LongHouse Reserve’s Beautopia Celebrates Art, Nature, and a Dinner Rooted in the East End
- East End Taste
- 23 hours ago
- 3 min read
On Saturday, June 27, 2026, LongHouse Reserve welcomed more than 300 guests to its annual Summer Benefit, Beautopia, an evening that was a gorgeous garden party, an artist tribute, and a love letter to the East End.
Set across LongHouse’s 16-acre sculpture garden in East Hampton, the benefit honored artist Sean Scully and philanthropist Dr. Bruce Horten, while raising vital funds for LongHouse’s public programs, educational initiatives, gardens, sculpture collection, and the preservation of founder Jack Lenor Larsen’s iconic home.
A Night for Artists and the People Who Champion Them
Art historian Joachim Pissarro presented the evening’s award to Scully, whose work is currently on view at LongHouse.
“I’m very inspired by nature,” Scully shared. “It’s a very similar story to Picasso and Matisse, who started out in dirty old Paris, toughing it out, and when they became successful they moved to the South of France. What I’ve done is move out here.”
LongHouse President Louis Bradbury honored Horten as both a medical pathologist and a lifelong supporter of the arts. Horten, together with his late partner Aaron Lieber, built a life surrounded by art and music, while generously supporting cultural organizations that make creativity more accessible.
Dinner in the Garden
The evening’s menu, provided by Hamptons Aristocrat, captured what LongHouse does so beautifully: bring art, nature, and daily life into conversation.
Dinner began with a flower-petal chèvre board dressed with rose, calendula, chamomile, lavender buds, and crostini, a fitting first note for an evening built around beauty in full bloom. The first course, a Provençal salad with green beans, potato, local farm eggs, and mustard vinaigrette, offered a quietly elegant nod to summer on the East End.
To share, guests enjoyed a charred summer zucchini and sweet corn tartlet with pecorino and polenta cake, followed by an entrée of Feisty Acres Farm chicken with summer squash, Mattituck mushroom ratatouille, and arugula gremolata. A vegetarian and vegan option was also available upon request.
The dinner highlighted a thoughtful roster of local farms, including Balsam Farm, Feisty Acres, Amber Waves Farm, Early Girl Farm, Mattituck Mushrooms, Acabonac Farm, and Mecox Farm. Dessert brought a playful finish with cream puffs, colorful gluten-free macarons, and a vibrant candy table that carried the Beautopia spirit into the afterparty.
The Magic of LongHouse
For new Executive Director Lara Sweeney, who joined LongHouse earlier this year, the evening reflected the heart of the institution.
“In my first three months at LongHouse, I’ve been welcomed with open arms,” she said, citing the staff, docents, trustees, artists, students, and visitors who make the space feel alive. She spoke of the gardens, the one million daffodil buds that greeted her in spring, the Redwoods, and the schoolchildren who visit free of charge throughout the year.
“LongHouse is more than an arts center, more than a garden,” Sweeney said. “We are a place where people find connection, where kids learn and thrive…and for so many, it is a place that feels like magic.”
Supporting the Next Chapter of LongHouse
The evening also marked an important moment for LongHouse as it continues to evolve from a founder-led vision into a growing public institution. Funds raised through Beautopia support the stewardship of the gardens, preservation of the sculpture collection, educational programming, and ongoing efforts to eventually welcome visitors inside Jack Lenor Larsen’s modernist home, inspired by the Shinto Shrine at Ise.
With more than 60 outdoor works and a landscape that changes with the seasons, LongHouse remains one of the East End’s most distinctive cultural spaces: a place where art is not simply viewed, but experienced in conversation with nature.
