East Hampton - On Friday, July 31, LongHouse Reserve presented a conversation with two remarkable women - revolutionary, world-renowned performance artist, Laurie Anderson and scholar, author and curator, Alexandra Munroe. Their paths crossed again this year, when Anderson's sound sculpture was featured by Munroe in the Guggenheim's groundbreaking exhibition, "The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989." Munroe is currently a curator of Asian art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Laurie Anderson with Dianne Benson.

About Alexandra Munroe
Munroe's exhibition "Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky," was the first interpretive survey of postwar Japanese art ever presented in Japan or the United States. Organized by the Yokohama Museum of Art where Munroe was the first foreign curator hired by a Japanese museum, the U.S. tour was co-organized by the Guggenheim, SFMA, and the Japan Foundation. Munroe also curated "Yes Yoko Ono," which won First Prize for the Best Museum Show originating in NYC by the International Association of Art Critics and drew one million visitors during its 13-city international tour. Munroe served as Director of the Japan Society from 1998-2005 and is currently senior curator for Asian Art at the Guggenheim. Her PhD is from NYU where she is a trustee for its Institute of Fine Arts. Munroe is also a trustee of LongHouse Reserve.

About Laurie Anderson
Anderson is a performer, composer, photographer, filmmaker, instrumentalist, vocalist, and poet. Far more than the media she employs, her creations tantalize, provoke, inspire, and trigger contemplation. Launching her career and taking her to the top of the British pop charts with "Oh Superman" in 1980, she has exhibited at the Musee d'Art Contemporian in Lyon, France; was part of the team creating the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympics in Athens; was awarded the 2007 Lillian Gish Prize for her "outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life;" was the first Artist-in-Residence for NASA (inspiring the release of Homeland 2008), and, by merging art forms at an unprecedented level, is recognized as one of the world's premier 21st century artists. Author of six books, Anderson received her BA from Barnard and MFA in sculpture from Columbia University.

Vincent Covello and Jack Lenor Larsen

About LongHouse Reserve
Through its gallery, arboretum, sculpture gardens and programs, LongHouse Reserve brings together art and nature, aesthetics and spirit, with a strong conviction that the arts are central to living wholly and creatively. LongHouse Reserve is a not-for-profit museum that encompasses nearly 16 beautiful acres in East Hampton. Each year the LongHouse Reserve presents major exhibitions in both the pavilion and the gardens. Currently, there are more than 60 sculptures for the gardens including works of glass by Dale Chihuly, ceramics by Takaezu, and bronzes by Barcelo, Voulkos, Benglis and de Kooning. Works by Ossorio, Claus Bury, Yoko Ono, Opocensky, and Takashi Soga are also on view, while the installation of a "Fly's Eye Dome" designed by Buckminster Fuller and a site-specific Sol Lewitt add interesting scale and dimension.