton Art & Design Days. Photo: Courtesy of East Hampton Art & Design Days

A peppy wake-me-up is sure to be established by “From Ho-Hum to Sublime: The Secret Powers of Transforming Rooms,” which culls insight from designer Tom Scheerer, whose newest book is the proof-positive Still Decorating, and Wainscott resident and decorator Cathy Kincaid, combiner of Georgica and de Gournay. Other talks give a look to the secluded sanctuaries of Aerin Lauder, Tory Burch, Ulla Johnson, Robert Stilin, and Urs Fischer, among other local luminaries.

Event at night with people gathering under a lit tent near a windmill surrounded by trees.
East Hampton Antiques & Design Show. Photo: Courtesy of the East Hampton Historical Society
Victorian-style house with a brick pathway and lush flower garden in the foreground.
The Hedges Inn. Photo: Susan Kaufman

Especially if the barometer stays closer to balmy than sweltering, just a few steps down Main Street, The East Hampton Antiques & Design Show spreads out comfortably across the grounds of Mulford Farm, and benefits the East Hampton Historical Society. Not far beyond that is The Hedges Inn, the enormously popular destination gifted to the Hamptons social scene last summer by Sarah and Andrew Wetenhall, where the drinks at Swifty’s are cool, clever, and companionable.