THE HAMMOND

AND JAPANESE STROLL GARDEN

BY John Fisher

The Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden fulfill the vision of founder Natalie Hammond, who reimagined her estate at 28 Deveau Road in North Salem “to become a place of natural beauty and tranquility, meant to delight the senses and refresh the spirit.”

She was the daughter of the world-traveling industrialist, diplomat, engineer and philanthropist John Hays Hammond. She began visiting Japan in the 1920s, where she was inspired by Eastern art and culture and became dedicated to melding them with Western sensibilities. In 1949, she wrote Anthology of Pattern. She was a versatile artist who painted, designed stage sets for Broadway, created costumes and other textiles, was a miniaturist, and worked in needlepoint. She collaborated with the dancer Martha Graham on the presentation of several highly successful medieval plays. In 1957 she designed and built the Hammond Museum, and in 1961 she designed and opened the Japanese Stroll Garden. As a widely-respected center of art & culture, with a mission of fostering Asian-American understanding, the Hammond is partially supported by grants from a number of organizations including the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, Arts Westchester, the Westchester Industrial Development Agency, and the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; but the Hammond depends on support from its members and from the community for continued strength.

Celebrating the Garden’s 60th anniversary, the Hammond re-opened in the Spring following a year-and-a-half of being closed because of covid. Executive Director Elizabeth Hammer, Boardof-Trustees President Marleen Kassel, and staff, welcomed some 300 members and friends for a re-opening day fete that featured a tour of the main gallery exhibit of artists inspired by East Asian brush painting, a guided tour of the Japanese stroll garden, a Tai Chi and Qigong demonstration, Tea Ceremony demonstrations, a Shogetsu School of Ikebana cut-flower arranging demonstration, and classic stories for young children next to the Bamboo Grove.

In it’s new dawn, the Hammond intends to continue on its original mission of fostering East-West crosscultural understanding. Among several new initiatives is an expanded focus on and support of female artists, which Natalie Hammond would have enthusiastically endorsed. To accomplish these various objectives, Executive Director Hammer envisions an ambitious array of programming and projects, including actively utilizing the museum’s galleries for live and online exhibitions, lectures, tours and classes, and also new archives, information and functions on the Hammond website. There’s even a new and exciting section of the website where Hammond members can exhibit their own work.

Hammond Curator and Trustee, Bibiana Huang Matheis, herself an accomplished artist and photographer, explained some of the museum’s current offerings: “In the entrance gallery we currently have Sarah Haviland’s Becoming a Bird, a stunning series of sculptures of birds, some depicted realistically and others in an anthropomorphic form, skillfully crafted from metal wires…and sure to delight adults and children alike. We also just installed two exhibits inspired by the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. One exhibit features the work of Carla Rae Johnson, Marcy B.Freedman and Mary McFerran, who collectively form the artist cooperative “In Question”. In the main gallery we have an exhibition titled Voices: I Remember, presenting paintings and mixed-media art objects by Eleni Smolen, George-Ann Gowan, Jill Parry, Kiyoko Sakai, Mimi Czajka Graminski, Tanya Kukucka, Tilly Strauss and Wennie Huang. And another exhibit, by Ceci Cole McInturff, titled Places of Offering, consists of a collection of episodic outdoor installations of organic ephemera set in various locations throughout the Stroll Garden and meant to interact with their natural settings.” The Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden are open May through November, Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 4:00 p.m., and the Museum holds a monthly series of Twilight Hours for adults and families with children. A complete schedule of coming events and lectures, as well as information about memberships, member benefits is available on the Hammond website. The Hammond offers guided tours of the museum and the gardens and extended hours by special arrangement, and the facility can also be booked for private parties and corporate events. Visitors are always welcome to roam the galleries on their own and can feel free to explore the Stroll Garden or just sit and enjoy the tranquil surroundings - even with a picnic lunch.