Box Art Auction Benefiting East End Hospice Returns

The annual Hamptons Box Art Auction to benefit East End Hospice is returning for its 23rd year on Saturday, August 24 at St. Luke’s Church’s Hoie Hall in East Hampton (18 James Lane).

Dozens of area artists have donated beautifully designed, creative art boxes to the auction this year, including beloved returning talents and 10 brand new contributors selected by the event’s Benefit Chair, gallerist and local art aficionado Arlene Bujese.

“Over 85 artists on the East End have once again contributed their time, talent and singular creativity to produce unique works of portable art for this most worthy cause,” says Bujese, who scours the local art scene for participants each year. “I go to exhibitions and check out what’s happening around town in the art world,” she adds, pointing out that she found two of her newest participants at this year’s Springs Mystery Art Sale at Ashawagh Hall, where she bought three pieces without knowing the names of the artists. “It was a lot of fun,” Bujese says.

Some of the newest names providing boxes this year are: Whitney Bell, Kristen Benfield, Susan Bradfield, Kathy Buist and Donna Corvi from Montauk.

The impressive list of veteran and new participating artists includes such prominent names as Kirsten Benfield, Marilyn Church, Durrell Godfrey, Helen Harrison, Leif Hope, Carol Hunt, Dennis Leri, Christa Maiwald, Fulvio Massi, Roy Nicholson, Gabriele Raacke, Randall Rosenthal, Barbara Slate, Hans van de Bovenkamp and Dan Welden, to name a few.

“We have some really super works, a lot of them from the usual suspects, our devoted core group,” Bujese says.

Each artist is given a small, wooden cigar or wine box from which to craft their art — using the box’s interior and exterior as a canvas or base for their ideas. With styles ranging from traditional landscapes to abstract art, the media incorporated this year are ceramics, sculpture, painting, collage, assemblage, metal, photography and needlework on fabric. Some artists use their own boxes, like Bill Kiriazis who uses a Cartier jewelry box this year, or Gerry Giliberti who made her box with a glass dome.

Bujese acknowledges Besim’s Fine Cigars in Southampton for generously providing the cigar boxes each year. “They have been wonderful and so generous, and they are on our honorary committee as well,” she says.

Also recognizing generosity this year, the 2024 Spirit of Community Award will be presented at the benefit to Sandra Wagenfeld, a longtime supporter of the Box Art benefit. “She’s just been involved in so many charities, not always for publication. She’s an admirer of East End Hospice … and she’s been supporting Box Art very generously,” Bujese says.

Leading up to the August 24 benefit, this year’s boxes can be previewed at Hoie Hall on Wednesday, August 21 and Thursday, August 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Wednesday, August 21 from 5-7 p.m., the public is invited to a “Meet the Artists” preview reception at Hoie Hall.

At the benefit on August 24, a Silent Auction will begin at 4:30 p.m. and the live auction will begin at 5:45 p.m., with Lucas Hunt as auctioneer. Wine and hors d’oeuvres are included in the $100 benefit ticket price, which, of course, supports a most worthy cause.

All proceeds from tickets and box sales will benefit East End Hospice, which remains the only independent non-profit provider of end-of-life hospice care in the region, and which last year provided care for over 800 terminally ill patients, their families and loved ones living in the Hamptons and North Fork, as well as the Eastern Suffolk township of Brookhaven.

“This past year has brought about tremendous challenges for our community,” says Mary C. Crosby, President and CEO of East End Hospice. “Programs such as the Box Art Auction help ensure that every person facing loss has the expert, compassionate care they need at no cost to themselves or their family.”

Along with raising money, Bujese says there’s great value in just letting the community know that East End Hospice is here and their services are available in a family’s time of need.

To preview boxes to be auctioned online, or to learn more about East End Hospice, visit their website at eeh.org. For more information, to place an absentee bid or to receive an invitation, call Theresa Murphy at the East End Hospice development office at 631-288-7080 or via email (tmurphy@eeh.org).