THE HENRY L. FERGUSON MUSEUM

SPECIAL EXHIBIT 2025

CURATED BY HLFM DIRECTOR PIERCE RAFFERTY

Passages, a sculpture by Harriet Brickman, was built on South Beach, Fishers Island in the summer of 1980. Initially there were 18 fragments of a female figure; 15 made on site of beach sand, seawater and cement, and 3 boulders found and brought to the site. The 18 pieces stretched along 120’ at the high water mark, all designed to change over time.

The work addresses the passage from studio to landscape, the passage between water and land, and now, the passage of time.

Over the years, the pieces have shifted, been buried, broken, revealed and eroded. Each seasonal iteration offers a new perspective of shape and an evolving experience of place.

PASSAGES/ CONTRIBUTORS

Public Art Fund
Fishers Island Ferry Commission
Connecticut College
The Henry Luce Foundation
Jenny Dixon
Valerie Evans
William Button
Kitty Goff
Ed Horning
Anne Huibregtse
Colleen Burus
Peter Button
Susan Dague
John Doubleday
Rosalyn Driscoll
Ellen Young
Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Ahman
Joan Cox
Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll
John Gada
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Nitze
Mrs. Thomas Russell
Thomas Raredon
and those members of the Fishers Island Community who watched, shoveled, hauled, queried, commented and celebrated as Passages was constructed

PASSAGES/ PHOTOGRAPHERS
Harriet Brickman
Jeffrey Coolidge
Rosalyn Driscoll
Anne Huibregtse
John McCall
Thomas Raredon
Sarah Russell
Donna Svennevik
Alton Wasson
Ellen Young

Special exhibition sponsored by ALTUS Partners

Artist Harriet Brickman sat down with Jenny Dixon, former Director of the Noguchi Museum, August 22, 2025, to revisit Passages: Beach Forms, a site-specific public artwork Brickman created on South Beach, Fishers Island, in 1980. Their conversation explores the work’s origins, its connection to place, and its resonance more than four decades later. This talk was co-hosted by HLFM director Pierce Rafferty and Nate Malinowski, executive director of Lighthouse Works.