THE BARN: v2.0 (2024)
The Big White Barn was built some time in the late 1920s to serve as the horse stables for the Montauk Manor... (top-right in the photo below) ...
Over the years it ended up moving from private ownership to community usage, serving as a dancehall and a rollerskating rink, among other purposes...
Edward Albee acquired the property in 1963, using proceeds from the sale of his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to Warner Brothers Studios...
After a modest renovation, living and working quarters suitable for 4-5 people at a time were apportioned and Edward opened the space up as a seasonal residency program for people from all walks of life practicing all creative media...
The Edward F. Albee Foundation was born and the William Flanagan Memorial Persons Center was launched...
Creative People from around the world came to work, sleep, play, laugh, cook, surf, sail, swim and sift themselves into two basic categories: those who knew they had to keep going as creative people no matter what and those who knew that sand, surf and self-sacrifice would suffice... the do's and the do differents...
For over 50 years this worked out well, with makeshift doorknobs, fluctuating water temperatures and questionable bulges in the paintwork...
In 2016, Edward Albee, our Founder and eponym, passed away, leaving resources and clear direction... the seeds for the next 50 years (and more) were already planted...
