Picnic and Interactive Tour with Peconic Landing’s 'Art for Lunch'
This summer, for the entire season, Mondays through Thursdays members of the public are welcome to pack their own picnics and experience the interactive sculpture garden tour that is part of Peconic Landing’s new “Art for Lunch” program.
This novel community outreach effort is an extension of the existing Art Without Barriers program, which works to help individuals with vision loss enjoy art. The tour allows visitors to become immersed in detailed narratives of each individual work and then encourages them to employ their sense of touch to get a feel for the texture and shape of the sculptures. As Dominic Antignano, Peconic Landing’s cultural arts curator, said “The exhibit is one of the few that allows guests to reach out and touch the art.” He continued, “For those with a visual or hearing impairment, it takes the descriptive audio experience to the next level. Art is not just a visual experience.”
Guests can stop by during lunch hours, anytime between 11 a.m. through 3 p.m. to embark on the free tour and enjoy their lunch in the outdoor space.
The interactive garden tour showcases 18 pieces of art across the site. The sculptures were created by local and internationally acknowledged sculptors. The most recent addition, titled “Wildebeests,” was donated from a private collection.
Art for Lunch began on July 1 and will run through October. Guests can park at Brecknock Hall by the new Welcome Kiosk—the starting point of the tour. It is here where visitors can discover the directives needed to extract the optimal experience from the interactive components of the tour. Guests may also find maps of the grounds to facilitate their outing. Both personal guided tours and audio narratives— offered as free downloads to any smartphone from Peconic Landing’s iTunes channel—are available for visitor use. The audio was designed to use standards developed by the American Foundation for the Blind. Braille catalogs and iPods are also offered for those without access to smartphones. To reserve an iPod or schedule a personal guided tour, contact Antignano at 631-477-3800 extension 229.
Peconic Landing is located at 1500 Brecknock Road, Greenport.