The concept of a WaterFire Riverhead won the unanimous support of the Riverhead Town Board yesterday during a presentation by a WaterFire representative at the board’s weekly work session.
“I’m very excited about it,” Supervisor Sean Walter said after the meeting, where WaterFire representative Lisa Lowenstein explained the concept of WaterFire, a multisensory public art installation aimed at building community through culture, and discussed what is necessary to bring the concept to life on the Peconic Riverfront.
“We will do everything humanly possible to make this happen,” Walter said in an interview after the meeting. “This is going to be a great thing not only for downtown and the Riverhead community but for the entire region.”
Councilman James Wooten said the event will “really showcase the town and show off the arts,” much like the East End Arts’ JumpstART event did this summer, but on a much larger scale. “I love it,” Wooten declared.
“It sounds like a real crowd-pleaser,” Councilman George Gabrielsen said, “and a big event for downtown. It will help put Riverhead on the map,” Gabrielsen said.
Councilwoman Jodi Giglio was effusive. “I think it’s the greatest thing that’s come to Riverhead in years and years. How amazing and exciting! I’m happy to see that all the efforts of this and past town boards have set the stage for something like this on the riverfront— the boardwalk, the work in Grangebel Park, everything. All the elements are there. And now with WaterFire, it will all come together,” Giglio said.
The board’s longest-serving member, John Dunleavy, said he thinks WaterFire is a “good idea” that will have a positive impact on downtown and beyond. “I definitely liked what I heard,” Dunleavy said.
WaterFire is staged twice a month in Providence, Rhode Island, where it was originated by artist Barnaby Evans in 1994. It has grown and evolved “organically” since then, to an event that draws hundreds of thousands of people to downtown Providence each year. It is put on by a nonprofit organization with a $2 million annual budget, 19 paid staff members and hundreds of volunteers. There are two other ongoing installations, WaterFire Sharon, staged in a small town in western Pennsylvania, which has just concluded its second season there, and WaterFire Kansas City, which began in 2007. Evans has installed WaterFire as one-time events in other cities, including Singapore, Rome, Houston and Columbus, Ohio.
The ongoing installations involve hundreds of volunteers — and that’s something Evans says is an integral part of the installation whose mission is “creative placemaking.” WaterFire brings the community together to create something. Everyone involved is part of it, he told RiverheadLOCAL in an interview in Providence Sunday.
Lowenstein explained that she and WaterFire creator Barnaby Evans began to explore Riverhead this summer, after they read news reports about the Riverhead BID’s plan to create an event modeled after WaterFire — dubbed “RiverFires.” Evans contacted the BID to voice objection to its plan. “WaterFire is not just about lighting fires. You can’t just take one element out of it and make it work,” Evans said Sunday.
Lowenstein, who lives in NYC, happened to rent a house on the Sound in Riverhead this summer for “a retreat.” When Evans heard where she was staying, he mentioned that Riverhead was interested in hosting a similar event and she agreed to explore the community with that in mind.
“This is a community, that — if it’s an appropriate site for WaterFire — needs this,” Lowenstein recalled telling Evans. “They’re poised to take a leap. I can feel it.”
Evans, who lives in Providence, “got on the ferry and came down to Riverhead and he literally bumped into JumpstART,” Lowenstein said, referring to the arts celebration in downtown Riverhead presented by East End Arts on Friday, Aug. 8.
“That was truly Kismet,” she said.
“He found this beautiful town with this vibrant arts community. You guys could not have planned it better if you were actually planning to entice this artist to come here,” Lowenstein said.
Hundreds of communities approach Evans every year about brining WaterFire to their riverfronts. Generally the sites are not right for it, Lowenstein said.
“In Riverhead, the location and speed of the river, the location of the urban context in relation tho the river, the riverwalk… It was all there,” she said.
“We’ve just been waiting,” Walter interjected.
Evans’ interest was piqued and he did some serious exploration and evaluation of the community, Lowenstein said.
For her part, Lowenstein spent the next few months meeting with a cross-section of people in the community — 60 to 70 stakeholders, she estimated. She has also met with the Town of Southampton and representatives of Suffolk County. Everyone’s reaction has been favorable, she said. She has also launched a Facebook page for the project called WaterFire Riverhead: Building Renewal Together. Everyone who’s interested in WaterFire Riverhead should like the page on Facebook to get updates on its progress, she said.
Southampton Deputy Supervisor Frank Zappone attended yesterday’s work session and said that Southampton officials are also “very excited about this.”
Zappone said he had been to WaterFire Providence and the experience was just as it was described by people in a short video Lowenstein played for the board.
“It’s very exciting and plays in very well with the vision of all the things we’re trying to accomplish,” Zappone said. The collaboration of the two towns will help with funding sources. “We’re more than prepared to make that commitment to a partnership with Riverhead,” he said, noting that he believes WaterFire is a “perfect project” for funding by the L.I. Regional Economic Development Council, the initiative launched by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2011 that has funneled nearly $5 billion to economic development projects across New York through regional councils that cull grant applications and nominate a select few for consideration by the state.
“This is a home run,” Zappone said. “We should call the governor right after this and ask him to sign the check.”
Riverhead Community Development Director Chris Kempner got the board’s assent to pursue a Bloomberg foundation public art installation grant.
Bloomberg will grant $1 million per year grant for two years to three communities for a public art installation, Lowenstein said. WaterFire Riverhead will be well-positioned for the grant, she said. “They already recognize Barnaby’s work as a foundational installation for what they’re trying to encourage with the money,” Lowenstein said.
“When you put together the employment opportunities, the tremendous revitalization you can do with Southampton, the vibrancy that’s already here, the incredible architecture in this town, the agriculture here, the proximity to the Hamptons and the North Fork — it’s got all the ingredients for success,’ Lowenstein said.
Riverhead could use some of its remaining Brownfield Opportunity Area grant money to conduct additional research and compile data for the Bloomberg grant application, Kempner said. The document produced for the Bloomberg application can then be used to seek other funding sources — not only for WaterFire but for other events as well.
“You can build this dossier with Barnaby’s guidance and knowledge,” Lowenstein said. She said she and Evans have already done a lot of research into potential funding for WaterFire Riverhead.
East End Arts executive director Pat Snyder encouraged board members to visit the next WaterFire Providence on Nov. 8.
“There’s no substitute for experiencing it yourself,” Snyder said. She visited WaterFire Providence with Kempner earlier this month and described it as “a mediation of 30,000 people.”
Top photo caption: WaterFire representative Lisa Lowenstein, left, explained the concept of the installation to the Riverhead Town Board at yesterday’s work session. Also in attendance were East End Arts executive director Pat Snyder, far left, and Southampton Deputy Supervisor Frank Zappone, far right. (Photo: Denise Civiletti)
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