IN SUPPORT OF PRIDE MONTH AND THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM, AMAZON MUSIC SPONSORS THE ANNUAL MIDSUMMER DANCE PARTY, JULY 8, AS PART OF ITS MONTH-LONG LGBTQIA+ PRIDE INITIATIVE

The following is from the Parrish Art Museum on Long Island.

WATER MILL, NY 6/29/2022—In support of the Parrish Art Museum and as part of a commitment to celebrate LGBTQIA+ communities, Amazon Music has become the Presenting Sponsor of the Museum’s Midsummer Dance Party, Friday, July 8, 8–11pm. Amazon’s sponsorship is among the many events supported through Amazon Music’s LGBTQIA+ Pride Month initiative. It endorses and is aligned with the Museum’s ongoing commitment to champion critical issues around diverse representation in LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities, and to create a greater sense of inclusion and accessibility—at the Parrish in particular and within East End cultural spaces in general.

“We are excited to have Amazon Music serve as a Presenting Sponsor for Friday's Midsummer Dance Party as we aim to encourage the next generation of artists, musicians, collectors, and cultural leaders to support and embrace arts on the East End,” said Parrish Trustees Larry Milstein and George Wells. “The Parrish has been a space that uses art as a vehicle for positive change and this event furthers those efforts.”

The Midsummer Dance Party is the first of two benefit events of the Museum’s annual Midsummer Weekend celebration. This year’s event features music by Oscar Nñ of Papi Juice — an art collective that aims to affirm and celebrate the lives of Queer and Trans people of color. Since Papi Juice’s inception in 2013, the collective has been changing the face of nightlife in New York City and beyond with intentional platforms for artists of color including panels, workshops, artist residencies, performances, and DJ sets.

About Amazon
As early and strong supporters of marriage equality, Amazon continues to advocate for protections and equal rights for transgender people, working at the federal and state level on legislation including support for passing the Equality Act. For the last three years, amazon received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index. This year, the company kicked off its Gay Pride Month initiative when glamazon (Amazon’s LGBTQIA+ affinity group) debuted a new Progress Pride flag, with colors that reference the many intersections and facets of identity within the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as communities of color.

About the Parrish Art Museum Midsummer Weekend
The Midsummer Weekend, which this year welcomes the Museum’s new director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut—includes the Dance Party and a Saturday Midsummer Dinner. Honorees at the dinner are philanthropist/collector Miyoung Lee; artist Jasper Johns, whose work is featured in a solo exhibition of 90 prints at the Museum; and Racquel Chevremont & Mickalene Thomas, collectively known as Deux Femmes Noires, curators of the exhibition Set It Off. The exhibition is the third joint project of the team, whose curatorial mission is to launch careers of and provide important platforms for lesser-known artists—specifically women of color and in many cases queer artists—at established venues and major art institutions. Guests at the events will have the opportunity to explore Set It Off and An Art of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960 – 2018 in the Parrish galleries and Meadow.

MIDSUMMER DANCE
Friday, July 8, 8 –11 PM
8 PM: Doors open 8:30 PM: DJ Set, Papi Juice

MIDSUMMER DANCE CO-CHAIRS:
Larry Milstein Destinee Ross-Sutton

TICKETS: VIP Seating for 6: $5,000
Package of 5 Tickets: $2,000
1 Ticket including Parrish Membership: $550
1 Benefactor Ticket: $500
1 Dance Patron Ticket: $250

EXHIBITIONS ON VIEW
SET IT OFF
Created for the Museum and curated by Racquel Chevremont and Mickalene Thomas—(collectively known as Deux Femmes Noires), Set It Off brings together work by an international roster of female artists. Leilah Babirye, Torkwase Dyson, February James, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Karyn Olivier, and Kennedy Yanko engage the monumental, the site specific, and/or the immersive in their practice, often combining multiple elements of readymade, painting, photography, language, sculpture, and installation. The exhibition features more than 50 works—many of which are new or never-before-seen— presented outdoors in the Meadow and in the Parrish galleries. The title Set It Off—to do something significant, with intensity, or with a hurricane-like force; or to change an atmosphere for the better—points to the varied, impactful work. By bringing these six women together, Chevremont and Thomas showcase artists who, each in their own right, have “set it off”—creating bold, compelling work that pushes far beyond the perceived limitations of their chosen genres and mediums.

Set It Off is generously supported by George Wells; Alexandra Stanton and Sam Natapoff; Susan and Timothy Davis; Sandy and Stephen Perlbinder; Robin and Frederic Seegal; Carla Camacho, Lehmann Maupin; and Stephanie Horton. The Parrish Art Museum’s programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and by the property taxpayers from the Southampton School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.

AN ART OF CHANGES: JASPER JOHNS PRINTS, 1960—2018
An Art of Changes presents a comprehensive survey of John's six-decade practice in printmaking, highlighting his experiments with familiar, abstract, and personal imagery that play with memory and visual perception in endlessly original ways. The exhibition—featuring some 70 works in intaglio, lithography, woodcut, linoleum cut, screen printing, and lead relief—continues the recognition of John's 90th birthday, as well as his stature today as one of the 20th century's greatest American artists. Organized in four thematic sections, An Art of Changes follows Johns through the year as he revises and recycles key motifs over time, including the American flag, numerals, and the English alphabet, which he describes as "things the mind already knows."

An Art of Changes: Jasper Johns Prints, 1960 – 2018 is organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Major support is provided by Judy Dayton and the Prospect Creek Foundation. Additional support is provided by Robert and Rebecca Pohlad and Annette and John Whaley.

The Parrish Art Museum’s exhibitions and programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by the property taxpayers, from the Southampton Union Free School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.

ABOUT THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM
Inspired by the natural setting and artistic life of Long Island’s East End, the Parrish Art Museum illuminates the creative process and how art and artists transform our experiences and understanding of the world and how we live in it. The Museum fosters connections among individuals, art, and artists through care and interpretation of the collection, presentation of exhibitions, publications, educational initiatives, programs, and artist residencies. The Parrish is a center for cultural engagement, an inspiration and destination for the region, the nation, and the world.