🏛️ Watermill Center

Searching for a new artistic base and incubator for his work, acclaimed director Robert Wilson found a former Western Union research facility in 1986. Situated on the edge of the Shinnecock Reservation, the former Western Union research facility had been left to the elements for more than two decades. Wilson envisioned Watermill as a laboratory for creative experimentation, where artists could work at the intersection of disciplines, drawing inspiration from nature and Wilson’s extensive collection of art and artifacts.

In 1992, Wilson and The Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation formally established The Watermill Center, launching its first International Summer Program in collaboration with the Trisha Brown Dance Company—a partnership that set the tone for the center’s ethos of cross-pollination and experimental rigor.