Jun 10 3:00 pm

A new sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion com­mis­sioned by More Art in part­ner­ship with the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project and Gov­er­nors Island Arts

On View: July 30 – Novem­ber 30, 2026 • West­ern Prom­e­nade, Gov­er­nors Island, New York 

More Art is thrilled to announce the open­ing of The Oys­ter, a mon­u­men­tal out­door sculp­tur­al com­mis­sion by inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized Mohawk artist Alan Michel­son (Six Nations of the Grand Riv­er). The work will be on view on Gov­er­nors Island from July 30 through Novem­ber 30, 2026. 

Pre­sent­ed as part of More Art’s 2026 ini­tia­tive Refram­ing 1776: Land, Water, and the Work of Repair, The Oys­ter responds to the nation’s 250^th anniver­sary through Indige­nous per­spec­tives and envi­ron­men­tal his­to­ries. Devel­oped in part­ner­ship with Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, and co-pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the instal­la­tion ref­er­ences pre-colo­nial Lenape oys­ter mid­dens — vast accu­mu­la­tions of shells reflect­ing long his­to­ries of habi­ta­tion, stew­ard­ship, and rec­i­p­ro­cal rela­tion­ship in the region. 

Part land­form, part amphithe­ater, The Oys­ter invites vis­i­tors to gath­er with­in and around the work and to reflect on the inter­wo­ven his­to­ries of extrac­tion, trade, nour­ish­ment, dis­place­ment, and envi­ron­men­tal change embed­ded in the har­bor itself. The piece recalls Indige­nous geo­glyphs and shaped shell mid­dens, while its con­struc­tion draws direct­ly on the log­ic of reef build­ing, in par­tic­u­lar the gabion and recy­cled-shell struc­tures employed by Bil­lion Oys­ter Project. 

Encir­cling the sculp­ture, a large-scale text instal­la­tion paint­ed in pur­ple and white gath­ers reflec­tions on oys­ters drawn from lit­er­a­ture, his­to­ry, ecol­o­gy, and pop­u­lar cul­ture. The text also incor­po­rates con­tri­bu­tions from stu­dents at New York Har­bor School and mem­bers of the Gov­er­nors Island com­mu­ni­ty, while the paint­ed text’s palette ref­er­ences wampum — shell beads his­tor­i­cal­ly used by Lenape and oth­er East­ern Wood­lands nations in sacred cul­tur­al exchanges. 

Fol­low­ing the pro­jec­t’s close, ele­ments of the sculp­ture will be returned to New York Har­bor as part of local reef restora­tion efforts, extend­ing the life of the art­work as liv­ing marine infra­struc­ture. The Oys­ter asks us to engage with the par­al­lel era­sures of Indige­nous life­ways and oys­ter ecolo­gies in the har­bor, while point­ing toward the pos­si­bil­i­ty of restora­tion and renewal. 

About the Artist 

Alan Michel­son is a cel­e­brat­ed New York-based Mohawk artist, cura­tor, writer, and mem­ber of Six Nations of the Grand Riv­er. For more than three decades, he has cre­at­ed site-respon­sive works in sculp­ture, video, instal­la­tion, and pub­lic art that engage place, mem­o­ry, and sup­pressed his­to­ries through both Indige­nous and West­ern cul­tur­al forms. 

The Knowl­edge Keep­ers, his acclaimed major pub­lic com­mis­sion, stands at the Hunt­ing­ton Avenue entrance of the Muse­um of Fine Arts, Boston. Oth­er cur­rent projects include Hanödaga:yas (Town Destroy­er): Reflect at the new Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Art Muse­um. Major pub­lic works include Man­tle (2018), a per­ma­nent mon­u­ment hon­or­ing Vir­gini­a’s Native nations locat­ed on the grounds of the Thomas Jef­fer­son-designed Vir­ginia State Capi­tol in Richmond. 

His writ­ings have appeared in Aper­ture, Frieze, and Octo­ber, and his work was recent­ly fea­tured on Art21. His work is held in the col­lec­tions of the Whit­ney Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art, the Smith­son­ian Amer­i­can Art Muse­um, and the Nation­al Gallery of Cana­da, among oth­ers. Michel­son is co-founder and co-cura­tor of Indige­nous New York, the influ­en­tial series orga­nized with the Vera List Cen­ter for Art and Politics. 

Land Acknowl­edge­ment

We acknowl­edge that The Oys­ter is sit­u­at­ed on Pag­gank (“Nut Island”), now known as Gov­er­nors Island, with­in Lenape­hok­ing, the ances­tral home­land of the Lenape peo­ple, whose con­nec­tions to the waters of New York Har­bor extend deep into the past. 

Oys­ters and their shells were an impor­tant part of Lenape cul­ture, and the shell mid­dens once found through­out the area attest to gen­er­a­tions of Indige­nous pres­ence and rela­tion­ships with these waters. Formed through the accu­mu­la­tion of shells over time, these mid­dens embod­ied long­stand­ing rela­tion­ships between Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties and the liv­ing abun­dance of the har­bor — rela­tion­ships pro­found­ly dis­rupt­ed by colonization. 

By return­ing atten­tion to the oys­ter as both eco­log­i­cal engi­neer and cul­tur­al anchor, The Oys­ter invites reflec­tion on his­to­ries embed­ded in the har­bor land­scape and on the Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties whose con­nec­tions to these waters con­tin­ue today. 

Jun 2 10:14 am

Per­formed out­doors for the first time, my tongue is a blade is a dura­tional move­ment work in and around a spin­ning mir­rored struc­ture, ques­tion­ing the lim­its of atten­tion and test­ing the strength of our bonds

Pre­sent­ed as part of Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series and co-pre­sent­ed by LMC­C’s Riv­er to Riv­er Festival

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, presents sweat vari­ant​’s my tongue is a blade June 19 & 20 at Colonels Row, Gov­er­nors Island. sweat vari­ant, the col­lab­o­ra­tion between Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born, asks in this three-hour move­ment per­for­mance-prac­tice: How do we hold and trans­mit mem­o­ry through a series of ongo­ing and inti­mate embod­ied entan­gle­ments? How do we design an ongo­ing web of psy­chic and phys­i­cal connection?

Sup­port­ed by a dynam­ic son­ic score designed by Peter Born, my tongue is a blade sees five per­form­ers (Okwui Okpok­wasili, Bria Bacon, Kris Lee, AJ Wilmore, and Ny Opong) com­mit to remem­ber­ing one anoth­er, hold­ing one anoth­er, bear­ing one anoth­er, and sus­tain­ing the world that con­tains them. One per­former shapes a dis­tinct phys­i­cal lan­guage and then is joined by anoth­er with whom they share it. Inhab­it­ing this move­ment, they dance as one — until the first departs, and the one who remains moves on, haunt­ed by their absence. A new part­ner joins, and the trans­mis­sion continues.

A spin­ning mir­rored struc­ture (pro­duc­tion design by Peter Born) serves as the cen­ter­piece of this work and blurs the thresh­old between the observ­er and the observed. With this reflec­tive frame­work, my tongue is a blade folds the out­side world inward (for the first time ever now in out­door space, cre­at­ing a spin­ning reflec­tion of Colonels Row) and projects the inte­ri­or prac­tice out­ward, invit­ing the audi­ence to wit­ness this shared prac­tice and to res­onate with­in it.

Say the artists, ​“When we built this inside, pre­vi­ous­ly, in a church, inte­ri­or court­yard hall and an opera house, it felt like cre­at­ing a room with­in a room. Now, we are curi­ous to see if doing it out­doors will allow us to cre­ate an ​‘out­side with­in the out­side’ through the structure’s mir­rored reflections.”

A foun­da­tion­al con­cept of the work’s sound­scape is the idea of acoustic con­flu­ence: the jux­ta­po­si­tion of dis­tinct yet sub­tle vari­a­tions of sound which con­verge at mutu­al points of con­tact. my tongue is a blade removes the rhyth­mic pre­dictabil­i­ty of the down­beat in con­ven­tion­al song­writ­ing to allow per­form­ers to trav­el with­in a land­scape of their phys­i­cal imagination. 

my tongue is a blade is part of this year’s INTER­VEN­TIONS series, Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary per­for­mance series curat­ed by Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. INTER­VEN­TIONS presents local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al artists and invites audi­ences to expe­ri­ence work made and adapt­ed for the imme­di­ate envi­ron­ment. The per­for­mance is co-pre­sent­ed as part of LMCC’s 25^th Riv­er to Riv­er Fes­ti­val, a sum­mer pub­lic arts fes­ti­val cel­e­brat­ing artis­tic and cre­ative diver­si­ty, and pre­sent­ing live art and instal­la­tion in pub­lic spaces and in part­ner­ship with lead­ing insti­tu­tions in Low­er Manhattan.

my tongue is a blade​’s dra­maturg is Kather­ine Pro­fe­ta.

About sweat vari­ant

sweat vari­ant is the col­lab­o­ra­tive prac­tice of Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born. Since 1996, they have been work­ing at the inter­sec­tion of dance, the­ater, and visu­al art to make chal­leng­ing and rig­or­ous work that reaf­firms that which has been deemed mar­gin­al as the true cen­ter through the explo­ration of Black inte­ri­or­i­ty. Okpok­wasili and Born are inter­est­ed in build­ing a spec­ta­cle of rad­i­cal inti­ma­cy, in which both per­form­ers and audi­ence are acknowl­edged as being locked in a mutu­al gaze. They hope to acti­vate a space that allows the audi­ence to ques­tion who they are look­ing at, and how they are look­ing. Okpok­wasili and Born have cre­at­ed the Bessie Award-win­n­ing pent up: a revenge dance and Bronx Goth­ic. The lat­ter con­tin­ues to tour inter­na­tion­al­ly, most recent­ly to the 2024 Milan Tri­en­nale. Oth­er per­for­mances include let slip, hold sway, adaku, part 1: the road opens, Adaku’s Revolt, swal­low the moon, Sit­ting on a Man’s Head, and poor people’s TV room, which also toured the US. Their work has been fea­tured inter­na­tion­al­ly, includ­ing at the Berlin Bien­nale, the Young Vic, and the Tate. Recent works include instal­la­tions in the exhi­bi­tions Grief and Griev­ance, Art and Mourn­ing in Amer­i­ca at the New Muse­um (NYC), Witch­hunt at the Ham­mer Muse­um in Los Ange­les, and Sex Ecolo­gies at Kun­sthall Trond­heim in Nor­way. poor people’s TV room (solo) instal­la­tion is in the Ham­mer Muse­um and Whit­ney Muse­um collections.

About Okwui Okpokwasili

Okwui Okpok­wasili (she/​her) is a Brook­­lyn-based per­former, actor, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, and writer. Okpok­wasili has earned numer­ous acco­lades, includ­ing a 2025 Art Award from the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Arts and Let­ters, 2018 Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Hod­der Fel­low­ship, a 2018 Herb Alpert Award, a 2018 Doris Duke Artist Award, and a 2018 MacArthur Fel­low­ship. Okpok­wasili was the 2015 – 2017 Randjelovic/​Stryker New York Live Arts Res­i­dent Com­mis­sioned Artist. She was the inau­gur­al artist for the Kravis Stu­dio Res­i­den­cy pro­gram at MoMA in 2022, and an artist in res­i­dence at the Brown Arts Insti­tute in 2023. She con­tin­ues to col­lab­o­rate with Ralph Lemon, Kevin Beasley, Saidiya Hart­man, and Kaneza Schaal, among oth­er artists.

About Peter Born

Peter Born (he/​him) works as a direc­tor, com­pos­er, and design­er of per­for­mance and instal­la­tion. In col­lab­o­ra­tion with Okpok­wasili, Born’s work has been fea­tured in the Berlin Bien­nale, Grief and Griev­ance: Art and Mourn­ing in Amer­i­ca at the New Muse­um, Witch Hunt at the Ham­mer Muse­um, Loop­hole of Retreat: Venice, and Sex Ecolo­gies at Kun­sthall Trond­heim, as well as per­for­mance work at The Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, New York; the Whit­ney Muse­um; MASS MoCA; the Irish Muse­um of Mod­ern Art; and ICA Boston; among oth­ers. He is the recip­i­ent of four New York Dance Per­for­mance Awards (Bessie Awards). His work as an art direc­tor and prop styl­ist has been fea­tured in video and pho­to projects with Vogue, Estee Laud­er, Barney’s Co-op, Bloom­ing­dales, Old Navy, 25 Mag­a­zine, The Wall Street Jour­nal, and No Strings Pup­pet Productions. 

Cred­its

my tongue is a blade was orig­i­nal­ly com­mis­sioned by the Irish Muse­um of Mod­ern Art as part of Take a Breath, with sup­port from the Sam Gilliam Foun­da­tion. Sup­port for sweat vari­ant is pro­vid­ed in part by the Mel­lon and Howard Gilman Foun­da­tions, as well as by the New Eng­land Foun­da­tion for the Arts’ Nation­al Dance Project with fund­ing from the Doris Duke Foundation.

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram with sup­port from Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Anony­mous, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, Sur­go Foun­da­tion US, the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts (NYSCA) with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Leg­is­la­ture, Rip­ple Foun­da­tion, Great Hill, and the Howard Gilman Foundation.

Sup­port for INTER­VEN­TIONS is pro­vid­ed by the NYC May­or’s Office of Media & Entertainment.

About Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the con­text of the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts achieves this mis­sion through tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art instal­la­tions and exhi­bi­tions, an annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es, and the curat­ed mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series. Learn more at www​.gov​is​land​.org/arts.

May 20 12:40 pm

Inspired by the Island’s ver­dant nat­ur­al spaces the mur­al depicts the migra­tion of birds along­side the tran­si­tions between the Island’s inhab­i­tants — from the Indige­nous Lenape peo­ple to ear­ly set­tlers to mil­i­tary per­son­nel — as the fer­ry in turn moves pas­sen­gers to and from the Island

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, debuts mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artist Anna Valdez​’s vibrant, sym­bol­i­cal­ly intri­cate Spring Migra­tion, the first mur­al com­mis­sioned specif­i­cal­ly for a Gov­er­nors Island Fer­ry. Spring Migra­tion cov­ers an inte­ri­or wall of the Har­bor Charg­er, itself a major mile­stone as New York’s first pub­lic hybrid elec­tric ferry. 

The mur­al explores the sea­son­al rhythms and tran­sient his­to­ries of Gov­er­nors Island. From the Indige­nous Lenape peo­ple who uti­lized the land sea­son­al­ly to the ear­ly set­tlers and gen­er­a­tions of mil­i­tary per­son­nel sta­tioned here, the Island has been an ongo­ing site of tran­si­tion. Like the birds that vis­it each spring, these inhab­i­tants have played vital roles in the Island’s his­to­ry and lega­cy before mov­ing on. 

Valdez employs illus­tra­tions of birds includ­ing the non-migra­to­ry Pere­grine Fal­con and the migra­to­ry Bal­ti­more Ori­ole, Orchard Ori­ole, and Mag­no­lia War­bler, cho­sen for their beau­ty, endurance, and envi­ron­men­tal impacts. The Pere­grine Fal­con stands as a sym­bol­ic guardian of this ecosys­tem. Once near­ly extinct in the state of New York, its re-arrival feels, says Valdez, ​“like a mir­ror of the Island’s own rebirth, from a restrict­ed mil­i­tary base to a thriv­ing green space used by vis­i­tors as a place of respite as well as a cul­tur­al hub.”

The birds are set against dig­i­tal­ly manip­u­lat­ed pho­tographs of Gov­er­nors Island’s land­scapes and botan­i­cal details, invit­ing view­ers across New York Har­bor to prac­tice the act of look­ing close­ly, beck­on­ing them to find the extra­or­di­nary details with­in ephemer­al space. As Valdez describes, she used ​“both macro and micro ele­ments in the piece to cap­ture a viewer’s atten­tion both near or far. View­ers close to the piece should feel the lush abstrac­tion found with­in the vari­ety of greens and yel­lows pulling in the Island’s botany. Each bird is sized for max­i­mum impact” — with one wing span­ning more than 20 feet long.

Says Valdez, ​“While the Island holds dense lay­ers of human his­to­ry, its accen­tu­a­tion of nature has been a con­stant anchor. Cre­at­ing this mur­al began as most of my works typ­i­cal­ly do. I began by pulling from my ref­er­ence draw­ings, pho­tographs, his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments, and found objects into a for­mat that com­mu­ni­cates an abstract tem­po­ral­i­ty. I also decid­ed to lean into the role of a fer­ry as a lim­i­nal space bridg­ing land, sea, and sky. I see my art­work trans­form­ing the ves­sel into a float­ing island, open­ing a por­tal to the des­ti­na­tion before the pas­sen­ger arrives. Ulti­mate­ly, Spring Migra­tion func­tions as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the social, artis­tic, geo­graph­ic nar­ra­tives to be found on the Island.”

Gov­er­nors Island Arts has con­sis­tent­ly pro­grammed trans­for­ma­tive pub­lic art­works that direct­ly engage with the Har­bor and water­front, and Spring Migra­tion now expands the Island’s artis­tic reach beyond its shores, bring­ing a thought­ful, eye-open­ing con­sid­er­a­tion of migra­tion to the jour­ney that con­nects peo­ple to it. Spring Migra­tion is a rich cen­ter­piece state­ment in a sea­son of work that med­i­tates on the theme of move­ment, explor­ing the Island as a site of arrival, depar­ture, and con­tin­u­al transformation. 

Spring Migra­tion will be on view on the Har­bor Charg­er through 2027, and joins the Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ diverse ecosys­tem of pub­lic art on dis­play through­out the Island’s open space that includes works by Sheila Berg­er, Chaka­ia Book­er, Mark Dion, Mark Hand­forth, Shantell Mar­tin, Duke Riley, Sam Van Aken, and Rachel Whiteread.

About Anna Valdez

Anna Valdez is a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary artist who exam­ines the rela­tion­ship between objects, cul­tur­al for­ma­tion, and col­lec­tive con­scious­ness. Cre­at­ing an epic tableaux in her stu­dio, Valdez moves seam­less­ly between still life and land­scape paint­ing as she col­lects objects and makes new ones — throw­ing, fir­ing, and glaz­ing new ceram­ic ves­sels inspired by ideas for paint­ings, new plants or taxi­dermy, recent trips, or works in progress. Tog­gling between col­lec­tion, cre­ation, obser­va­tion, and fic­tion­al­iza­tion, Valdez works with sat­u­rat­ed hues and sur­pris­ing scale shifts to com­mu­ni­cate an abstract tem­po­ral­i­ty. Lay­er­ing the per­son­al with the his­tor­i­cal in dense com­po­si­tions that col­lapse fore­ground and back­ground, Valdez’s com­po­si­tions resem­ble immer­sive installations.

Valdez (b. 1985, Cal­i­for­nia, Unit­ed States) received her BA in Anthro­pol­o­gy and Art from Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Davis in 2009 and her MFA in paint­ing from Boston Uni­ver­si­ty in 2013. Her work has been exhib­it­ed nation­al­ly at venues includ­ing Crys­tal Bridges Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art in Ben­tonville, AR; North Car­oli­na Muse­um of Art in Raleigh, the Con­tem­po­rary Art Muse­um in Raleigh, and Asheville Art Muse­um, in Asheville, NC; New Britain Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art in New Britain, CT; Hashimo­to Con­tem­po­rary in San Fran­cis­co, CA and New York City, NY; David B. Smith Gallery in Den­ver, CO; and OCHI in Sun Val­ley, ID and Los Ange­les, CA. Valdez’s work has been fea­tured in pub­li­ca­tions includ­ing The New York Times, Jux­tapoz Mag­a­zine, New Amer­i­can Paint­ings, Art­sy, and Artillery Mag­a­zine. Her work is includ­ed in var­i­ous pri­vate and pub­lic col­lec­tions includ­ing the New Britain Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art in New Britain, Con­necti­cut, The Colum­bus Muse­um in Colum­bus, Geor­gia, Amer­i­can Muse­um of Ceram­ic Arts in Pomona, CA, Xiao Muse­um in Chi­na, the Phyl­lis & Ross Escalette Per­ma­nent Col­lec­tion of Art at Chap­man Uni­ver­si­ty in Orange, CA, the Microsoft Art Col­lec­tion in Seat­tle, WA, and Aritzia in Toron­to, Cana­da. Valdez cur­rent­ly lives and works in Los Ange­les, CA and Sacra­men­to, CA.

Web­site: https://​www​.annavaldez​.com/

Insta­gram: @missannavaldez

Fund­ing Credits

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram with sup­port from Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Anony­mous, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, Sur­go Foun­da­tion US, the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts (NYSCA) with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Leg­is­la­ture, Rip­ple Foun­da­tion, Great Hill, and the Howard Gilman Foundation.

About Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the con­text of the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts achieves this mis­sion through tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art instal­la­tions and exhi­bi­tions, an annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es, and the curat­ed mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series. Learn more at www​.gov​is​land​.org/arts.

May 14 10:17 am

A cel­e­bra­tion struc­tured around the ethos of the Per­sian Gar­den, with music, per­for­mance, sto­ry­telling, food, and bev­er­age unfold­ing across three ​“pools”, Damask Rose offers a method­ol­o­gy of care in a time of grief

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, presents Damask Rose: A Gath­er­ing, a spring cel­e­bra­tion cre­at­ed by artist Bahar Behba­hani, May 16 from 1 – 5pm in Liggett Ter­race on Gov­er­nors Island. Inspired by the tra­di­tions of Per­sian Gar­den, the work cen­ters Damask Rose, an immi­grant flo­ra from the East, and hon­ors migra­tion and hos­pi­tal­i­ty. Guid­ed by con­cep­tu­al ideas of shade, wind, immi­grant flo­ra, and dias­poric eco­log­i­cal and ances­tral knowl­edge, this gath­er­ing brings togeth­er non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, food and drink sto­ry­tellers, herbal­ists, tea prac­ti­tion­ers, musi­cians, and many oth­er like-mind­ed com­mu­ni­ties and part­ners to share a moment of joy and resilience.

Damask Rose entwines two of Behbahani’s long-ges­tat­ing cre­ative and per­son­al desires. The artist whose research-based prac­tice approach­es land­scape as a metaphor for pol­i­tics and poet­ics had long want­ed to build a Per­sian gar­den in New York as a recla­ma­tion from West­ern roman­ti­ciza­tion — empha­siz­ing the tradition’s intri­cate engi­neer­ing, hor­ti­cul­tur­al wis­dom, and spir­i­tu­al foun­da­tions. As an immi­grant who came to the coun­try know­ing no one over two decades ago, Behba­hani has like­wise aspired to throw a giant par­ty to bring togeth­er the com­mu­ni­ties that have since become her own. When Gov­er­nors Island Arts engaged her for its annu­al INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series, she saw an oppor­tu­ni­ty to sym­bol­i­cal­ly unite these two ideas. 

She says, ​“I thought my voice itself is not enough: I’ve always want­ed to invite peo­ple whose work I admire into my home, to cook, read, play, and talk togeth­er, the way we do back home. But here, no one seems to have the time to live that way. This project felt like the time I could use to invite oth­er orga­ni­za­tions and oth­er voic­es to cook this with me and bring their own knowl­edge hold­er com­mu­ni­ties and radi­ant ideas. I real­ly get ener­gy from all these part­ners who got excit­ed and brought their com­mu­ni­ties into it and went so far beyond the pro­vi­sion of resources. We put hours and hours of work into it; even a tem­po­rary gath­er­ing can have a last­ing impact.” 

On the repur­posed for­mer mil­i­tary post-turned lush site of art and exchange, she sim­i­lar­ly cre­ates a site of cel­e­bra­tion and wel­come against a back­drop of war and mil­i­ta­rized immi­gra­tion enforce­ment. Reflect­ing the phi­los­o­phy of inter­con­nect­ed pools in Per­sian Gar­dens, Behba­hani cre­ates three stages that will be simul­ta­ne­ous­ly and con­sis­tent­ly acti­vat­ed through­out the four-hour event. 

Loose­ly, one ​“pool” will cen­ter music and bev­er­age: with an Afropol­ka col­lab­o­ra­tion bring­ing togeth­er Cameroon­ian singer Kaïs­sa Doum­bè, Gambian/​Senegalese kora play­er Malang Jobarteh, and Pol­ish drum­mer Maciek Schejbal (1 – 2pm); Move­ment & Flower Mus­es, god­dess mak­ing using Japan­ese paper and paint from matcha, turmer­ic, and hibis­cus, with Kaoru Shimizu and Milād (1 – 2pm); an audi­to­ry expe­ri­ence from SAG Radio/Sasan Osk­ouei high­light­ing mix­es from Iran­ian and South West Asian and North African (SWANA) artists (2 – 3pm); The For­bid­den Spir­it, an event from SAG NYC sur­round­ing Aragh Sagi, the raisin-based dis­tilled spir­it from Iran, long banned but still present in under­ground cul­ture (3 – 4pm); and music from Imal Gnawa, the ensem­ble com­bin­ing the deep spir­i­tu­al and rhyth­mic lega­cy of Moroc­can Gnawa music and bold futur­ism, and oth­ers asso­ci­at­ed with Barza­kh Café (4 – 5pm). 

The sec­ond ​“pool” will be a site of dis­cus­sion and reflec­tion, fea­tur­ing Talk­ing Peers: Tea as Ves­sel, a tea-shar­ing acti­va­tion from Asia Con­tem­po­rary Art Forum (ACAF) (1 – 2:15pm); Braid­ing Resis­tance, a hair-braid­ing and knit­ting event from New York Kur­dish Cul­tur­al Cen­ter with a read­ing by Kur­dish poet Sama Ali (1:45 – 2:30pm); and Hikay­at: Dreamweav­ing, an event from ArteEast bring­ing togeth­er artists and spe­cial guests for a col­lec­tive dis­cus­sion weav­ing togeth­er a tapes­try of his­to­ry, mem­o­ry, and sur­vival, root­ed in a sen­so­ry explo­ration through the ves­sel of the Damask Rose (2:30 – 4pm). 

Anoth­er ​“pool” will fea­ture engage­ments for kids and par­ents: The Recon­struc­tion of (WE): Botan­i­cal Cyan­otype, a work­shop high­light­ing the bio­di­ver­si­ty of trees on Gov­er­nors Island with Natalia Nakaza­wa (1 – 2:30pm); a weav­ing work­shop that con­sid­ers the imme­di­ate real­i­ties of dis­place­ment and what peo­ple car­ry with them when they’re uproot­ed, with Cyn­thia Alber­to (1 – 2:30pm); The Daugh­ter of Api, an inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence from Par­dis for Chil­dren engag­ing kids in a col­lec­tive rain-sum­mon­ing rit­u­al (2:30 – 4pm); and Eight-Trea­sure Tea Kids Cir­cle, an oppor­tu­ni­ty for kids to look, smell, touch, and taste the ingre­di­ents orig­i­nat­ed along the ancient Silk Road, from Tea Arts & Cul­ture (4 – 5pm).

Link­ing these areas are path­ways of green­ery that will be peri­od­i­cal­ly acti­vat­ed through­out the day, fea­tur­ing tea and curat­ed sweets from Eat Off­beat; also from Eat Off­beat, Samanak: A Rit­u­al of Sweet­ness and Strength with the Afghan women com­mu­ni­ty; offer­ings of raisins and grapes from Milād; Hafez with setar per­formed by Mani Nilchi­ani, along­side recita­tions by Sham­sy Behba­hani; From Seed to Sip, a plant­i­ng work­shop focus­ing on the ancient roots of Sekan­jabin in Per­sian cul­ture from Hor­tus Life & Jabin Bev­er­age Com­pa­ny (1 – 2:30pm); and, also from Hor­tus Life, a live flo­ral demon­stra­tion, invit­ing the com­mu­ni­ty to engage with the rose as both a cul­tur­al sym­bol and a liv­ing, sea­son­al pres­ence (3 – 4:30pm). Learn more and reserve free tick­ets online at www​.gov​is​land​.org.

The ​“pools” are out­lined by hand­wo­ven car­pets from across Iran, Moroc­co, and Afghanistan, with gen­er­ous sup­port of Ker­man­shah Rugs. Inter­spers­ing them Behba­hani has craft­ed shade-giv­ing struc­tures using cro­chet woven by her moth­er Sham­sy Behba­hani—along with Pooran Shams, Fazi­lat Hakimzadeh, Mehrnoush Jelveh, Iran­dokht Far­jad, Shahin Mazid-Aba­­di, and Abbas & Nikoo Afshar—over the last tumul­tuous months of protests, gov­ern­ment repres­sion, and the intense bom­bard­ment of the US-Israeli war on Iran. 

“I look at the event as if it’s the cro­chet my moth­er and her com­mu­ni­ty wove togeth­er,” says the artist. ​“How can I weave us togeth­er? I didn’t want a ​‘per­for­mance.’ I want­ed to feel like we’re going to my Uncle’s house and some­one knows how to play some­thing, and some­one sings, and some­one serves tea. In a moment of such heavy grief, I thought the par­ty could be one where we get togeth­er as a method of care and hospitality.”

The Damask Rose — a resis­tant flower from arid regions like mod­ern-day Syr­ia and Iran that has over cen­turies become a glob­al com­mod­i­ty as well as part of many cul­tures’ culi­nary tra­di­tions — emerges as a recur­ring sym­bol across the event’s many threads.

Damask Rose is part of this year’s INTER­VEN­TIONS series, Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary per­for­mance series curat­ed by Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. INTER­VEN­TIONS presents local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al artists and invites audi­ences to expe­ri­ence work made and adapt­ed for the imme­di­ate envi­ron­ment. The series will con­tin­ue June 19 & 20 with Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born​’s col­lab­o­ra­tive per­form­ing arts prac­tice Sweat Vari­ant bring­ing to Gov­er­nors Island its first-ever out­door iter­a­tion of my tongue is a blade, a three-hour-long dura­tional move­ment work in and around a spin­ning mir­rored struc­ture that asks: What are the lim­its of our atten­tion and how does that test the strength of our bonds? my tongue is a blade is co-pre­sent­ed with Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC) as part of their 2026 Riv­er to Riv­er Festival.

Damask Rose Pro­gram Partners

The event is a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort fea­tur­ing con­tri­bu­tions from pro­gram part­ners ArteEast, Asia Con­tem­po­rary Art Forum, Eat Off­beat, New York Kur­dish Cul­tur­al Cen­ter, Par­dis for Chil­dren, SAG NYC, Tea Arts & Cul­ture; sound part­ners Afropol­ka, Barza­kh Café, Sag Radio with per­form­ers Kaïs­sa Doum­bè, Maciek Schejbal, Malang Jobarteh, Imal Gnawa; weavers Cyn­thia Alber­to and Weav­ing Hand; hor­ti­cul­ture experts Half Hol­low Nurs­ery, Hor­tus Life. Pro­gram con­spir­a­tors: Maryam Ghor­eishi and Elaine Khuu. Botan­i­cal cyan­otype work­shop with artist Natalia Nakaza­wa. Move­ment and flower mus­es: Kaoru Shimizu and Milād. With the warmth of Ahmad Tea and Ker­man­shah Rug. Offi­cial hydra­tion part­ner: Jabin Bev­er­age Com­pa­ny. Dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ty part­ner: Nim­ruz. With sup­port from KODA and Mate­ri­als for the Arts. Damask Rose: A Gath­er­ing is made pos­si­ble through in-kind fab­ri­ca­tion sup­port through Pow­er­house Arts’ 2026 Artist Sub­sidy Pro­gram.

About Bahar Behbahani

Bahar Behba­hani is an artist and edu­ca­tor whose inter­dis­ci­pli­nary work explores mem­o­ry, era­sure, col­lab­o­ra­tion, adap­ta­bility, and the search for a sense of place. For over a decade, the Per­sian gar­den has served as a cen­tral metaphor in her prac­tice, bridg­ing per­son­al his­to­ry with wider his­to­ries of pow­er, cli­mate, and the futu­ri­ty of ances­tral knowl­edge. Her recent projects include a pub­lic com­mis­sion for the 2024 Cre­ative Time Sum­mit and par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Shar­jah Bien­ni­al 15, among oth­ers. She has received awards from Cre­ative Cap­i­tal, the Joan Mitchell Foun­da­tion, and the Pol­lock-Kras­n­er Foun­da­tion Grant. A trans­plant from the land of sun, she has adopt­ed New York as her home, where she teach­es at CUNY and cre­ates space for ques­tion­ing dom­i­nant nar­ra­tives through art and dialogue.

Fund­ing Credits

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram with sup­port from Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Anony­mous, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, Sur­go Foun­da­tion US, the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts (NYSCA) with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Leg­is­la­ture, Rip­ple Foun­da­tion, Great Hill, and the Howard Gilman Foundation.

Sup­port for INTER­VEN­TIONS is pro­vid­ed by NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

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About Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the con­text of the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts achieves this mis­sion through tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art instal­la­tions and exhi­bi­tions, an annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es, and the curat­ed mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series. Learn more at www​.gov​is​land​.org/arts.

May 13 10:14 am

Warm weath­er high­lights include open-air cul­tur­al and food fes­ti­vals, activ­i­ties hon­or­ing America250, and more

Addi­tion­al fer­ry ser­vice to Brook­lyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6 and Red Hook’s Atlantic Basin will be avail­able week­ends from May 23-Novem­ber 21

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today announced its sum­mer sea­son, show­cas­ing the extra­or­di­nary range of open space acti­va­tions, events, cul­tur­al offer­ings, and recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties that have made Gov­er­nors Island a beloved des­ti­na­tion for more than ten mil­lion indi­vid­u­als over the past two decades. This season’s line­up includes fes­ti­vals high­light­ing food, arts, and cul­ture; some of New York City’s most unique recre­ation­al and edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties; glob­al sport­ing events; and activ­i­ties hon­or­ing America’s 250^th anniver­sary — high­light­ing the Island as a grow­ing resource for New York City.

“Gov­er­nors Island has evolved from a hid­den gem into a vibrant, year-round des­ti­na­tion that reflects the spir­it and diver­si­ty of New York City,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We are proud to con­tin­ue to offer unpar­al­leled open space, thought-pro­vok­ing arts and cul­ture, some of the city’s best culi­nary offer­ings, and a dynam­ic com­mu­ni­ty of ten­ants and ameni­ties for our near­ly one mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors. We encour­age all New York­ers to hop on the fer­ry and expe­ri­ence every­thing the Island has to offer this year.”

OPEN SPACE, AMENITIES, AND ATTRACTIONS

The Island is open to the pub­lic dai­ly year-round, offer­ing vis­i­tors access to 120 acres of expan­sive open space just min­utes from Low­er Man­hat­tan and Brook­lyn. The Island’s 43-acre, award-win­ning park — rec­og­nized for its inno­v­a­tive, cli­mate-resilient design — fea­tures rolling lawns, vibrant land­scapes, and ample space for pic­nick­ing and out­door recre­ation. Ham­mock Grove’s rec­og­niz­able red ham­mocks com­ple­ment sev­er­al expand­ed path­ways nes­tled among a young urban for­est. This year marks the 10^th anniver­sary of the Hills; the South Island Park’s unique cli­mate-resilien­cy fea­ture for­ev­er trans­formed New York­ers’ rela­tion­ship with New York Har­bor. Ris­ing up to 70 feet above sea-lev­el, these icon­ic feats of engi­neer­ing offer unmatched views, inter­ac­tions with pub­lic art, bio­di­verse nat­ur­al habi­tats, oppor­tu­ni­ties for explo­ration, and more, all while serv­ing as a mod­el for sus­tain­able urban design. 

Bike rentals from Blaz­ing Sad­dles are avail­able dai­ly for vis­i­tors to explore sev­en miles of car-free paths, with Free Bike Morn­ings every week­day between 10am-12pm. The Island is also home to three CitiBike docks, locat­ed at each fer­ry land­ing and at Pic­nic Point. Gov­er­nors Island Nation­al Mon­u­ment, includ­ing Fort Jay and Cas­tle Williams, will reopen this sum­mer for both ranger-led and self-guid­ed tours. The Yard, play:groundNYC’s Adven­ture Play­ground offer­ing a unique kids-only space for imag­i­na­tion and explo­ration, is open every week­end from 12 – 4pm.

Oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage direct­ly with the research, devel­op­ment, and demon­stra­tion of equi­table cli­mate solu­tions through­out the Island this sum­mer include GrowNYC’s Teach­ing Gar­den and Con­tain­er Farm, locat­ed on the Parade Ground, as well as Earth Mat­ter NY’s Com­post Learn­ing Cen­ter — both open week­ends from May to Novem­ber. Vis­i­tors can also wit­ness inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions in action via the Trust’s Cli­mate Pilot­ing Pro­gram, with a record-break­ing 17 dif­fer­ent cli­mate pilot­ing projects through­out the Island. Pilot projects will host live demon­stra­tions and work­shops through­out the peak season. 

Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC)’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island will hold per­for­mances, pub­lic pro­grams, and open stu­dios through­out the sum­mer along­side their annu­al Riv­er to Riv­er Fes­ti­val; the Insti­tute for Pub­lic Archi­tec­ture (IPA) will hold open library hours and exhi­bi­tions; Col­lec­tive Retreats is open through Novem­ber for overnight stays in their glamp­ing-style accom­mo­da­tions along with din­ner and drinks at their Sun­set Ter­race cock­tail bar and Three Peaks Lodge water­front restau­rant; and QC NY is open dai­ly with two heat­ed out­door pools along­side saunas, steam rooms, relax­ation treat­ments, mas­sages, a full-ser­vice bistro, sen­so­ry saunas, a salt room, and more. 

The Trust will offer wheel­chair-acces­si­ble tram ser­vice, free and avail­able to all guests. These elec­tric acces­si­bil­i­ty vehi­cles will depart from Sois­sons Land­ing and Yan­kee Pier Fri­day through Sun­day from Memo­r­i­al Day to Labor Day, stop­ping at sev­er­al key loca­tions through­out the Island. 

EVENTS

Gov­er­nors Island remains one of New York City’s most unique loca­tions for events of all kinds. See a selec­tion of upcom­ing ear­ly sum­mer events below, with more to be announced through­out the season:

• May 16: Damask Rose: A Gath­er­ing, by Bahar Behba­hani, pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts
• May 30 & 31: Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix
• June 6 & 7: NYC Footy’s annu­al Gov­Cup tournament
• June 9: Sun­set Soirée, ben­e­fit­ting the Gov­er­nors Island Foundation
• June 10: New York City Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion Youth Cli­mate Summit
• June 13 & 14: Jazz Age Lawn Party
• June 19 & 20: my tongue is a blade, by Sweat Vari­ant, pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC)’s Riv­er to Riv­er Festival
• June 20 & 21: FAD Market
• June 20: Porch Stomp folk music festival
• June 21: The Great Nosh
• July 4: Sail4th 250 Grand Review of Tall Ships at Gov­er­nors Island
• July 18 & 19: New York City Poet­ry Festival
• July 25: Jazz by the Water
• July 25 & 26: FAD Market

FOOD VENDORS

Gov­er­nors Island is a grow­ing culi­nary des­ti­na­tion with a diverse mix of cuisines avail­able to vis­i­tors dai­ly. New offer­ings this year include pre­vi­ous­ly announced Six Coasts by Smor­gas­burg, a full-scale, sea­son­al restau­rant bring­ing Pan-Amer­i­can cui­sine and an ener­getic and com­mu­nal atmos­phere to Sois­sons Land­ing, and the Theodo­ra Beach Club, Pre­sent­ed by Resy, a new din­ner series from Taco Vista, Brook­lyn-based restau­rant Theodo­ra, and media part­ner VinePair.

Return­ing ven­dors include Joe Cof­fee Com­pa­ny, Lit­tle Eva’s, Taco Vista, Pizze­ria Fan­tas­ti­ca, Fauzia’s Heav­en­ly Delights, Threes Brew­ing, Sea Bis­cuit, Tokyo Drum­stick, La Newyork­i­na, Mak­i­na Café, and On Tea Road. The Food­ie Spot — a part­ner­ship with the New York City Hous­ing Author­i­ty (NYCHA)’s Office of Res­i­dent Eco­nom­ic Empow­er­ment and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty — will return to Liggett Ter­race for the sixth year in a row, spot­light­ing small busi­ness­es owned by grad­u­ates of NYCHA’s Food Busi­ness Path­ways pro­gram. Misi­pas­ta x Gov­er­nors Island, an inti­mate out­door sum­mer din­ner series pow­ered by Resy fea­tur­ing food from chef and restau­ra­teur Mis­sy Rob­bins, returns every Mon­day-Thurs­day from June 8 through August 31.

OPEN DAI­LY

• Joe Cof­fee Com­pa­ny in the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing fer­ry ter­mi­nal – Dai­ly, 7AM-2PM (open until 4pm Memo­r­i­al Day-Labor Day)
• Joe Cof­fee Com­pa­ny at Liggett Ter­race – Dai­ly, 9AM-5PM
• Lit­tle Eva’s – Week­days, 11AM-5PM; week­ends, 11AM-6PM
• Mak­i­na Café – Week­days, 9AM-3PM; week­ends, 10AM-4PM
• Taco Vista – Sun­day-Thurs­day, 12 – 6PM; Fri­day-Sat­ur­day, 12 – 7PM
• Three Peaks Lodge at Col­lec­tive Retreats – Din­ner dai­ly from 5 – 9PM; Sun­set Ter­race Cock­tail Bar: Week­days, 3 – 9PM; week­ends, 2 – 9PM

OPEN WEEK­ENDS AND SELECT WEEKDAYS

• Brigs Sweet Shop – Week­ends, 12 – 6PM
• Fauzia’s Heav­en­ly Delights – Week­ends, 10AM-6PM
• The Food­ie Spot – Week­ends, 9AM-5PM
• La Newyork­i­na – Week­ends, 12 – 7PM
• On Tea Road – Week­ends, 12 – 5PM
• Pizze­ria Fan­tas­ti­ca – Week­ends, 11AM-5PM
• Sea Bis­cuit – Week­ends, 12 – 7PM
• Six Coasts by Smor­gas­burg – Thurs­day, 11AM-10PM; Fri­day, 11AM-11PM; Sat­ur­day, 10AM-11PM; Sun­day, 10AM-10PM
• Threes Brew­ing – Week­ends, 11AM-6PM
• Tokyo Drum­stick – Week­ends, 11AM-5PM

GOVERNORS ISLAND ARTS

Through pub­lic art works, the annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram, and pub­lic events and pro­gram­ming, Gov­er­nors Island Arts — the arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust — cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/arts to view the program’s pre­vi­ous­ly announced sea­son of cul­tur­al offerings.

VISITOR INFORMATION

Gov­er­nors Island’s sum­mer hours will return begin­ning May 22, 2026. From Memo­r­i­al Day through Labor Day, the Island will remain open until 10pm Sun­day-Thurs­day and 11pm Fri­day-Sat­ur­day, with the South Island Park — includ­ing areas like the Hills, Ham­mock Grove, and Pic­nic Point — remain­ing open until dusk. 

Fer­ries oper­at­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island run dai­ly between the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing at 10 South Street in Low­er Man­hat­tan and Sois­sons Land­ing on the Island. In addi­tion, Trust-oper­at­ed fer­ries sea­son­al­ly serve two Brook­lyn loca­tions: Pier Six in Brook­lyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Basin in Red Hook. These sea­son­al routes run direct­ly to Yan­kee Pier on Gov­er­nors Island from each loca­tion every Sat­ur­day, Sun­day, and hol­i­day from May 23 through Novem­ber 1, 2026. For sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion, vis­it the Gov­er­nors Island website.

Vis­i­tors are encour­aged to reserve fer­ry tick­ets in advance of their trip through the Gov­er­nors Island web­site. Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $5 for adults. Fer­ries oper­at­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island are always free for chil­dren 12 and under, old­er adults 65 and up, res­i­dents of NYCHA, IDNYC hold­ers, cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers, and Gov­er­nors Island mem­bers. Fer­ries before 11am on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers on Trust-oper­at­ed fer­ries at any time.

The Trust also offers free fer­ry fares for non­prof­it and com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions, youth camps, and senior cen­ters. To inquire about group vis­its, orga­ni­za­tions may email groupvisits@​govisland.​org.

In addi­tion, NYC Fer­ry serves Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly via the South Brook­lyn Route and the sea­son­al Gov­er­nors Island shut­tle. For tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion and full sched­ules for NYC Fer­ry, vis­it the NYC Fer­ry web­site, www.ferry.nyc.

The Gov­er­nors Island 2026 sea­son is gen­er­ous­ly sup­port­ed by the Black­stone Char­i­ta­ble Foun­da­tion and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

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ABOUT THE TRUST FOR GOV­ER­NORS ISLAND

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is the non­prof­it cor­po­ra­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York that is respon­si­ble for the rede­vel­op­ment and oper­a­tion of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust’s mis­sion is to real­ize the full poten­tial of Gov­er­nors Island for the inspi­ra­tion and enjoy­ment of all New York­ers, demon­strat­ing a bold vision for pub­lic space. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org.

May 12 3:40 pm

Through the annu­al pro­gram, a range of over two dozen arts and cul­tur­al non­prof­its will fill the his­toric hous­es on Gov­er­nors Island through Octo­ber 25, cre­at­ing a vast ecosys­tem of artis­tic pro­grams that are free and open to the public

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, announces non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions that will, this year, be in res­i­dence in the Island’s his­toric homes. The Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram, kick­ing off on Sat­ur­day, May 16, 2026, serves vital and eclec­tic arts and cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions as well as artists and the vis­it­ing pub­lic: as it pro­vides two dozen orga­ni­za­tions space in these build­ings, they in turn offer­ free exhi­bi­tions and pub­lic pro­grams and host­ artist residencies. 

Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Clare New­man said, ​“Each year, the Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence here on Gov­er­nors Island con­tribute to a unique, gen­er­a­tive artis­tic ecosys­tem each year, in tan­dem with Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ own sea­son pro­gram­ming. We are so thrilled to see what’s cre­at­ed and show­cased here in 2026, and for a new com­mu­ni­ty to emerge and grow between orga­ni­za­tions, artists, and the pub­lic through­out the sum­mer on the Island.” 

This year’s res­i­dent orga­ni­za­tions include Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House, AnkhLave Arts Alliance, Art­Crawl Harlem, Bangladeshi Amer­i­can Artist Forum, Bronx Coun­cil on the Arts, CaribBE­ING House, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um, Dancers Unlim­it­ed, Dark Lab­o­ra­to­ry, DuYe Moves, Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons, Filmshop, For­est for Trees Col­lec­tive, Glass Clouds Ensem­ble, Har­vest­works, Koda, New Women New York­ers, New York Latin Amer­i­can Art Tri­en­ni­al, Red Hook Art Project, Noo Arts, Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed, Soul of Nations Foun­da­tion, South­east Queens Artists Alliance, Swale, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Coun­cil, and West Harlem Art Fund.

The Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram cre­ates an untra­di­tion­al work­ing and exhi­bi­tion envi­ron­ment that helps orga­ni­za­tions con­nect with a diverse and grow­ing audi­ence of near­ly 1M annu­al vis­i­tors. Select­ed orga­ni­za­tions staff their assigned hous­es in Nolan Park and along Colonels Row for pub­lic hours on week­ends from May through Octo­ber. They devise sea­son­al pro­gram­ming, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to exhi­bi­tions, events, work­shops, and artist res­i­den­cies, in the Island’s his­toric for­mer mil­i­tary houses.

Orga­ni­za­tions are select­ed via an annu­al open call process, based on their align­ment with Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ goal to pro­vide all New York­ers with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage in dynam­ic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming on the Island. They are open to the pub­lic week­ends from 11AM to 5PM through Octo­ber 25, 2026.

Fund­ing Credits

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram with sup­port from Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Anony­mous, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, Sur­go Foun­da­tion US, the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts (NYSCA) with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Leg­is­la­ture, Rip­ple Foun­da­tion, Great Hill, and the Howard Gilman Foundation.

About Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the con­text of the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts achieves this mis­sion through tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art instal­la­tions and exhi­bi­tions, an annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es, and the curat­ed mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series. Learn more at www​.gov​is​land​.org/arts.

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About the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is the non­prof­it cor­po­ra­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York that is respon­si­ble for the rede­vel­op­ment and oper­a­tion of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust’s mis­sion is to real­ize the full poten­tial of Gov­er­nors Island for the inspi­ra­tion and enjoy­ment of all New York­ers, demon­strat­ing a bold vision for pub­lic space. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org.

May 4 10:07 am

Con­ser­va­tion sci­en­tist, TIME 100 Cli­mate hon­oree, and Emmy-nom­i­nat­ed broad­cast­er to lead The Exchange’s land­mark cli­mate cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island

The New York Cli­mate Exchange (The Exchange) announced the appoint­ment of Dr. M. San­jayan as its new Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, mark­ing a piv­otal moment in the organization’s mis­sion to accel­er­ate cli­mate solu­tions through research, edu­ca­tion, work­force devel­op­ment, inno­va­tion, and com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ship. A lead­ing con­ser­va­tion sci­en­tist who has served as Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer at Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tion­al, San­jayan will guide The Exchange as it advances its vision for a trans­for­ma­tion­al cli­mate cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island in New York Harbor.

Draw­ing on 48 part­ners and the glob­al reach of New York City, the Exchange is devel­op­ing a state-of-the-art cli­mate cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island that will bring togeth­er cli­mate sci­en­tists, edu­ca­tors, entre­pre­neurs, and change­mak­ers under one roof — spark­ing the col­lab­o­ra­tions and break­through ideas need­ed to build a sus­tain­able future. San­jayan will lead the orga­ni­za­tion’s next chap­ter — trans­lat­ing work on Gov­er­nors Island into solu­tions that can be adopt­ed by cities and com­mu­ni­ties around the world.

“I am thrilled to wel­come Dr. M. San­jayan to The Exchange and look for­ward to part­ner­ing with him to real­ize the extra­or­di­nary promise of The Exchange,” said Andrea Gold­smith, chair of The Exchange board and pres­i­dent of Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty — The Exchange’s anchor insti­tu­tion. ​“San­jayan is an excep­tion­al leader, deeply knowl­edge­able sci­en­tist, and out­stand­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tor with a clear and com­pelling vision for the future of The Exchange. He brings to the role an impres­sive track record lead­ing trans­for­ma­tion­al growth and mean­ing­ful suc­cess as CEO of Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tion­al. With Sanjayan’s remark­able expe­ri­ence and exper­tise, with our impact­ful work to date, and with strong part­ner­ships across acad­e­mia, indus­try, gov­ern­ment, and the com­mu­ni­ty, The Exchange is incred­i­bly well-posi­tioned to deliv­er impact­ful cli­mate solu­tions for New York, our coun­try, and the world.”

San­jayan arrives with a track record few in con­ser­va­tion can match. As CEO of Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tion­al from 2017 to 2025, he led two land­mark cap­i­tal cam­paigns total­ing $2.4 bil­lion, dou­bled the organization’s glob­al staff to 1,800 peo­ple across 35 coun­tries, and forged trans­for­ma­tive part­ner­ships with For­tune 100 com­pa­nies from Apple and Microsoft to Mas­ter­card and Proc­ter & Gam­ble. A Ph.D. con­ser­va­tion biol­o­gist by train­ing, he has nev­er stopped being a sci­en­tist — and nev­er stopped find­ing new ways to make peo­ple care about what the sci­ence tells us. Named to TIME’s inau­gur­al 100 Cli­mate list in 2024, his award-win­ning doc­u­men­tary series and broad­casts with PBS and BBC have brought the sto­ry of nature and cli­mate change to mil­lions of peo­ple world­wide.

​“Cli­mate change is both a cri­sis and an oppor­tu­ni­ty for human­i­ty” said Dr. M. San­jayan.” It’s a priv­i­lege to lead The New York Cli­mate Exchange at this con­se­quen­tial and defin­ing moment for peo­ple and the plan­et. I can­not think of a more pow­er­ful plat­form from which to accel­er­ate solu­tions that the world urgent­ly needs.“

The Exchange will soon estab­lish a state-of-the-art cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island. This inspir­ing show­case of inno­v­a­tive sus­tain­able design will serve as a glob­al hub for col­lab­o­ra­tive cli­mate solu­tions. Once open, Gov­er­nors Island will become a renowned des­ti­na­tion where hun­dreds of stu­dents, fac­ul­ty, researchers, and cli­mate-curi­ous vis­i­tors can be found immersed in ​“semes­ter abroad” style aca­d­e­m­ic cours­es, engaged in cut­ting-edge research oppor­tu­ni­ties, pur­su­ing job train­ing for the green econ­o­my, and attend­ing world-class con­ven­ings and pub­lic pro­gram­ming. This vision is made pos­si­ble in part by a major cap­i­tal com­mit­ment from the City of New York, a $100 mil­lion pledge from the Simons Foun­da­tion and Simons Foun­da­tion Inter­na­tion­al, and a $50 mil­lion com­mit­ment from Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies.

​“The New York Cli­mate Exchange rein­forces New York City’s posi­tion as a lead­ing hub for sci­ence and inno­va­tion,” says Simons Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent David Spergel. ​“Under Dr. Sanjayan’s lead­er­ship, The Exchange will bring togeth­er the thinkers and orga­ni­za­tions who will trans­late cut­ting-edge sci­ence and data into scal­able, real-world solu­tions.”

​“The New York Cli­mate Exchange builds on a vision for Gov­er­nors Island that I first laid out dur­ing my cam­paign for may­or in 2001, when we pro­posed turn­ing it into a cen­ter for edu­ca­tion and research,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Spe­cial Envoy on Cli­mate Ambi­tion and Solu­tions and founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies. ​“At the time, some dis­missed the vision as ​‘naïve,’ since the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment still con­trolled the island and had long neglect­ed it. But we began bring­ing the vision to life, and over the years, it has steadi­ly tak­en shape. The Cli­mate Exchange rep­re­sents the next step, cre­at­ing a home for the tal­ent and inno­va­tion need­ed to help cities con­front cli­mate change while cre­at­ing jobs. With San­jayan at the helm, it will have the lead­er­ship need­ed to do both.”

​“The Exchange is exact­ly the kind of col­lab­o­ra­tive effort need­ed right now to accel­er­ate inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions,” said Antha Williams, Inter­im CEO of the New York Cli­mate Exchange and Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies’ Envi­ron­ment Pro­gram Lead. ​“Sanjayan’s lead­er­ship and envi­ron­men­tal exper­tise will be essen­tial to turn­ing that col­lab­o­ra­tion into real impact for com­mu­ni­ties in New York and around the world.“

The Exchange is already gain­ing momen­tum. Dur­ing Cli­mate Week NYC 2025, it host­ed more than 30 events with 40 part­ners, draw­ing cross-sec­tor audi­ences of more than 2,300 atten­dees to Gov­er­nors Island and beyond. Ear­li­er this month, Earth Week brought pro­gram­ming across the city — from a data-focused Cli­mate Solu­tions Sum­mit to a cel­e­bra­tion of NYCHA res­i­dents dri­ving sus­tain­abil­i­ty in their own com­mu­ni­ties. The Exchange is prepar­ing to launch its sec­ond cohort of Cli­mate Tech Fel­lows, focused on entre­pre­neurs devel­op­ing solu­tions in ener­gy and resilience.

​“On Gov­er­nors Island, the New York Cli­mate Exchange will embed cut­ting edge research, edu­ca­tion, cli­mate inno­va­tion, and more, in a site built for exper­i­men­ta­tion and deep pub­lic engage­ment” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Dr. M. San­jayan brings the lead­er­ship to deep­en that promise and ensure the New York Cli­mate Exchange becomes a mod­el for how cities solve their great­est chal­lenges togeth­er.”

​“By part­ner­ing with Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty, one of New York’s pre­mier pub­lic insti­tu­tions, and The New York Cli­mate Exchange, we are mak­ing sure that green jobs, com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven cli­mate solu­tions, and access to Gov­er­nors Island are avail­able to all New York­ers” said Julie Su, Deputy May­or of New York City for Eco­nom­ic Jus­tice. ​“Dr. M San­jayan is a tremen­dous addi­tion who will con­tin­ue to dri­ve cli­mate inno­va­tion and solutions.” 

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About Dr. M Sanjayan

Dr. M. San­jayan is a glob­al­ly rec­og­nized con­ser­va­tion sci­en­tist and pub­lic voice on cli­mate and nature. As CEO of Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tion­al (2017 – 2025), he over­saw eight and a half years of fast, sus­tained growth, lead­ing two cap­i­tal cam­paigns total­ing $2.4B, more than dou­bling the organization’s glob­al team, and forg­ing trans­for­ma­tive part­ner­ships with For­tune 50 com­pa­nies, gov­ern­ments, and phil­an­thropists. Pri­or to that, San­jayan spent over a decade as the lead sci­en­tist for The Nature Con­ser­van­cy and launched its ground-break­ing pro­gram in Africa. A sci­en­tist by train­ing with a Ph.D. in Biol­o­gy, he has com­bined aca­d­e­m­ic rig­or with vision­ary lead­er­ship to deliv­er impact around the globe. Beyond the field, he is an Emmy-nom­i­nat­ed broad­cast­er and host of award-win­ning doc­u­men­taries with PBS and BBC, known for bring­ing sci­ence and inspir­ing sto­ry­telling to mil­lions world­wide. His work has been cov­ered by vir­tu­al­ly every news out­let and mag­a­zine from the New York Times to Out­side Mag­a­zine. Named to the inau­gur­al TIME 100 Cli­mate list, Sanjayan’s career bridges sci­ence, sto­ry­telling, and strat­e­gy to advance solu­tions that link peo­ple, nature, and cli­mate. San­jayan serves as a trustee for The Earth­shot Prize; found­ed and led by Prince William, the prize seeks to find and scale solu­tions to the planet’s chal­lenges. He is also on the board of the Inter­na­tion­al Con­ser­va­tion Cau­cus Foun­da­tion (US), and the advi­so­ry board of the Min­deroo Foun­da­tion, one of the largest in the South­ern Hemisphere. 

About The New York Cli­mate Exchange

The Exchange is a non­prof­it designed to accel­er­ate cli­mate solu­tions. By lever­ag­ing the per­spec­tives of a cross-sec­tor net­work of diverse part­ners and New York City’s glob­al influ­ence, The Exchange engages in cut­ting-edge research, deliv­ers impact­ful edu­ca­tion and train­ing, hosts world-class con­ven­ings and scales cli­mate tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions. The Exchange is devel­op­ing a state-of-the-art cli­mate cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island that will bring cli­mate sci­en­tists, edu­ca­tors, entre­pre­neurs and change­mak­ers under one roof — spark­ing the col­lab­o­ra­tions and break­through ideas we need to build a sus­tain­able future. Learn more at nycli​ma​te​ex​change​.org.

Apr 29 10:00 am

In works rang­ing from large-scale sculp­ture to site-respon­sive per­for­mance, the sea­son con­sid­ers the idea of move­ment while anchored by the his­to­ry, nature, and archi­tec­ture of its strik­ing setting

Pro­gram­ming includes work from Bahar Behba­hani, Chaka­ia Book­er, Alan Michel­son, Sweat Vari­ant (Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born), Anna Valdez, and more

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, announces its 2026 sea­son. A dynam­ic med­i­ta­tion on the theme of move­ment, the sea­son explores the Island as a site of arrival, depar­ture, and con­tin­u­al trans­for­ma­tion. Root­ed in response to this sin­gu­lar set­ting, the works acti­vate and bring new mean­ing to sites span­ning the island and beyond: from Colonels Row to the Island’s pub­lic orchard to New York’s first hybrid elec­tric fer­ry. The pro­gram­ming, fea­tur­ing works by Bahar Behba­hani, Chaka­ia Book­er, Alan Michel­son, Sweat Vari­ant (Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born), Anna Valdez, and more, reflects both the sweep of the Island’s sto­ry and ever-chang­ing land­scape and seeks to gath­er vis­i­tors around the rare mar­vel it is today: a vast pub­lic resource between New York’s busy bor­oughs, brim­ming with art and oppor­tu­ni­ties for both invig­o­rat­ing gath­er­ing and tran­quil reflection. 

Move­ment is con­sid­ered through numer­ous art forms and the­mat­ic vari­a­tions in an eclec­tic mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary sea­son that looks toward every­thing from move­ment of peo­ple — whether migra­tion, move­ment of the body, or move­ment with­in our­selves — to move­ment of goods, of food, of birds. With works rang­ing from large-scale out­door sculp­tures to site-respon­sive and inti­mate dura­tional per­for­mances, the sea­son invites audi­ences to con­sid­er move­ment not just as phys­i­cal trav­el, but as growth, change, and the ongo­ing process of becoming. 

“Pub­lic art has been cen­tral to Gov­er­nors Island’s DNA, from the moment we first opened to the pub­lic more than 20 years ago,” said Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent and CEO Clare New­man. ​“Whether you’re sim­ply rid­ing the fer­ry over or com­ing out for a per­for­mance, incred­i­ble encoun­ters with the arts can be found in every cor­ner of the Island. It’s a priv­i­lege to present this season’s cal­en­dar along­side our col­lec­tion of long-term and per­ma­nent art­works, and we look for­ward to wel­com­ing all New York­ers to the Island this season.” 

Gov­er­nors Island Arts Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er Juan Pablo Siles said, ​“This sea­son hon­ors the Island’s mul­ti­fac­eted his­to­ry while cre­at­ing some­thing entire­ly new, some­thing that real­ly can only be done in this extra­or­di­nary space. We are grate­ful to each and every artist, prac­ti­tion­er, and part­ner help­ing make this sea­son come to life, and we can’t wait to wel­come New York­ers and vis­i­tors from around the world to inter­act with these incred­i­ble works, right here in New York Harbor.”

In addi­tion to a col­lec­tion of long-term and per­ma­nent pub­lic art­works locat­ed through­out the Island’s open space, Gov­er­nors Island Arts will present sev­er­al new pub­lic art com­mis­sions and short-term instal­la­tions this sea­son. Two of these works remind us of the Island’s com­plex his­to­ry and trace its trans­for­ma­tions, ask­ing what of the past we want to car­ry for­ward with us — while anoth­er per­ti­nent­ly asks how we can make beau­ty from that which is dis­card­ed. In mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artist Anna Valdez​’s mur­al Spring Migra­tion (debut­ing May 2026), the past and future merge with­in New York State’s first hybrid elec­tric fer­ry, The Har­bor Charg­er. Inspired by the Island’s ver­dant nat­ur­al spaces, the mur­al depicts the migra­tion of birds along­side the tran­si­tions between the Island’s inhab­i­tants — from the Indige­nous Lenape peo­ple to ear­ly set­tlers to mil­i­tary per­son­nel — as the fer­ry in turn moves pas­sen­gers to and from the Island. Acclaimed Mohawk artist Alan Michel­son (Six Nations of the Grand River)’s mon­u­men­tal out­door sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion The Oys­ter, com­mis­sioned by More Art and co-pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Bil­lion Oys­ter Project (run­ning from July to Novem­ber, 2026), will cre­ate an amphithe­ater-like art­work on the West­ern Prom­e­nade that reflects on the par­al­lel era­sures of Indige­nous life­ways and oys­ter ecolo­gies in the har­bor. Already on view is abstract sculp­tor Chaka­ia Book­er​’s work wrought from sal­vaged tires, Brick House, in Colonels Row through 2027 after hav­ing first been installed in ​“The 606” in Chicago.

Curat­ed by Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er, Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary per­for­mance series Inter­ven­tions presents local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al artists and invites audi­ences to expe­ri­ence work made and adapt­ed for the imme­di­ate envi­ron­ment. With Damask Rose: A Gath­er­ing (May 16), Bahar Behba­hani, whose research-based prac­tice approach­es land­scape as a metaphor for pol­i­tics and poet­ics, brings a par­tic­i­pa­to­ry per­for­mance-gath­er­ing fea­tur­ing sto­ry­tellers, poets, musi­cians, dis­cus­sions, and more, inspired by tra­di­tions sur­round­ing Per­sian Gar­dens to Gov­er­nors Island. Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born​’s col­lab­o­ra­tive per­form­ing arts prac­tice Sweat Vari­ant brings to Gov­er­nors Island its first-ever out­door iter­a­tion of my tongue is a blade (June 19 & 20), a three-hour-long dura­tional move­ment work in and around a spin­ning mir­rored struc­ture that asks: What are the lim­its of our atten­tion and how does that test the strength of our bonds? my tongue is a blade is co-pre­sent­ed with Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC) as part of their 2026 Riv­er to Riv­er Fes­ti­val.

Every third Sat­ur­day from May through Octo­ber, Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents spe­cial free pro­gram­ming designed to build com­mu­ni­ty and high­light the unique artis­tic ecosys­tem of the Island. This sea­son will include: 

• Red Hook Art Project and Cab­in​’s Imprints of Space, sur­round­ing Rachel Whiteread​’s con­crete cast of a cab­in fac­ing the Down­town sky­line, and invit­ing vis­i­tors to make their own small-scale casts of remem­bered spaces (June 20).
• Sal­ly Beau­ti Twin​’s House Crawl & Parade, the eco-lumi­nary art parade con­clud­ing a day of art-mak­ing with par­tic­i­pants show­cas­ing cos­tumes, pup­pets, lanterns, and more cre­at­ed through­out the day (August 15).
• Sam Van Aken​’s Orchard Recipes, shar­ing his­tor­i­cal dish­es using fruits har­vest­ed from the artist’s instal­la­tion of 102 hybrid fruit trees of antique and heir­loom vari­eties once grown wild­ly in New York (Sep­tem­ber 19).
• The clos­ing of the sea­son with Pub­lic Ser­vice: Sea­son Clos­ing Dance Par­ty, with music by Brook­lyn-based DJ, pro­duc­er and instru­men­tal­ist Toribio and Mick­ey Perez—a DJ whose work com­bines African, Caribbean, South Amer­i­can & Black Amer­i­can rhythms — with sound pow­ered by the mighty pink speak­ers of the Kar­lala Soundsys­tem (Octo­ber 17). 

In addi­tion to pro­gram­ming announced today, two-dozen NYC-based arts and cul­tur­al non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions will present free exhibits, work­shops, pub­lic pro­grams, and artist res­i­den­cies in the Island’s his­toric for­mer mil­i­tary hous­es as part of Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram (week­ends, May 16-Novem­ber 1).

Gov­er­nors Island Arts 2026 Sea­son Pro­gram­ming Schedule

[Pub­lic Art]

Chaka­ia Booker 

Brick House, 2015 (short-term loan) 

Cur­rent­ly on view 

First installed on ​“The 606,” an ele­vat­ed park and trail in Chica­go, Booker’s strik­ing sculp­ture is on view in Colonels Row through 2027. Installed out­doors, the sculpture’s scale and dura­bil­i­ty reflect Booker’s com­mit­ment to pub­lic art and envi­ron­men­tal con­scious­ness. By reusing old tires, she encour­ages view­ers to recon­sid­er what peo­ple throw away — and how some­thing dis­card­ed can be turned into art full of beau­ty, his­to­ry, and meaning.

[Pub­lic Art]

Anna Valdez

Spring Migra­tion, 2026 (com­mis­sion)

Debut­ing May 2026 

The Har­bor Charg­er, New York’s first hybrid elec­tric fer­ry, marks anoth­er mile­stone this spring: the first mur­al com­mis­sioned specif­i­cal­ly for a Gov­er­nors Island fer­ry. Spring Migra­tion explores the sea­son­al rhythms and tran­sient his­to­ries of Gov­er­nors Island, high­light­ing the endur­ing themes of arrival, depar­ture, and sanc­tu­ary. From the Indige­nous Lenape peo­ple who uti­lized the land sea­son­al­ly to the ear­ly set­tlers and gen­er­a­tions of mil­i­tary per­son­nel sta­tioned here, the Island has been an ongo­ing site of tran­si­tion. Like the birds that vis­it each spring, these inhab­i­tants have played vital roles in the Island’s his­to­ry and lega­cy before mov­ing on. Valdez employs illus­tra­tions of migra­to­ry and non-migra­to­ry birds, dig­i­tal­ly manip­u­lat­ed pho­tographs of Gov­er­nors Island, and botan­i­cal details to invite view­ers across New York Har­bor to prac­tice the act of look­ing close­ly, beck­on­ing them to find the extra­or­di­nary with­in the temporary. 

[Inter­ven­tions]

Bahar Behba­hani

Damask Rose: A Gathering

May 16, 1 – 5pm

Damask Rose: A Gath­er­ing is a spring cel­e­bra­tion inspired by the tra­di­tions of Per­sian Gar­dens. The work cen­ters Damask Rose, an immi­grant flo­ra from the East, and hon­ors migra­tion and hos­pi­tal­i­ty. Guid­ed by con­cep­tu­al ideas of shade, wind, immi­grant flo­ra, and dias­poric eco­log­i­cal and ances­tral knowl­edge, this gath­er­ing brings togeth­er non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, food and drink sto­ry­tellers, herbal­ists, tea prac­ti­tion­ers, musi­cians, and many oth­er like-mind­ed com­mu­ni­ties and part­ners to share a moment of joy and resilience.

[Inter­ven­tions]

Sweat Vari­ant

my tongue is a blade 

June 19 & 20

Co-Pre­sent­ed with Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC) as part of their 2026 Riv­er to Riv­er Festival

What are the lim­its of our atten­tion, and how do those lim­its test the strength of our bonds? my tongue is a blade is a three-hour move­ment per­for­mance-prac­tice root­ed in rela­tion, mem­o­ry, and reflec­tion. Four per­form­ers com­mit to remem­ber­ing one anoth­er, hold­ing one anoth­er, bear­ing one anoth­er, and sus­tain­ing the world that con­tains them. A rich visu­al and son­ic land­scape invites the audi­ence to wit­ness this shared prac­tice and to res­onate with­in it. Cre­at­ed by Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born; per­formed by Okwui Okpok­wasili, Bria Bacon, Kris Lee and AJ Wilmore. Orig­i­nal­ly com­mis­sioned by the Irish Muse­um of Mod­ern Art as part of Take a Breath, with sup­port from the Sam Gilliam Foun­da­tion. Sup­port for Sweat Vari­ant is pro­vid­ed in part by the Mel­lon and Howard Gilman Foun­da­tions, as well as by the New Eng­land Foun­da­tion for the Arts’ Nation­al Dance Project with fund­ing from the Doris Duke Foundation.

[Third Sat­ur­days]

Red Hook Art Project x Cab­in

Imprints of Space 

June 20

Rachel Whiteread’s Cab­in, a per­ma­nent pub­lic art­work tucked into the foliage of Dis­cov­ery Hill, uses a con­crete cast of a cab­in to prompt retreat and intro­spec­tion in the view­er. On June’s THIRD Sat­ur­day, Island vis­i­tors will be able to cre­ate small-scale casts or impres­sions of imag­ined or remem­bered spaces that hold mean­ing to them, ulti­mate­ly form­ing a col­lec­tive instal­la­tion that serves as a shared map of com­mu­ni­ty spaces. 

[Third Sat­ur­days]

Sal­ly Beau­ti Twin 

House Crawl & Parade 

August 15

Sal­ly Beau­ti Twin’s sig­na­ture eco-lumi­nary art parade will take over Nolan Park and Colonels Row, with par­tic­i­pants DIY-ing their own cos­tumes, lumi­nar­ies, and pup­pets before engag­ing in a house-to-house parade that hon­ors the flo­ra, fau­na, and celes­tial bod­ies of Gov­er­nors Island. 

[Third Sat­ur­days]

Sam Van Aken

Orchard Recipes

Sep­tem­ber 19

Sam Van Aken hosts a gas­tro­nom­i­cal after­noon gath­er­ing at his expan­sive Open Orchard per­ma­nent pub­lic art­work on Gov­er­nors Island. The artist will share his­tor­i­cal dish­es using fruits har­vest­ed from the orchard itself, which con­tains hun­dreds of heir­loom fruit vari­eties that were once grown wide­ly through­out New York but have large­ly dis­ap­peared due to cli­mate change and indus­tri­al­ized agriculture.

[Third Sat­ur­days]

Pub­lic Ser­vice: Sea­son Clos­ing Dance Party

Octo­ber 17

Close out the 2026 Gov­er­nors Island Arts sea­son with Pub­lic Ser­vice, a (pri­mar­i­ly) out­door dance par­ty that’s for the peo­ple, by the peo­ple. Fea­tur­ing music by Toribio and Mick­ey Perez, with sound pow­ered by Kar­lala Soundsystem. 

Fund­ing Cred­its

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram with sup­port from Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Anony­mous, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, Sur­go Foun­da­tion US, the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts (NYSCA) with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Leg­is­la­ture, Rip­ple Foun­da­tion, Great Hill, and the Howard Gilman Foundation.

###

About Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the con­text of the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts achieves this mis­sion through tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art instal­la­tions and exhi­bi­tions, an annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es, and the curat­ed mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series. Learn more at www​.gov​is​land​.org/arts.

Apr 23 10:00 am

Select­ed win­ners include tools for flood mit­i­ga­tion and com­bat­ting extreme heat, and will start deploy­ment on the Island begin­ning sum­mer 2026 

New report high­lights impact of more than two dozen pilots that have scaled cli­mate solu­tions tech­nol­o­gy fol­low­ing the 2023 launch of the Cli­mate Pilot­ing Program

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the selec­tion of sev­en win­ners of the third annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge. The oppor­tu­ni­ty sought solu­tions that will help com­mu­ni­ties adapt to the impacts of cli­mate change fac­ing New York City and oth­er dense urban areas, such as chron­ic flood­ing, extreme heat, and water short­ages. The select­ed win­ners demon­strate their projects in Gov­er­nors Island’s real-world set­ting, receiv­ing $10,000 grants and gain­ing access to valu­able tech­ni­cal sup­port; vis­i­bil­i­ty through events and mar­ket­ing; and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that con­nect pro­gram par­tic­i­pants with fun­ders, investors, cus­tomers, and the Island’s near­ly one mil­lion annu­al visitors.

“Since launch­ing in 2023, this pro­gram has helped sig­nif­i­cant­ly grow Gov­er­nors Island as a unique­ly posi­tioned, real-world test­bed for cut­ting-edge tech­nol­o­gy — one that is help­ing to posi­tion New York City as a true hub for inno­va­tion,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“The founders and com­pa­nies announced today are at the fore­front of devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive solu­tions that show­case for­ward-think­ing approach­es to help­ing cities thrive now and in the future.”

“The tech­nolo­gies that are being demon­strat­ed by this year’s cohort address urgent chal­lenges like flood mit­i­ga­tion and urban heat, respond­ing direct­ly to the grow­ing cli­mate pres­sures fac­ing cities and urban res­i­dents today,” said Lau­ren Wang, Direc­tor of Cli­mate Pro­grams at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We’re proud to sup­port the emerg­ing lead­ers and com­pa­nies that are dri­ving this work, and to share the program’s tremen­dous impact over the past three years.”

Projects select­ed fol­low­ing this year’s Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge are:

• Adap­to­ra will deploy an ultra-high res­o­lu­tion ground defor­ma­tion sen­sor on Gov­er­nors Island. This data will help to mon­i­tor and mit­i­gate risks asso­ci­at­ed with land sub­si­dence and coastal infrastructure.

• Hen­ning Larsen will install Kli­maKover, an adapt­able mod­u­lar cool­ing shel­ter to mit­i­gate urban heat, cre­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia, on Gov­er­nors Island this summer.

• Pre­visi­co will pilot their real-time hydro­dy­nam­ic mod­el­ing and sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy, which gen­er­ates hyper­local, asset-lev­el flood fore­casts up to 48 hours in advance. 

• Sun­phade will install their pas­sive, pho­tochromic solar film on sev­er­al of the Island’s win­dows, demon­strat­ing how a sim­ple win­dow retro­fit can low­er peak indoor tem­per­a­tures and reduce the ener­gy demands of air conditioning.

• Ther­moShade will pilot the Ther­moShade Oasis, a 10’x10’ off-grid cool­ing shel­ter that uses patent­ed radia­tive cool­ing shade pan­els to cre­ate a space that feels up to 20°F cool­er than under a stan­dard awning. 

• True Flood Risk will pilot its prop­er­ty-lev­el flood risk plat­form to assess cur­rent and future flood expo­sure across the Island’s build­ings to iden­ti­fy vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, mod­el flood sce­nar­ios and finan­cial risks, and offer guid­ance on the cost-ben­e­fit of build­ing mit­i­ga­tion strategies. 

• WaveSave will pilot SLAM­DAM, a rapid­ly deploy­able mobile flood bar­ri­er sys­tem designed to pro­tect com­mu­ni­ties from flood­ing dri­ven by coastal storms and heavy rain­fall, demon­strat­ing how tem­po­rary infra­struc­ture can sup­port cities in mit­i­gat­ing flood risk. 

Addi­tion­al pilots announced today include Orbit Exchange, an online mar­ket­place for reclaimed build­ing mate­ri­als; Poo Poof Inc., a solu­tion to dis­solve dog waste into water and min­er­als; and Rego (a 2025 Chal­lenge win­ner) with a build­ing mate­ri­als esti­ma­tion tool to sup­port cir­cu­lar construction. 

Through­out the year the Trust will host pub­lic events and pro­grams for vis­i­tors to learn more about the pilot­ing projects. The pilots will be installed on the Island over the com­ing months for peri­ods span­ning three to 18 months.

The Trust’s cli­mate pro­grams are made pos­si­ble with the gen­er­ous sup­port of Ama­zon, Con Edi­son, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, and the New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust. 

The Trust also released its first Impact Report high­light­ing the Gov­er­nors Island Cli­mate Pilot­ing Program’s progress since its launch in 2023. In the past three years, the Cli­mate Pilot­ing Pro­gram has advanced projects relat­ed to nature-based solu­tions, liv­ing shore­lines, clean water, cir­cu­lar econ­o­my, build­ings, ener­gy, air qual­i­ty, and urban agri­cul­ture — open­ing doors to new cus­tomers, sup­pli­ers, tal­ent, investors, and pub­lic agency part­ner­ships. The pro­gram is core to the Trust’s Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions ini­tia­tive ded­i­cat­ed to accel­er­at­ing equi­table cli­mate solu­tions for cities. High­lights include:

• Since 2023, 24 pilot­ing projects have been launched on the Island. Today’s announce­ment brings the total to 34.

• Par­tic­i­pants have secured new investors and busi­ness­es with high pro­file cus­tomers, accessed com­pet­i­tive fel­low­ships, and brought inno­va­tions to mar­ket more quick­ly than before their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the program. 

• Par­tic­i­pants have gained vis­i­bil­i­ty on their pilots with poten­tial clients in gov­ern­ment, For­tune 500 com­pa­nies, and non­prof­its who are keen to sup­port cli­mate inno­va­tion, and have accessed com­pet­i­tive pilot­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties with the New York Cli­mate Exchange, the Part­ner­ship for New York City’s Envi­ron­men­tal Tech Lab, NYCEDC’s Pilots at BAT, and BNYDC’s Yard Labs. 

• Over the past three years par­tic­i­pat­ing pilots have: raised ~$15 mil­lion of invest­ment, earned more than $3 mil­lion in rev­enue, hired 28 full time employ­ees, secured more than 130 new cus­tomers, and 35 per­cent of the com­pa­nies have expand­ed their office, man­u­fac­tur­ing, or lab spaces. 

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is a core mem­ber of the Har­bor Cli­mate Col­lab­o­ra­tive (HCC), a joint ini­tia­tive with New York City Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion and Brook­lyn Navy Yard Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion to grow the city’s cli­mate ecosys­tem. All three enti­ties host and col­lab­o­rate on impact­ful cli­mate pilot­ing pro­grams to help emerg­ing busi­ness­es grow and scale solutions. 

Gov­er­nors Island is at the fore­front of research­ing and demon­strat­ing urban cli­mate solu­tions, offer­ing a unique water­front envi­ron­ment; an award-win­ning park engi­neered for cli­mate change; near­ly one mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors; oppor­tu­ni­ties for research and pilot­ing; pub­lic art­works engag­ing with cli­mate issues; and a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of edu­ca­tion­al, non­prof­it, and com­mer­cial ten­ants focused on cli­mate — includ­ing Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, the soon-to-open But­ter­milk Labs, and more. 

The Trust and the New York City Mayor’s Office have devel­oped a vision to cre­ate the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions, a com­mu­ni­ty on Gov­er­nors Island to accel­er­ate cli­mate solu­tions for cities. In April 2023, The New York Cli­mate Exchange, led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and a con­sor­tium of part­ners, was select­ed as the initiative’s anchor insti­tu­tion fol­low­ing a two-year com­pet­i­tive process. The Exchange will devel­op a $700-mil­lion cam­pus on the Island focused on advanc­ing cli­mate solu­tions and prepar­ing New York­ers for green jobs.

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About the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is the non­prof­it cor­po­ra­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York that is respon­si­ble for the rede­vel­op­ment and oper­a­tion of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust’s mis­sion is to real­ize the full poten­tial of Gov­er­nors Island for the inspi­ra­tion and enjoy­ment of all New York­ers, demon­strat­ing a bold vision for pub­lic space. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org.

Mar 30 10:59 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today announced their fifth annu­al Earth Day cel­e­bra­tion, offer­ing a day of free pro­gram­ming cel­e­brat­ing the Island’s shared con­nec­tion with nature. New York­ers are invit­ed to spend the day on Gov­er­nors Island and enjoy free edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties and work­shops for all ages, guid­ed tours through the Island’s open space, an out­door sound bath, open stu­dios, cli­mate tech demos, and more. The fes­tiv­i­ties will take place on Sat­ur­day, April 18, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

“Gov­er­nors Island is a liv­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry for cli­mate solu­tions here in New York Har­bor, where dozens of orga­ni­za­tions are work­ing to devel­op real-world solu­tions for our col­lec­tive future. Our annu­al Earth Day fes­tiv­i­ties give New York­ers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence that work first­hand while enjoy­ing free, inter­ac­tive pro­gram­ming,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We look for­ward to wel­com­ing vis­i­tors ]to appre­ci­ate the nat­ur­al beau­ty of the Island on April 18^th, whether it’s your first time vis­it­ing or your 100^th, there is some­thing for every mem­ber of the fam­i­ly to enjoy.”

The event will fea­ture activ­i­ties designed to get New York­ers out­side and engaged in Gov­er­nors Island’s open space, from an immer­sive sound bath in the urban for­est of Ham­mock Grove to guid­ed walk­ing tours high­light­ing the many cli­mate solu­tions found across the Island. Earth Day part­ners include Arbon, BikeNYC, Car­bon­Clair, Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Man­u­fac­tur­ing, CLIP, CO Adap­tive, DuYe Moves, Earth Mat­ter NY, Empire Clean Cities, Just EcoC­i­ties, Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil, The New York Cli­mate Exchange, NYC Bird Alliance, Red Hook Art Project, RETI Cen­ter, Sea­weed City, and more to be announced. For more infor­ma­tion and a full sched­ule of the day’s offer­ings, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​e​a​r​t​h-day.

Earth Day is spon­sored by Horn­blow­er Group, oper­a­tor of NYC Fer­ry. The Gov­er­nors Island 2026 sea­son is gen­er­ous­ly sup­port­ed by the Black­stone Char­i­ta­ble Foun­da­tion and Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies. The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s cli­mate pro­grams are sup­port­ed by Ama­zon, Con Edi­son, Anony­mous, the Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, and the New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.

Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic dai­ly from 7am to 6pm. Trust for Gov­er­nors Island-oper­at­ed fer­ries run dai­ly between the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing at 10 South Street in Low­er Man­hat­tan and Sois­sons Land­ing on the Island. Sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion are avail­able online at www​.gov​is​land​.org. Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $5 for adults. Gov­er­nors Island fer­ries are always free for chil­dren 12 and under, old­er adults ages 65 and up, res­i­dents of NYCHA, IDNYC hold­ers, cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers, and mem­bers. Fer­ries before 11AM on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers at any time.

NYC Fer­ry also serves Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly on the South Brook­lyn route, with stops in Man­hat­tan and along the Brook­lyn water­front. For tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion and full sched­ules for NYC Fer­ry, vis­it www.ferry.nyc.