Barnaby Evans

WaterFire, the highly successful international community arts event, has set its sights on Riverhead for its next location – and you can meet its creator this weekend at Stony Brook’s Southampton campus.

WaterFire creator Barnaby Evans gathered supporters at the Suffolk Theater Monday evening to outline his vision and the next steps for WaterFire on the Peconic.

Riverhead Town Board members are enthusiastic about bringing WaterFire, the multisensory public art installation by Rhode Island artist Barnaby Evans, to the Peconic Riverfront and gave CDA director Chris Kempner the green light to pursue a Bloomberg Foundation grant to kickstart the project.

With the creator of the international arts festival WaterFire expressing interest in Riverhead as a new venue, RiverheadLOCAL looks at the impacts the festival has had on a small town in western Pennsylvania still struggling to recover from the collapse of the steel industry more than 20 years ago.

The creator of the Providence, Rhode Island event that Riverhead was trying to mimic noticed — and wants to bring Waterfire to downtown Riverhead himself.