SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. The Parrish Art Museum invites viewers to take a glimpse into the future of the Museum with the exhibition "People, Places and Things" opening on April 2 at 6pm with a reception and special talk by Alicia Longwell, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator, Art and Education.

The exhibition, "People, Places and Things," running in conjunction with the installation "Michael Combs: The Trophy Room," focuses on The Parrish Art Museum of the future with galleries dedicated to displaying works from its almost 2,300 objects of 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century art. Included in the Museum’s holdings is the largest collection of William Merritt Chase works belonging to a public museum in the United States and 230+ works by Fairfield Porter, a leading 20th-century realist painter. Both of these esteemed artists were vital to the development of American Art and lived and painted in Southampton, New York.

"People, Places and Things" gives the pubic the opportunity to view some of the Museum’s treasures in a presentation of three themes, “The Portrait,” “A Sense of Place,” and “Looking at the Everyday,” that will be exhibited concurrently. “The Portrait” will consider some of the many ways in which artists approach their subjects and what this tells us about the artist as well as the person depicted, from William Sidney Mount’s serene portrait of one of Long Island’s early residents, "Mrs. Manice" (1833), to Dawoud Bey’s astoundingly close-up and revealing 4-part Polaroid of Southampton High School student "Anthony" (1999). “A Sense of Place” will reflect on the choices that artists make in describing landscape and how these choices affect the viewer, from William Merritt Chase’s famed scene in the Shinnecock Hills, "The Bayberry Bush" (c.1895), to Robert Dash’s lyrical study "The Water Meadow" (1982). “Looking at the Everyday” will explore the nature of observation, from Fairfield Porter’s straightforward yet affecting "Chair" (1949) to Roy Lichtenstein’s vibrant "Apple with Brushstrokes" (1984). The exhibition will run through May 15, 2005.

This exhibition will also continue to provide a unique educational resource for local schools. The Parrish Art Museum has enjoyed a long-standing collaboration with Southampton Public Schools and Tuckahoe Common School District and an initiative this year recognizes this ongoing partnership. Teachers from the Southampton Elementary and Intermediate Schools are working with Parrish Art Museum educators and curators to develop connections to the core curriculum using works on view in "People, Places and Things" as a resource for teaching and inspiration for their students. This project also provides a new and innovative way for the Museum to be directly involved with schools in developing exhibition-related materials.

This exhibition and "Michael Combs: The Trophy" Room are made possible, in part, by Dorothy Lichtenstein, George P. Mills and Donald A. Burns.