Blog

Sep 5 12:37 pm

Gov­er­nors Island Arts today announced a sched­ule of free pro­gram­ming and exhi­bi­tions for the Island’s fall sea­son, includ­ing the con­tin­u­a­tion of the INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series with works by Inua Ellams and Lenio Kak­lea along with new exhi­bi­tions from the New Art Deal­ers Alliance (NADA), Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons, and oth­er NYC-based non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions. This fall also marks the last chance to vis­it Jen­ny Kendler’s Oth­er of Pearl, pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Coun­cil (NRDC), which is on view inside Fort Jay Fri­day-Sun­day through Novem­ber 3. 

“There is so much to dis­cov­er on Gov­er­nors Island, whether you’re com­ing to see — and even par­tic­i­pate in — a per­for­mance that’s in direct con­ver­sa­tion with our land­scapes, to explore our his­toric hous­es and the incred­i­ble orga­ni­za­tions with­in them, or to dis­cov­er our col­lec­tion of one-of-a-kind pub­lic art­works,” said Lau­ren Haynes, Head Cura­tor, Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Vice Pres­i­dent at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We are thrilled to con­tin­ue to spot­light our amaz­ing cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty as the sea­sons change and can’t wait to wel­come you to the Island this fall.”

INTER­VEN­TIONS Per­for­mance Series
Through this site-respon­sive, mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary annu­al per­for­mance series, Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al artists and invites audi­ences to expe­ri­ence work made and adapt­ed for the out­doors. INTER­VEN­TIONS con­tin­ues this fall with Search Par­ty, award-win­ning poet and inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed play­wright Inua Ellams’s spon­ta­neous per­for­mance event, and Anal­phabètes, a dance piece by Lenio Kak­lea and co-pre­sent­ed with L’Alliance New York. 

SEARCH PAR­TY Inua Ellams
Sep­tem­ber 20, 7:30pm
Sep­tem­ber 21, 2:15 pm & 7:30pm
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS »

Prompt­ed by audi­ence sug­ges­tion and open con­ver­sa­tion, Inua Ellams search­es through his archive, unearths refined or raw gold, and presents his trea­sure in this spon­ta­neous per­for­mance — an act of call and response that hear­kens back to the birth of sto­ry­telling. At this unique­ly futur­is­tic and espe­cial­ly chaot­ic inter­ac­tive event — its first ever out­door iter­a­tion — the artist could­n’t be more present.

ANAL­PHABÈTES Lenio Kak­lea
Octo­ber 5, 12pm, 2pm & 4pm
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS »

Greek-born and Paris-based chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Lenio Kak­lea designed this piece as a response to phys­i­cal land­scape. Con­sist­ing of three dis­tinct lev­els of spec­ta­tor­ship — near, far, and very far away — the per­for­mance blends envi­ron­ment with chore­o­graph­ic image, cre­at­ing a struc­ture that orga­nizes the audience’s visu­al expe­ri­ence. On Gov­er­nors Island, the piece will be per­formed and reimag­ined by local dancers and built in direct response to its envi­ron­ment. Co-Pre­sent­ed with L’Alliance New York as part of Cross­ing the Line Festival

Pre­vi­ous per­for­mances pre­sent­ed as part of INTER­VEN­TIONS include works by Modesto ​“Flako” Jimenez, Indige­nous Enter­prise, Dance Hegin­both­am, and Rena Anakwe. INTER­VEN­TIONS is curat­ed by Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. 

Orga­ni­za­tions in Residence

Each year, two dozen arts, cul­ture, edu­ca­tion­al, and envi­ron­men­tal non­prof­its uti­lize space inside the his­toric hous­es of Nolan Park and Colonels Row to present a robust cal­en­dar of free pub­lic pro­grams, host artist res­i­den­cies, and engage vis­i­tors in spe­cial activ­i­ties for all ages through­out the sum­mer months. Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence are open every Fri­day, Sat­ur­day, and Sun­day from 11am to 5pm through the end of October. 

Orga­ni­za­tions join­ing the cur­rent group of non­prof­its in Nolan Park and Colonels Row for the fall sea­son include New Art Deal­ers Alliance (NADA) and Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons, along with sev­er­al new exhi­bi­tions and events from the cur­rent Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence. NADA will present the sixth edi­tion of NADA House, bring­ing togeth­er 17 exhibitors from around the world pre­sent­ing 21 artists, with par­tic­i­pants engag­ing the unique char­ac­ter of the house’s his­toric space and exhibit­ing work in a diverse range of medi­ums. Escap­ing Time will exhib­it and sell art­works cre­at­ed with­in prison walls nation­wide, work­ing to dis­rupt the stereo­type soci­ety imag­ines when think­ing about the incarcerated. 

CLICK HERE TO MEET ALL OF THIS YEAR’S ORGA­NI­ZA­TIONS IN RESIDENCE »

Pub­lic Art Commissions

Jen­ny Kendler’s Oth­er of Pearl, pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and NRDC, will debut new fall hours begin­ning Sep­tem­ber 9, 2024 — the piece will be open Fri­day-Sun­day from 10am-5pm through Novem­ber 3, 2024. Locat­ed in the his­toric Fort Jay, Oth­er of Pearl fea­tures a series of sev­en inti­mate, del­i­cate works that con­front con­tem­po­rary envi­ron­men­tal issues — ocean noise, chem­i­cal pol­lu­tion, cli­mate change and sea lev­el rise — while call­ing atten­tion to the extrac­tive his­to­ries that form the ori­gin sto­ries of our cli­mate crisis. 

There are cur­rent­ly sev­en addi­tion­al tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art­works on dis­play through­out Gov­er­nors Island’s park and his­toric land­scapes, includ­ing Sheila Berger’s BIRD MMXXI­II, Sam Van Aken’s The Open Orchard, Duke Riley’s Not for Nut­ten, Mark Dion’s The Field Sta­tion of the Melan­choly Marine Biol­o­gist, Shantell Martin’s Church, Rachel Whiteread’s Cab­in, and Mark Handforth’s Yan­kee Hang­er.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL PUB­LIC ART COMMISSIONS »

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram­ming with the vision­ary sup­port of the Ford Foun­da­tion, as well the Mel­lon Foun­da­tion, the Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Don­ald R. Mullen Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion, Stavros Niar­chos Foun­da­tion, Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies, The Gottes­man Fund, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts, and the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Legislature.

Pho­to cred­its, L to R: Inua Ellams by Myah Jef­fers, cour­tesy the artist; Whale Bells, 2023, by Andrew Bearnot & Jen­ny Kendler as fea­tured in Kendler’s ​“Oth­er of Pearl,” art­work cour­tesy the artist and the Tar­ble Arts Cen­ter and pho­to by Juli­enne Schaer; Anal­pha­betes, pho­to cour­tesy L’Al­liance New York; and Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons 2023 exhi­bi­tion, pho­to by Juli­enne Schaer.

Aug 21 10:51 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and The New York Cli­mate Exchange announced today a sched­ule of more than 35 Cli­mate Week activ­i­ties tak­ing place on Gov­er­nors Island. Fea­tured cli­mate-focused pro­grams include guid­ed sus­tain­abil­i­ty tours, film screen­ings, tech show­cas­es, writ­ing and sto­ry­telling work­shops, and more. Events announced today high­light Gov­er­nors Island’s trans­for­ma­tion as a grow­ing resource for research and inno­va­tion in equi­table cli­mate solu­tions for New York City and the world.

“Our admin­is­tra­tion is set­ting the pace in the fight against cli­mate change, acti­vat­ing $725 mil­lion in pub­lic invest­ments to sup­port the Har­bor Cli­mate Col­lab­o­ra­tive, build­ing out our work­force to host 400,000 green jobs by 2040, and launch­ing the Cli­mate Exchange on Gov­er­nors Island in the mid­dle of New York Har­bor,” said Deputy May­or for Hous­ing, Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment and Work­force Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“I am excit­ed to see this robust week of pro­gram­ming from the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the New York Cli­mate Exchange to pre­view the inno­v­a­tive resources, events, and cur­ricu­lum that will be brought to the island through this once-in-a-gen­er­a­tion partnership.”

“Each year, Cli­mate Week NYC offers a remark­able oppor­tu­ni­ty to wit­ness first­hand how New York City is lead­ing the fight against cli­mate change and build­ing a stronger, more equi­table, and more resilient city,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Our cal­en­dar of events — Gov­er­nors Island’s biggest Cli­mate Week offer­ing to date — high­lights pro­gram­ming from the Trust, the Exchange, and the vibrant com­mu­ni­ty of cli­mate-focused ten­ants and part­ners here on the Island, shin­ing a light on this extra­or­di­nary space’s evo­lu­tion as a hub for urban cli­mate solutions.” 

“Cli­mate Week NYC attracts a glob­al audi­ence, and I’m excit­ed that this year we’re cre­at­ing a new ​“go-to” loca­tion and cli­mate week expe­ri­ence,” said Stephen Ham­mer, CEO of The New York Cli­mate Exchange. ​“Vis­i­tors can par­tic­i­pate in dis­cus­sions about the lat­est cli­mate pol­i­cy and finance dis­cus­sions, meet dozens of cli­mate tech entre­pre­neurs, and learn how inno­va­tors are try­ing to engage the pub­lic on cli­mate issues through an arts and cul­ture lens. Our pro­gram­ming will offer a sense of what we’ll do on a much big­ger scale once our full Gov­er­nors Island cam­pus is oper­a­tional in 2028.” 

In April 2023, May­or Eric Adams and the Trust announced The Exchange as the anchor research and edu­ca­tion­al part­ner for Gov­er­nors Island’s cli­mate ini­tia­tives. The Exchange, a new, 

non­prof­it ini­tia­tive estab­lished by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and a con­sor­tium of uni­ver­si­ties, busi­ness­es, and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, will cre­ate a state-of-the-art, $700-mil­lion cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island. This facil­i­ty will be ded­i­cat­ed to edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram­ming, research, cli­mate tech incu­ba­tion, and pol­i­cy work aimed at advanc­ing cli­mate action in New York City and else­where around the world. The full cam­pus is sched­uled to open to the pub­lic in 2028, but Exchange pro­gram­ming has already launched on Gov­er­nors Island and around the city.

Cli­mate Week NYC 2024 events on Gov­er­nors Island are orga­nized by the Trust, the Island’s com­mu­ni­ty of part­ners and ten­ants, and The Exchange and its core part­ners. Events will take place across Gov­er­nors Island, includ­ing at a new com­mu­ni­ty con­ven­ing space inside the for­mer Our Lady Star of the Sea — a decon­se­crat­ed for­mer mil­i­tary chapel locat­ed in the Island’s His­toric Dis­trict that fea­tures Church, Shantell Martin’s pop­u­lar pub­lic art­work com­mis­sioned through Gov­er­nors Island Arts, on its façade. This his­toric build­ing has recent­ly under­gone upgrades to cre­ate an acces­si­ble indoor space for com­mu­ni­ty events on Gov­er­nors Island.

A full sched­ule of events and pre­sent­ing orga­ni­za­tions can be found below and online at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​c​l​i​m​a​t​e​-week, with more to be announced in the com­ing weeks. 

Cli­mate Week NYC on Gov­er­nors Island Schedule:

ONGO­ING: Oth­er of Pearl, Jen­ny Kendler Gov­er­nors Island Arts and NRDC (Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Coun­cil) Open Wednes­day-Sun­day through Octo­ber 31 in Fort Jay — Pub­lic art instal­la­tion that tells the sto­ry of the extrac­tive his­to­ries that form the ori­gin sto­ries of the cli­mate and envi­ron­men­tal cri­sis, while con­sid­er­ing the oys­ter and whale as cen­tral play­ers in an eco­log­i­cal entan­gle­ment between human and non­hu­man beings, water­ways, and flows of cap­i­tal. Through sev­en del­i­cate works, the artist con­fronts con­tem­po­rary envi­ron­men­tal issues — cli­mate change, ocean noise, chem­i­cal pol­lu­tion, bio­di­ver­si­ty loss, and sea lev­el rise — while point­ing towards the cul­tur­al struc­tures that have allowed these cat­a­stro­phes to occur.

ONGO­ING: Sari Carel: A More Per­fect Cir­cle, KODA Open Fri­day-Sun­day through Octo­ber 31 in Colonels Row Build­ing 407B — Artist and activist Sari Carel presents a series of ceram­ic sculp­tures inspired by the sin­gle-use cof­fee cup, uncov­er­ing a sense of pow­er­less­ness and con­flict about a choice at the cen­ter of a dai­ly rou­tine. This pub­lic art instal­la­tion explores what hap­pens to this item when tossed into the trash can, and why we take it for granted.

ONGO­ING: [SUN] Flower Waves, Har­vest­works Open Fri­day-Sun­day through Octo­ber 31 in Nolan Park Build­ing 10A — This dig­i­tal media instal­la­tion by Vic­to­ria Ves­na in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Wal­ter Gekel­man explores the har­mo­nious inter­ac­tion between sun­flow­ers and Alfvén waves, demon­strat­ing how art and sci­ence con­verge to reveal deep­er understandings.

Sep­tem­ber 21, 1 – 4PM: Play is Pow­er: Design Your Own Cli­mate Game, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — In this series of con­sec­u­tive, hour-long work­shops, par­tic­i­pants will be guid­ed step-by-step through the process of design­ing their very own Cli­mate Game: a table­top, role-play­ing, or out­door game that explores a cli­mate issue of their choosing. 

Sep­tem­ber 21, 10AM-12PM & 2 – 4PM: Melt­ing Metrop­o­lis & Com­mu­ni­ty Spon­sor Lab Walk, Well­come Trust & The New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 22, 1 – 3PM: Earth, Wind, and Water demon­stra­tion, Earth Mat­ter NY Urban Farm — Dis­cov­er the role organ­ic mat­ter plays in water reten­tion, ero­sion con­trol, and car­bon sequestration.

Sep­tem­ber 22, 1 – 4PM: Day of Action / Engage­ment, NYU & New York Cli­mate Exchange 

Sep­tem­ber 22, 2 – 2:30PM: Cli­mate Week Seed Col­lect­ing, The Bee Con­ser­van­cy Urban Farm — Col­lect seeds with the Bee Con­ser­van­cy at their Bee Sanc­tu­ary on Gov­er­nors Island’s Urban Farm — par­tic­i­pants will get seed col­lect­ing tips, learn about seed strat­i­fi­ca­tion and ger­mi­na­tion, and hear how cli­mate and its changes impact the bee and plant species on Gov­er­nors Island and beyond.

Sep­tem­ber 22 – 25, 5 – 7PM: Cli­mate Week Walk­ing Tours, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project Nolan Park Build­ing 16 — Join a Cli­mate Week walk­ing tour to explore Bil­lion Oys­ter Project’s vibrant efforts in restor­ing New York Har­bor’s oys­ter reefs and their impact on com­bat­ing cli­mate change.

Sep­tem­ber 23, 9 – 11AM: New Rec­om­men­da­tions for Cli­mate Actions in Cities from ARC3.3, Urban Cli­mate Change Research Net­work & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 23, 12 – 3PM: Extreme Heat Sur­vival Through a Pub­lic Health Lens: Intro­duc­ing Project HEAT­WAVE (Part1), NYU & The New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 23, 3 – 4:30PM: Ready Set Act! An Eth­i­cal Frame­work for a Rapid­ly Chang­ing Cli­mate Com­mu­ni­ty, Amer­i­can Geo­phys­i­cal Union & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 23, 5 – 7PM: Urban@UW’s Research to Action Col­lab­o­ra­to­ry, Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton & The New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 24, 10AM-1PM: Solu­tions to the Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Chal­lenges in the NYC Region, Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 24, 10AM-2PM: Adaptation(s) 2.0 Guid­ed Tours, Pratt Insti­tute Cen­ter for Cli­mate Adap­ta­tion Nolan Park Build­ing 14 — Guid­ed tour of exhi­bi­tions that spot­light dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives on cli­mate adap­ta­tion and strate­gies in arch­i­pel­a­gos — com­mu­ni­ties at the great­est risk and in need of find­ing liv­able solu­tions for future cli­mate change. 

Sep­tem­ber 24, 3 – 5:30PM: Charg­ing Ahead: Glob­al Strate­gies for Bus Elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, Crux Alliance & The New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 24, 4 – 6PM: IA Island(ing) Adap­ta­tions Dis­cus­sion, Pratt Insti­tute Cen­ter for Cli­mate Adap­ta­tion Admiral’s House — Pan­el dis­cus­sion bring­ing togeth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tion from high lev­el gov­ern­ment offi­cials, inno­v­a­tive design­ers, finan­cial lead­ers, and pol­i­cy mak­ers. Par­tic­i­pants will share their per­spec­tives and engage one anoth­er and the audi­ence in dis­cus­sion through a mod­er­at­ed dis­cus­sion and a Q&A.

Sep­tem­ber 24, 4 – 6PM: Adaptation(s) 2.0, Pratt Insti­tute Cen­ter for Cli­mate Adap­ta­tion & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only) — Join for a guid­ed exhi­bi­tion tour and pan­el discussion.

Sep­tem­ber 25, 9AM-6PM: NYCE Cli­mate Tech Show­case, The New York Cli­mate Exchange 

Sep­tem­ber 26, 10 – 11:30 AM: Imag­in­ing Cli­mate Resilient and Thriv­ing Com­mu­ni­ties through Youth Edu­ca­tion Pro­grams, Geor­gia Tech & New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 26, Liv­ing Build­ings are Resilient Build­ings: Cli­mate Mit­i­ga­tion AND Adap­ta­tion, Geor­gia Tech & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 26, 6:30 – 8:30PM: Film Screen­ing and Pan­el: ​“Get­ting Out­side the Cli­mate Bub­ble,” Well­come Trust & The New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 27, 1 – 3PM: Healthy Choic­es, Healthy Plan­et: Cli­mate Aware­ness in Health Edu­ca­tion, Pace Uni­ver­si­ty & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 27, 11AM-1PM: Sus­tain­able Sto­ry­telling: On and Off Cam­era, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and the ​“Micro-Plas­ti­na­tion” film crew Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Learn what makes an impact­ful sto­ry that inspires change both on and off cam­era. This pan­el will include a mix­er with oth­er media-mak­ers and a pre­view of an upcom­ing short film: ​“Micro-Plas­ti­na­tion.”

Sep­tem­ber 27, 1 – 4PM: Sus­tain­able Sto­ries: Cli­mate, Food, and Cul­ture through Diverse Voic­es, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and The Uproot Project Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — A keynote on the inter­sec­tion of diver­si­ty, cul­ture, and food as cli­mate solu­tions, fol­lowed by a pan­el dis­cus­sion and work­shop offer­ing sto­ry­telling tech­niques for envi­ron­men­tal jour­nal­ism and insights into high­light­ing these cru­cial intersections.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 10AM-5PM: Imag­i­nary Acoustic Visions of Cas­tle Williams, Har­vest­works & New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 28 & 29, 11AM-1PM: Cli­mate Fic­tion Work­shop with Author Susan Kaye Quinn, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and the NYC Cli­mate Writ­ers Col­lec­tive Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Write a sto­ry to build a bet­ter world! This event, orga­nized by the NYC Cli­mate Writ­ers Col­lec­tive, will spark cre­ativ­i­ty in every­one — no mat­ter their pre­vi­ous writ­ing experience.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 11AM-5PM: Flower Plas­ma by Vic­to­ria Ves­na in col­lab­o­ra­tion with plas­ma physi­cist Wal­ter Gekel­man and bio­med­ical engi­neer Haley Marks, Har­vest­works Nolan Park Build­ing 10A — Spe­cial instal­la­tion fea­tur­ing sound and images from UCLA’s Large Plas­ma Device, solar wind data from NASA’s Park­er Solar Probe, and nat­ur­al record­ings — offer­ing an immer­sive med­i­ta­tion on solar ener­gy and the cycle of cre­ation and destruction.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 1 – 3PM: Cli­mate Café at the Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — An uplift­ing after­noon of refresh­ments, med­i­ta­tion, and a mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tion on cli­mate emo­tions. Par­tic­i­pants can enjoy cof­fee and snacks with oth­ers in the cli­mate com­mu­ni­ty as they share their feel­ings and get to know oth­ers in the movement.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 2 – 2:30PM: Gar­den­ing for Cli­mate Change, GrowNYC Urban Farm —  This guid­ed tour will focus on how cli­mate change will impact gar­den­ing, what GrowNYC’s Teach­ing Gar­den on Gov­er­nors Island does to mit­i­gate its impact on cli­mate change, and how gar­dens can adapt to a chang­ing climate.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 2 – 3:30PM: Cli­mate Week Pol­li­na­tor Walk, The Bee Con­ser­van­cy Urban Farm — Learn about New York City’s pol­li­na­tors (and the habi­tats that sup­port them) and explore nature through a pollinator’s lens with an expe­ri­enced guide from the Bee Conservancy. 

Sep­tem­ber 28, 2 – 3:30PM: Gov­er­nors Island Bird Tour, NYC Bird Alliance and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Colonels Row Build­ing 405B — Whether you’re an expert bird­er or a begin­ner, this guid­ed tour — led by an NYC Bird Alliance edu­ca­tor along with the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s arborist — will help you dis­cov­er all of the birdlife the Island has to offer, and how the Island’s trees pro­vide vital habitat. 

Sep­tem­ber 28, 2:30 – 3PM: Imag­ined Futures: Grief & Seeds, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and Holes in the Wall Col­lec­tive Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Vis­it the Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um for three embod­ied activ­i­ties to learn about alter­na­tive time scales — bear­ing wit­ness to our fear and our col­lec­tive respon­si­bil­i­ty to where we go from here. 

Sep­tem­ber 28, 3 – 5PM: The Chase (EP) Release Par­ty: A Cli­mate Week Jam, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and Cre­dle Enter­tain­ment Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Cel­e­brate the close of Cli­mate Week with the release of CREDLE’s 5^th stu­dio project, The Chase (EP), an Afropop, R&B, and House genre-focused music project.

Sep­tem­ber 29, 3 – 5PM: Grief & Seeds: Hon­or­ing the Past, Cre­at­ing the Future, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um, Holes in the Wall Col­lec­tive, Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Close out Cli­mate Week with inten­tion at this gath­er­ing to hon­or place and pos­si­bil­i­ty. Fea­tur­ing elder and activist Jk Canepa, youth orga­niz­er Anna Tso­mo with youth from 6^th St. Com­mu­ni­ty Cli­mate Action group, a pop­up seed gath­er­ing with Next Epoch Seed Library, and a clos­ing rit­u­al led by Noelle Ghous­sai­ni of Sacred Space. 

Sep­tem­ber 28, 3 – 6PM: Remem­ber Ida: A 3^rd Anniver­sary Pod­cast Lis­ten­ing Ses­sion and Reflec­tion Cir­cle, Queens Mem­o­ry Project & New York Cli­mate Exchange

On View Dai­ly: Gov­er­nors Island Arts Pub­lic Artworks

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust, boasts a diverse col­lec­tion of pub­lic art pieces, sev­er­al of which engage direct­ly with issues of cli­mate and the environment: 

• Sam Van Aken’s The Open Orchard, locat­ed in The Hills with­in the Island’s award-win­ning park, takes the form of a vast pub­lic orchard of hybrid fruit trees, each con­tain­ing mul­ti­ple heir­loom vari­eties that were once found in abun­dance in the New York City area but have large­ly dis­ap­peared due to cli­mate change and the indus­tri­al­iza­tion of agriculture.
• Mark Dion’s The Field Sta­tion of the Melan­choly Marine Biol­o­gist, locat­ed inside Build­ing 105 across from Fort Jay, trans­forms a his­toric for­mer arse­nal build­ing into an aban­doned research out­post that invites vis­i­tors to peer inside and imag­ine the life of a soli­tary researcher faced with the real­i­ties of a future marred by cli­mate change.
• Duke Riley’s Not for Nut­ten, locat­ed in the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing fer­ry ter­mi­nal at 10 South Street in Man­hat­tan, is a large-scale mur­al depict­ing vignettes from the Island’s his­to­ry con­tained with­in mod­ern-day sin­gle-use plas­tic con­tain­ers found float­ing in oceans world­wide in a play on the tra­di­tion­al ​“ship in a bottle.”

Orga­nized by the Cli­mate Group, Cli­mate Week NYC runs Sep­tem­ber 22 – 29, 2024, and is the largest annu­al cli­mate event of its kind. With a unique water­front cam­pus envi­ron­ment, an award-win­ning park engi­neered for cli­mate change; a diverse and engaged audi­ence of near­ly one mil­lion vis­i­tors every year; cli­mate pilot­ing and edu­ca­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties; a col­lec­tion of pub­lic art com­mis­sions engag­ing direct­ly with cli­mate issues; and a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of edu­ca­tion­al, non­prof­it, and com­mer­cial ten­ants — includ­ing Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, Beam Cen­ter, Wind Sup­port NYC, the soon-to-open But­ter­milk Labs, and The New York Cli­mate Exchange — Gov­er­nors Island is at the fore­front of research­ing and demon­strat­ing cli­mate solu­tions built for cities. 

The Trust’s Gov­er­nors Island Cli­mate pro­grams are made pos­si­ble with the gen­er­ous sup­port of Ama­zon, Con Edi­son, Deutsche Bank, the Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, LISC, and the New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.

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.

About The New York Cli­mate Exchange

The New York Cli­mate Exchange (The Exchange) is a new not-for-prof­it cli­mate solu­tions cen­ter designed to build com­mu­ni­ty, fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion, advance cli­mate knowl­edge, and empow­er mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties through cross-dis­ci­pli­nary net­work­ing, impact­ful pro­gram­ming, and cut­ting-edge facil­i­ties. While The Exchange will have a phys­i­cal pres­ence on Gov­er­nors Island, its spir­it and influ­ence will extend beyond the Island into New York City and across the coun­try and world. Our diverse coali­tion of part­ners — com­mit­ted and pre­pared to col­lec­tive­ly dis­rupt the sta­tus quo — incor­po­rates local and glob­al per­spec­tives on cli­mate change from acad­e­mia, the pri­vate sec­tor, and com­mu­ni­ty-lev­el orga­ni­za­tions. As the first of its kind, The Exchange will unlock inte­grat­ed and scal­able approach­es to sus­tain­abil­i­ty, ulti­mate­ly serv­ing as a glob­al mod­el for sus­tain­able pos­i­tive change. 

Aug 20 12:00 am

Guest post by Col­by Dor­cé­ly, Cli­mate Pro­grams Intern at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island

In June 2023, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island launched its Cli­mate Solu­tions Pilot­ing Pro­gram, a call for pilot­ing and demon­stra­tion projects address­ing cli­mate mit­i­ga­tion, cli­mate adap­ta­tion, and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice in New York City and cities around the world. One year lat­er, after select­ing the inau­gur­al cohort of pilot­ing projects, the Trust held its first cli­mate demo days fea­tur­ing projects includ­ing inno­va­tions relat­ed to liv­ing shore­lines, urban aqua­cul­ture, water and air qual­i­ty, and indoor agri­cul­ture. Through­out these two events, vis­i­tors had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inter­act with these inno­v­a­tive projects and the pas­sion­ate indi­vid­u­als behind them. 

The work being show­cased on Gov­er­nors Island demon­strates the Trust’s efforts to cre­ate real-world oppor­tu­ni­ties for inno­va­tion, sup­port the growth of ear­ly-stage com­pa­nies, and engage New York­ers in the cli­mate solu­tions that are cre­at­ing the jobs of the future. Pilot­ing at Gov­er­nors Island sup­ports New York City’s Green Econ­o­my Action Plan, which address­es the chal­lenge of cli­mate change while cre­at­ing trans­for­ma­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­pa­nies and New York­ers across the five boroughs. 

On Thurs­day, July 11, 2024, the Island wel­comed over 100 atten­dees from var­i­ous sec­tors of the cli­mate world for a Cli­mate Demo Day Pre­view event, includ­ing fun­ders, inno­va­tors, and pol­i­cy­mak­ers. The event opened with a wel­come by Deputy May­or Maria Tor­res-Springer, who has been a crit­i­cal cham­pi­on in sup­port­ing the growth of Gov­er­nors Island as a Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions. Her pres­ence under­scored the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts in address­ing cli­mate chal­lenges and high­light­ed the city’s com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing an inclu­sive and trans­for­ma­tive green economy.

The excite­ment from the Demo Day Pre­view car­ried over into the week­end with a fam­i­ly-friend­ly Cli­mate Pilot­ing Sum­mer Kick­off held on City of Water Day, July 13, 2024. The even­t’s cen­ter­piece fea­tured ground­break­ing projects from the win­ners of the Water Abun­dance Chal­lenge, the Trust’s first-ever themed chal­lenge, aim­ing to answer how water can help to pow­er cli­mate solu­tions that grow blue and green jobs and cre­ate health­i­er com­mu­ni­ties. Through­out City of Water Day, vis­i­tors had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inter­act with these inno­v­a­tive projects and the pas­sion­ate indi­vid­u­als behind them. 

Isabelle Stin­nette, Restora­tion Man­ag­er for the New York-New Jer­sey Har­bor and Estu­ary Pro­gram at the Hud­son Riv­er Foun­da­tion, one of the orga­niz­ing bod­ies behind City of Water Day, expressed her admi­ra­tion for the event, stat­ing, ​“I think it’s real­ly nice that this is a hotbed of inno­va­tion, espe­cial­ly cli­mate-focused inno­va­tion. There’s a safe space for these small com­pa­nies and non­prof­its to pilot their projects, share with the com­mu­ni­ty, and get input and help.” 

The fol­low­ing sec­tions detail spe­cif­ic projects that cap­ti­vat­ed atten­dees and show­cased the poten­tial for sus­tain­able urban development.

Air Qual­i­ty Mon­i­tor­ing with South Bronx Unite

South Bronx Unite show­cased an air qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing ini­tia­tive aimed at iden­ti­fy­ing pol­lu­tion sources and their health impacts in the South Bronx. 

“Air qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing is not some­thing that every­body is famil­iar with,” said Leslie Vasquez, Clean Air Pro­gram Orga­niz­er. ​“We need to advo­cate for pol­i­cy changes based on our data.” This project uti­lizes autonomous, solar-pow­ered mon­i­tors to pro­vide real-time data, help­ing to push for clean­er air and bet­ter health resources in dis­ad­van­taged com­mu­ni­ties. By involv­ing the com­mu­ni­ty in mon­i­tor­ing efforts, South Bronx Unite aims to raise aware­ness and dri­ve pol­i­cy changes that can sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve air qual­i­ty and pub­lic health outcomes.

Find South Bronx Unite’s air qual­i­ty mon­i­tor at the base of Out­look Hill.

Duro UAS: Real-Time Water Qual­i­ty Data

Duro UAS, show­cased their Inter­net of Things (IoT) water qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing devices, which pro­vide real-time data to track water conditions. 

“Engag­ing the pub­lic and show­ing them the amaz­ing cli­mate tech projects hap­pen­ing here is essen­tial,” empha­sized Bri­an Wil­son, Co-Founder and CEO. Duro UAS’s dig­i­tal sen­sors offer a prac­ti­cal solu­tion for mon­i­tor­ing water qual­i­ty, mak­ing it eas­i­er to man­age and improve water resources. Their tech­nol­o­gy not only helps in detect­ing pol­lu­tants but also in under­stand­ing broad­er envi­ron­men­tal trends, there­by enabling more informed deci­sion-mak­ing for water man­age­ment and con­ser­va­tion efforts.

Check out Duro UAS’s son­des in the waters off of Yan­kee Pier and Sois­sons Landing.

LAERO: Trans­form­ing Grey­wa­ter Treatment

LAERO intro­duced Cycleau, a com­pact grey­wa­ter treat­ment sys­tem that can be installed under sinks, show­ers, and laun­dry units. 

“By treat­ing grey­wa­ter where it’s gen­er­at­ed, we can reduce the num­ber of pol­lu­tants enter­ing our water­ways,” high­light­ed founder Noe­mi Flo­rea. This inno­v­a­tive sys­tem has the poten­tial to sig­nif­i­cant­ly decrease urban waste­water pol­lu­tion, pro­vid­ing a sus­tain­able solu­tion for res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial use. LAERO’s approach to onsite water treat­ment rep­re­sents a shift towards decen­tral­ized water man­age­ment, which can alle­vi­ate the bur­den on munic­i­pal treat­ment facil­i­ties and con­tribute to health­i­er urban water­ways. The prod­uct oper­ates as a stand­alone piece of equip­ment and can also inte­grate into a household’s exist­ing sup­ply lines and drain­pipes, equip­ping res­i­dents and com­mu­ni­ties with an afford­able and scal­able option to improve their own water infrastructure.

Dis­cov­er the Cycleau device in action at the Parade Ground water sta­tion and inside the ADA bath­room at Yan­kee Pier.

Eco­log­i­cal Inno­va­tion by Object Territories

Object Ter­ri­to­ries pre­sent­ed their project focused on cre­at­ing urban habi­tats along shorelines. 

“Our goal is to fos­ter eco­log­i­cal stew­ard­ship and cre­ate sus­tain­able urban envi­ron­ments,” stat­ed Mar­cus Carter, Part­ner at Object Ter­ri­to­ries. Mar­cus is also an Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor at Rens­se­laer Poly­tech­nic Insti­tute, where his stu­dents work along­side experts to design and imple­ment urban micro­hab­i­tats along shore­lines. This hands-on involve­ment pro­vides them with prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence in sus­tain­able urban plan­ning, prepar­ing them to con­tribute to future urban resilience initiatives. 

Their designs allow vis­i­tors to inter­act with and under­stand the impor­tance of urban eco­log­i­cal sys­tems, pro­mot­ing a deep­er con­nec­tion to nature with­in the city and were designed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Cen­ter for Archi­tec­ture, Sci­ence, and Ecol­o­gy (CASE) at Rens­se­laer Poly­tech­nic Insti­tute, after­NA­TURE, and Fort Miller Group. The Object Ter­ri­to­ries team aims to enhance bio­di­ver­si­ty and resilience in urban areas, mak­ing cities more liv­able and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly by inte­grat­ing green spaces and nat­ur­al habi­tats into urban planning.

Find Object Ter­ri­to­ries’ instal­la­tions along the shore­lines near Yan­kee Pier lat­er this year.

RETI Cen­ter: Water­front Resilience

RETI Cen­ter dis­cussed their ini­tia­tives relat­ed to coastal activ­i­ties like kelp har­vest­ing and their float­ing Blue­Blocks Gardens. 

“RETI Cen­ter pro­vides train­ing pro­grams for peo­ple involved in coastal activ­i­ties and work­force devel­op­ment for a more sus­tain­able city and urban envi­ron­ments,” explained project team mem­ber Greg Pucil­lo. ​“I’m excit­ed to see the launch out into the water and also to engage with oth­er groups on Gov­er­nors Island who are pilot­ing new projects to envi­sion a future for New York City’s water­front. Our goal is to fos­ter a broad­er con­ver­sa­tion about sus­tain­abil­i­ty in con­nec­tion with the water.” 

New York City youth are active­ly involved in RETI Center’s projects. They par­tic­i­pate in hands-on learn­ing expe­ri­ences, help­ing to build and main­tain the Blue­Blocks Gar­dens and kelp har­vest­ing sys­tems. This engage­ment not only pro­vides valu­able work­force train­ing but also instills a deep­er under­stand­ing of sus­tain­able prac­tices and the impor­tance of eco­log­i­cal stewardship​. The Blue­Blocks Gar­dens allow marine habi­tat to thrive both in and above the water, sup­port­ing wildlife and build­ing a liv­ing shore­line. When deployed in large instal­la­tions, they are envi­sioned to absorb and slow down wave action in low-lying water­front communities. 

Find RETI Center’s Blue­Blocks Gar­dens float­ing off Yan­kee Pier.

GrowNYC: Hydro­pon­ics for Urban Agriculture

GrowNYC high­light­ed the ben­e­fits of hydro­pon­ic farm­ing with their con­tain­er farm locat­ed on Gov­er­nors Island — a joint effort between the orga­ni­za­tion, Con Edi­son, the Elec­tric Pow­er Research Insti­tute (EPRI), and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island.

“Hydro­pon­ics can mit­i­gate many chal­lenges faced by tra­di­tion­al agri­cul­ture, espe­cial­ly in a chang­ing cli­mate,” observed Bar­ry Roth­stein, Con­tain­er Farm Coor­di­na­tor. GrowNYC’s sys­tem uses sig­nif­i­cant­ly less water and space, mak­ing it a viable option for urban food pro­duc­tion and con­tribut­ing to food secu­ri­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. This approach not only con­serves water resources but also pro­vides a scal­able mod­el for urban agri­cul­ture, which can be adopt­ed by com­mu­ni­ties to improve local food sys­tems and reduce their envi­ron­men­tal footprint. 

GrowNYC’s con­tain­er farm is locat­ed on the Parade Ground behind the Colonels Row houses.

Sea­weed City: Urban Sea­weed Farming

Sea­weed City explores the poten­tial of urban sea­weed farm­ing for envi­ron­men­tal remediation. 

“Sea­weed farm­ing can help clean our water­ways and cre­ate marine habi­tats,” explained co-founder Luke Eddins. Their project aims to use sea­weed to extract excess nutri­ents from the water, com­bat ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion, and pro­vide raw mate­ri­als for sus­tain­able products. 

“I’m excit­ed because my nephews are here, and I’m real­ly excit­ed to share some water activ­i­ty with them and see how much I love plants,” added co-founder Shan­jana Mah­mud. Grow­ing sea­weed through urban aqua­cul­ture cre­ates a small­er car­bon foot­print than land-based agri­cul­ture and presents an oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage New York­ers in farm­ing meth­ods for a sus­tain­able future. Through that, Sea­weed City hopes to pro­mote an eco­log­i­cal­ly, eco­nom­i­cal­ly, and cul­tur­al­ly pro­duc­tive shore­line. Sea­weed City’s pilot­ing project is fis­cal­ly spon­sored by New­town Creek Alliance.

Check out Sea­weed City’s Urban Sea­weed Nurs­ery in the waters off Yan­kee Pier lat­er this year.

Just EcoC­i­ties & Bio­hab­i­tats: Tidal Planters

Just EcoC­i­ties and Bio­hab­i­tats intro­duced their tidal planter project, a col­lab­o­ra­tion aimed at improv­ing water qual­i­ty and expand­ing wet­land habi­tats. ​“We’re pilot­ing this project to address com­bined sew­er over­flows and enhance urban bio­di­ver­si­ty,” men­tioned Jamie Ong, Founder of Just EcoCities. 

“It’s been real­ly excit­ing today to talk to dif­fer­ent peo­ple and see who knows about com­bined sew­er over­flows, who doesn’t, and then get input on what they think are rea­son­able solu­tions,” added Kevin Dahms, Water Resources Engi­neer at Biohabitats. 

Their tidal planters act as mini-wet­lands, fil­ter­ing water and pro­vid­ing habi­tat for wildlife. This tech­nol­o­gy pro­vides a mod­el for expand­ing marsh habi­tat through­out urban water­fronts with lim­it­ed space on land or with no nat­ur­al shore­lines. The project exem­pli­fies how design inno­va­tion and com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment can work togeth­er to estab­lish marsh habi­tat through­out urban water­fronts, clean up pol­lut­ed water, and increase con­nec­tion with local waterways.

Find Just EcoC­i­ties & Bio­hab­i­tats’ tidal planters near the water­front at Yan­kee Pier lat­er this year.

Vycarb

Brook­lyn-based start­up Vycarb has devel­oped a new sys­tem for mea­sur­ing and remov­ing green­house gas car­bon diox­ide (CO₂) in water. CO₂ is increas­ing in the atmos­phere, warm­ing the plan­et, and in the ocean, where it harms ocean life. In the East Riv­er, CO₂ is excep­tion­al­ly high because of pol­lu­tion, con­tribut­ing to glob­al warm­ing and acid­i­fy­ing the water. Through car­bon cap­ture, cli­mate change impacts can be mit­i­gat­ed in water. With its first of its kind tech­nol­o­gy for cap­tur­ing and mea­sur­ing CO₂ in water, Vycarb is able to reverse ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion and remove cli­mate-warm­ing CO2 in the waters just off this pier. Vycar­b’s mod­u­lar, scal­able mod­el opens up oppor­tu­ni­ties for all com­mu­ni­ties to inte­grate car­bon cap­ture tech­nolo­gies into urban envi­ron­ments to achieve envi­ron­men­tal and eco­nom­ic benefits. 

Vycar­b’s drop-in water treat­ment sys­tem can be seen at Pier 102.

By bring­ing togeth­er diverse solu­tions and fos­ter­ing pub­lic engage­ment, the cli­mate pilot­ing projects on Gov­er­nors Island demon­strate one impor­tant step towards a sus­tain­able future by wel­com­ing all vis­i­tors to meet a diverse cohort of cli­mate inno­va­tors and to learn about cli­mate solu­tions in devel­op­ment today. The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing such inno­v­a­tive projects under­scores the poten­tial for cities to become hubs of envi­ron­men­tal solu­tions and resilience. As these ini­tia­tives con­tin­ue to evolve, they hold the promise of mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to urban sus­tain­abil­i­ty and cli­mate resilience, set­ting an inspir­ing exam­ple for oth­er cities around the world. The Trust is grate­ful to the sup­port­ers of Gov­er­nors Island’s cli­mate pro­grams, includ­ing ConEdi­son, Ama­zon, New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust, the Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, Deutsche Bank, and LISC.

Aug 7 10:01 am

Gov­er­nors Island Arts announced today the third annu­al House Fest, a free fes­ti­val cel­e­brat­ing the incred­i­ble range of works pre­sent­ed by the sea­son­al arts, cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al, and envi­ron­men­tal Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence on Gov­er­nors Island. From August 16 – 19, 2024, Gov­er­nors Island Arts will bring togeth­er more than two dozen cul­tur­al part­ners for an annu­al cre­ative cel­e­bra­tion in and around the his­toric for­mer mil­i­tary hous­es of Nolan Park and Colonels Row on the Island, fea­tur­ing more than 50 free dance and music per­for­mances, out­door instal­la­tions, inter­ac­tive work­shops, open stu­dios, and more.

“This year’s House Fest is our biggest yet, fea­tur­ing orga­ni­za­tions and artists from every sin­gle bor­ough in what is tru­ly a city­wide cel­e­bra­tion,” said Lau­ren Haynes, Head Cura­tor, Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Vice Pres­i­dent at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Gov­er­nors Island Arts is priv­i­leged to work along­side our part­ners and col­lab­o­ra­tors to con­tin­ue to bring trans­for­ma­tive per­for­mances and pro­grams to Island vis­i­tors and all New Yorkers.”

“Each year, Nolan Park and Colonels Row come alive with cul­tur­al offer­ings in our city’s most unique set­ting, and we are so excit­ed to high­light this incred­i­ble artis­tic com­mu­ni­ty at House Fest for the third year in a row,” said Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We’re grate­ful to every­one that makes this pro­gram such a suc­cess year after year, and invite all New York­ers to hop on the fer­ry and make some last­ing cul­tur­al mem­o­ries at this year’s House Fest.” 

House Fest will fea­ture sev­er­al new pro­grams pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts, includ­ing a Pro­jec­tion Map­ping Par­ty curat­ed by Sal­ly Twin, a work­shop with NYC-based drum­line Fogo Azul, per­for­mances from Miri­am Elha­jli, Zoh Amba, and Eliana Glass and Eli Fola, and an inter­gen­er­a­tional social dance par­ty with Dance is Life NYC. These events will take place along­side pub­lic pro­grams and acti­va­tions from the program’s two dozen sea­son­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence that include Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House, Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed, Art­Crawl Harlem, Flux Fac­to­ry, Stat­en Island Urban Cen­ter, Swale, Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons, Bronx Coun­cil on the Arts, the Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary African Dias­po­ran Art (MoCA­DA), and many more. 

A full sched­ule of events and list of pre­sent­ing orga­ni­za­tions can be found at www.gov​is​land​.org/​h​o​u​s​e​-fest, with more events to be announced in the com­ing weeks. 

The 2024 Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence are:
Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House Man­hat­tan, AnkhLave Arts Alliance Man­hat­tan, Art­Crawl Harlem Man­hat­tan, BronxArt­Space The Bronx, Bronx Coun­cil on the Arts The Bronx, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project Man­hat­tan, caribBE­ING Brook­lyn, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um Man­hat­tan, DuYe Moves Brook­lyn, Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons Man­hat­tan, Filmshop Man­hat­tan, Flux Fac­to­ry Queens, Foun­tain House Gallery Man­hat­tan, Har­vest­works Man­hat­tan, KODA Brook­lyn, The Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary African Dias­po­ran Arts (MoCA­DA) Brook­lyn, New Art, Deal­ers Alliance (NADA) Man­hat­tan, New York Arts Pro­gram Man­hat­tan, New York Latin Amer­i­can Art Tri­en­ni­al Man­hat­tan, NYC Bird Alliance Man­hat­tan, Pratt Insti­tute Cen­ter for Cli­mate Adap­ta­tion Brook­lyn, Red Hook Ini­tia­tive and Red Hook Art Project Brook­lyn, Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed (RU) Brook­lyn, Stat­en Island Urban Cen­ter Stat­en Island, Swale Brook­lyn, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Coun­cil Queens, and the West Harlem Art Fund Man­hat­tan.

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 com­mis­sions, with works cur­rent­ly on view by Jen­ny Kendler, Sheila Berg­er, Sam Van Aken, Duke Riley, Shantell Mar­tin, Rachel Whiteread, and Mark Hand­forth; the annu­al Orga­ni­za­tion in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es; and free pub­lic pro­grams and events like the month­ly INTER­VEN­TIONS per­for­mance series, which has fea­tured Modesto ​“Flako” Jimenez, Indige­nous Enter­prise, Dance Hegin­both­am, Rena Anakwe, and more to be announced. 

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram­ming with the vision­ary sup­port of the Ford Foun­da­tion, as well the Mel­lon Foun­da­tion, the Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Don­ald R. Mullen Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion, Stavros Niar­chos Foun­da­tion, Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies, The Gottes­man Fund, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts, and the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Legislature.

Aug 5 10:17 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today announced today that the team behind long-time Gov­er­nors Island ven­dor Taco Vista – includ­ing David Hitch­n­er and Zach Mack of Alpha­bet City Beer Co. and Miche­lin-Star Exec­u­tive Chef Eduard Frauned­er – will be expand­ing to devel­op a year-round, three-part din­ing and events con­cept with­in the water­front his­toric build­ing adja­cent to their exist­ing sea­son­al restau­rant. The team was award­ed the project fol­low­ing a Request for Pro­pos­als released in July 2022 invit­ing oper­a­tors of event, food and bev­er­age, and hos­pi­tal­i­ty venues to ground lease, rede­vel­op and oper­ate the build­ing. The project announced today builds upon the Trust’s recent mile­stone of open­ing Gov­er­nors Island to the pub­lic year-round and sup­ports the long-term vision to expand vis­i­tor ameni­ties while breath­ing new life into fifty land­marked for­mer mil­i­tary buildings.

“Since open­ing to the pub­lic year-round in 2021, Gov­er­nors Island has grown into a des­ti­na­tion for all sea­sons for near­ly one mil­lion vis­i­tors each year,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We are excit­ed to announce this new, expand­ed vision from the Taco Vista team that will increase deli­cious, afford­able year-round food offer­ings for vis­i­tors while restor­ing one of Gov­er­nors Island’s most trea­sured his­toric struc­tures at Sois­sons Landing.” 

“Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues to be a unique des­ti­na­tion for inno­va­tion, open space, and art in the mid­dle of New York Habor, attract­ing near­ly a mil­lion vis­i­tors a year,” said Deputy May­or for Hous­ing, Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment and Work­force Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“Taco Vis­ta’s expan­sion into this his­toric space will be a won­der­ful asset for vis­i­tors year-round. The Adams admin­is­tra­tion is proud to sup­port the growth of this small busi­ness on the island with City cap­i­tal funding.”

“Expand­ing food options while also restor­ing his­toric Build­ing 140 is what Gov­er­nors Island is all about: Find­ing new ways to wel­come vis­i­tors year-round and pre­serv­ing the island’s his­to­ry,” said Man­hat­tan Bor­ough Pres­i­dent Mark Levine. ​“I’m thrilled for this new project and look for­ward to vis­it­ing when it opens.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is a year-round des­ti­na­tion, so it should have great year-round food options,” said New York State Sen­a­tor Andrew Gounardes. ​“By cre­at­ing this new venue while revi­tal­iz­ing a his­toric build­ing, the Trust con­tin­ues to expand the Island’s cul­tur­al offer­ings while pre­serv­ing and uplift­ing its past. Gov­er­nors Island is such a unique space for New York­ers to learn, explore, study our cli­mate and sim­ply enjoy the out­doors — these new food offer­ings make that already-rich expe­ri­ence even rich­er. I can’t wait to stop by to see the fin­ished project.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is set to become an even more vibrant all-sea­son des­ti­na­tion with the addi­tion of these new din­ing options,” said New York State Assem­bly­man Charles Fall. ​“The restora­tion of his­toric Build­ing 140 along­side these excit­ing food venues enhances the island’s cul­tur­al and recre­ation­al appeal. It’s a fan­tas­tic space for New York­ers to explore, learn, and enjoy out­door activ­i­ties. I look for­ward to expe­ri­enc­ing these new offer­ings and see­ing the revi­tal­ized land­mark come to life.”

Expand­ing beyond their sea­son­al water­front con­cept Taco Vista, which has oper­at­ed on Gov­er­nors Island since 2018, the team will be under­tak­ing a care­ful his­toric restora­tion neigh­bor­ing Build­ing 140, while com­plete­ly ren­o­vat­ing the inte­ri­or to cre­ate a mod­ern, mul­ti-use food and bev­er­age con­cept. The 10,000 SF project will include three dis­tinct venues: Priscil­la’s, a year-round café serv­ing cof­fee, pas­tries, and light lunch fare on a dai­ly basis, with an expand­ed menu on its water­front ter­race pair­ing care­ful­ly craft­ed cock­tails, local beers, and small pro­duc­tion wines with a coastal Mediter­ranean-inspired menu; The River­line, an indoor-out­door full-ser­vice restau­rant that will have the abil­i­ty to host spe­cial events; and a reimag­ined Taco Vista serv­ing fam­i­ly-friend­ly Mex­i­can fare and drinks. 

The build­ing is locat­ed adja­cent to Gov­er­nors Island’s pri­ma­ry fer­ry dock with 7‑minute ser­vice to Low­er Man­hat­tan, and fea­tures unob­struct­ed views of the Low­er Man­hat­tan sky­line, Brook­lyn Bridge, and New York Har­bor. Con­struc­tion is antic­i­pat­ed to begin in Win­ter 2024 and be com­plet­ed in Fall 2025.

The project will care­ful­ly restore his­toric Build­ing 140, orig­i­nal­ly con­struct­ed in the mid-1800s as a muni­tions ware­house and used over the years as a bank and a post office dur­ing the Island’s his­to­ry as a US Army and Coast Guard Base. The design team, led by SHoP Archi­tects, will pre­serve and restore the his­tor­i­cal detail of the building’s exte­ri­or, while cre­at­ing new ADA acces­si­bil­i­ty and improv­ing the adja­cent water­front land­scapes. The build­ing will be one of the first adap­tive reuse project on Gov­er­nors Island with 100% elec­tric oper­a­tions, includ­ing an elec­tri­fied com­mer­cial kitchen, and will include sev­er­al sus­tain­abil­i­ty and resilien­cy improve­ments with the poten­tial for gen­er­at­ing solar pow­er on the roof.

In July 2022, the Trust released a Request for Pro­pos­als seek­ing food devel­op­ers and oper­a­tors of food and bev­er­age con­cepts and event venues to ground lease, rede­vel­op, and oper­ate Build­ing 140. Pro­pos­als were eval­u­at­ed based on the Respondent’s pro­posed pro­gram and vision, includ­ing serv­ing a broad and diverse audi­ence and align­ing with the Trust’s cli­mate and sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals, team and fea­si­bil­i­ty, pro­posed terms, and qual­i­ty of design. 

Gov­er­nors Island has under­gone a tremen­dous trans­for­ma­tion over the last decade, includ­ing the cre­ation of a resilient 43-acre park, a grow­ing arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram, and remark­able growth in audi­ence. Since the Island’s trans­fer to local con­trol, the Trust has over­seen the ren­o­va­tion and leas­ing of more than 500,000 SF of his­toric build­ings. The Island is home to diverse num­ber of year-round ten­ants, includ­ing the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, the Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil, the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, Beam Cen­ter, the Insti­tute for Pub­lic Archi­tec­ture, and QC NY, as well as But­ter­milk Labs — a new mul­ti-ten­ant hub for coastal cli­mate solu­tions announced in Fall 2021. The New York Cli­mate Exchange, a research and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and a cross-sec­tor con­sor­tium of uni­ver­si­ties, busi­ness­es, and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, was announced as the anchor part­ner for the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions by May­or Eric Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island in April 2023. 

Now open to the pub­lic year-round, Gov­er­nors Island is home to a robust cal­en­dar of free pub­lic pro­grams and events, out­door recre­ation activ­i­ties, diverse arts and cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences, and more to explore. Vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​t​h​i​n​g​s​-​to-do for more infor­ma­tion and to view all upcom­ing events and programs.

Jun 11 4:36 pm

Today, STIHL donat­ed $45,000 worth of pro­fes­sion­al bat­tery-pow­ered out­door equip­ment to The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island in New York City. The dona­tion will enable the island’s hor­ti­cul­tur­al team to main­tain 120+ acres of open space at the pop­u­lar pub­lic des­ti­na­tion. In addi­tion, STIHL donat­ed $10,000 to fur­ther The Trust’s mis­sion to edu­cate the pub­lic about urban cli­mate solu­tions and the impacts of cli­mate change on our nat­ur­al surroundings. 

“At STIHL, we believe that as a leader in the out­door pow­er equip­ment indus­try, it is our duty to set the exam­ple in sus­tain­abil­i­ty and con­tin­ue to invest time, ener­gy and resources in inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies, pro­grams and part­ner­ships that pro­mote respon­si­ble envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship,“ said Dr. Niko­las Stihl, Chair­man of the Advi­so­ry and Super­vi­so­ry Board of STIHL. ​“Our val­ues align close­ly with those of The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, and we’re excit­ed to see STIHL bat­tery pow­er in action here in New York.”

The STIHL dona­tion includes the new STIHL RZA 760 bat­tery-pow­ered zero-turn mow­er, pro­fes­sion­al bat­tery-pow­ered trim­mers, blow­ers and Kom­biSys­tems, as well as bat­tery charg­ing solu­tions. The tools will be used to main­tain a mix of his­toric and new­er, man­made land­scapes — many of which were cre­at­ed to mit­i­gate the impacts of cli­mate change. 

“We are so thank­ful for the STIHL dona­tion as Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues to grow as an acces­si­ble, year-round des­ti­na­tion for our near­ly one mil­lion vis­i­tors,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Using equip­ment that pro­duces zero exhaust emis­sions while elim­i­nat­ing the need for fuel will enable us to care for the more than 120 acres of open space for our vis­i­tors to enjoy in a qui­et, sus­tain­able manner.”

Over the past decade, STIHL made sig­nif­i­cant invest­ments in research and devel­op­ment to address its envi­ron­men­tal foot­print. The com­pa­ny is ded­i­cat­ed to devel­op­ing prod­ucts that are envi­ron­men­tal­ly respon­si­ble and will con­tin­ue to work toward social­ly respon­si­ble envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship both in oper­a­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing, includ­ing bat­tery-equip­ment in their Vir­ginia Beach man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty cel­e­brat­ing 50 years of oper­a­tions in the Unit­ed States.

For more infor­ma­tion about STIHL bat­tery prod­ucts, vis­it www​.stih​lusa​.com.

May 21 10:30 am

May 21, 2024

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today announced a robust cal­en­dar of excit­ing and wide-rang­ing pro­grams on the Island for this sum­mer that promise to offer excit­ing expe­ri­ences for New York­ers of all ages and vis­i­tors from around the world. This year’s pro­gram­ming high­lights the breadth of activ­i­ties, events, and cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences that can be enjoyed dur­ing the warmer months on Gov­er­nors Island, includ­ing live music, food trucks, and pub­lic art installations.

“Gov­er­nors Island has long been the epi­cen­ter of arts, cul­ture, and sum­mer fun in New York Har­bor,” said New York City May­or Eric Adams. ​“As we pre­pare for warmer weath­er in the months ahead, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island has got New York­ers cov­ered for free events and pro­grams, expand­ed hours, open space, and icon­ic views. Vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org for more infor­ma­tion, or grab a fer­ry tick­et and head over to Gov­er­nors Island for fun activ­i­ties and deli­cious food this summer.”

“Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues to offer unique cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al, and recre­ation­al resources on 172 acres in the heart of New York Har­bor, and this sum­mer sea­son hosts even more excit­ing pro­gram­ming than ever before,” said Deputy May­or for Hous­ing, Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment and Work­force Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“We encour­age New York­ers and vis­i­tors alike to enjoy the attrac­tions on the Island — from gor­geous views of the city sky­line to unique music and shop­ping expe­ri­ences to ath­let­ic events in beau­ti­ful open space — before the end of warm weath­er this year.”

“Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues to grow as an acces­si­ble, year-round des­ti­na­tion — offer­ing unpar­al­leled open space, thought-pro­vok­ing arts and cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences, some of our city’s best culi­nary offer­ings, a diverse com­mu­ni­ty of ten­ants and ameni­ties, and more for our near­ly one mil­lion vis­i­tors,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“It’s going to be an excit­ing sum­mer on the Island, and we encour­age all New York­ers to hop on the fer­ry and check out every­thing we have to offer this year.” 

VIS­I­TOR AMENI­TIES AND ATTRACTIONS

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

The Urban Farm — home to GrowNYC’s teach­ing gar­den, Earth Mat­ter NY’s Com­post Learn­ing Cen­ter and Soil Start Farm, and the Bee Conservancy’s bee sanc­tu­ary — is open week­ends from 12 – 4pm with free tours the first Sat­ur­day of every month. play:groundNYC’s Adven­ture Play­ground, a unique kids-only space imag­i­na­tion and explo­ration, is open every week­end from 12 – 4pm. Gov­er­nors Island Nation­al Mon­u­ment, includ­ing Fort Jay and Cas­tle Williams, is open Wednes­day-Sun­day and all Fed­er­al Hol­i­days from 10am-5pm start­ing Memo­r­i­al Day week­end for both Ranger-led and self-guid­ed tours. 

Col­lec­tive Retreats is open dai­ly for overnight stays, and QC NY is open dai­ly with two heat­ed out­door pools along­side saunas, steam rooms, relax­ation treat­ments, mas­sages, and more. QC NY will also debut expand­ed ameni­ties this July, includ­ing a new bistro, sen­so­ry saunas, a salt room, and more. 

Vis­i­tors can expect to wit­ness inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions in action on Gov­er­nors Island this sea­son, includ­ing Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Manufacturing’s solar-pow­ered Micro­Fac­to­ry, Pulse Grids’ unique solar POW­ER­DOME, Vycarb’s car­bon mon­i­tor­ing tech­nol­o­gy in New York Har­bor, and the inau­gur­al cohort of the Trust’s annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge win­ners, announced in March 2024. Pilot projects will be open for live demon­stra­tions and work­shops most week­ends dur­ing the sum­mer months, with com­mu­ni­ty demon­stra­tion days to be announced. The New York Cli­mate Exchange will also offer tours and info ses­sions, with dates to be announced. 

OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION

Vis­i­tors can enjoy Gov­er­nors Island’s 120+ acres of open space dai­ly. The Island’s award-win­ning, cli­mate resilient park offers rolling lawns and plen­ty of room for New York­ers to spread out for pic­nick­ing and recre­ation, includ­ing over sev­en miles of car-free bike paths. Ham­mock Grove’s 40+ pub­lic ham­mocks and path­ways nes­tled into the foliage of this young urban for­est pro­vide a relax­ing retreat. The Hills fea­ture unpar­al­leled views of the har­bor and land­marks, like the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty and the sur­round­ing Low­er Man­hat­tan and Brook­lyn skylines. 

Pop­u­lar year-round activ­i­ties — like bike rentals with Blaz­ing Sad­dles, includ­ing Free Bike Morn­ings every week­day between 10am-12pm and CitiBike; self-guid­ed dig­i­tal walk­ing tours with Urban Archive, Ges­so, and the Black Gotham Expe­ri­ence; free dig­i­tal guides on the Bloomberg Con­nects arts and cul­ture app; and more — will con­tin­ue to be offered to Island vis­i­tors, along with pre­vi­ous­ly announced edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams with Gov­er­nors Island Nature. 

EVENTS

Gov­er­nors Island remains one of New York City’s most unique loca­tions for events of all kinds. See below for a selec­tion of upcom­ing events in May, June, and July, and click here for a full event cal­en­dar.

• We Belong Here – May 24 – 26, May 31-June 2
• NYC Footy Gov Cup soc­cer tour­na­ment – June 1 – 2
• Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Council’s city­wide Riv­er to Riv­er Fes­ti­val – June 7 – 23
• Jazz Age Lawn Par­ty – June 8 – 9, August 10 – 11
• New York City Laven­der Fes­ti­val – June 8 – 9 
• Porch Stomp folk music fes­ti­val – June 15
• Gov­er­nors Island Arts THIRD Sat­ur­days – June 15, July 20, Sep­tem­ber 21, Octo­ber 19
• FAD Mar­ket – June 15 – 16, July 20 – 21, August 17 – 18, Sep­tem­ber 21 – 22, Octo­ber 19 – 20
• Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix – June 22 – 23
• NYCRUNS Fire­crack­er 5K & 10K – June 29 
• NYC Poet­ry Fes­ti­val – July 13 – 14

FOOD VEN­DORS

Gov­er­nors Island is a true culi­nary des­ti­na­tion with a diverse mix of cuisines avail­able to vis­i­tors dai­ly. New ven­dors this year include Spec­tro, a fast-casu­al burg­er shack also locat­ed at Jacob Riis Park, and On Tea Road, a boba tea cart that has pre­vi­ous­ly popped up at sev­er­al loca­tions around New York City. 

Return­ing ven­dors includ­ing Joe Cof­fee Com­pa­ny, Lit­tle Eva’s, Taco Vista, Fauzia’s Heav­en­ly Delights, Island Oys­ter, Threes Brew­ing, Piz­za Yard, Sea Bis­cuit, Car­reau Club, Tokyo Drum­stick, La Newyork­i­na, Mak­i­na Café, Wheeler’s BBQ, and more. 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 fourth year in a row, spot­light­ing small busi­ness­es owned by grad­u­ates of NYCHA’s Food Busi­ness Path­ways program. 

Open Dai­ly

• Gitano Island – Dai­ly, 11am-10pm, Sois­sons Landing
• Island Oys­ter – Mon­day-Fri­day, 11am-8pm; Sat­ur­day-Sun­day, 10am-8pm
• Joe Cof­fee Com­pa­ny in the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing fer­ry ter­mi­nal – Dai­ly, 7am-2pm
• Joe Cof­fee Com­pa­ny at Liggett Ter­race – Dai­ly (begin­ning Memo­r­i­al Day Week­end), 10am-6pm
• Lit­tle Eva’s – Dai­ly, 11am-5pm, Liggett Terrace
• Mak­i­na Café – Week­days, 10am‑3:30pm; week­ends, 10am‑4:30pm, Colonels Row
• Piz­za Yard – Dai­ly, 12 – 5pm, Colonels Row
• Taco Vista – Dai­ly, 12 – 6pm, Sois­sons Landing
• Three Peaks Lodge at Col­lec­tive Retreats – Dai­ly for Hap­py Hour, din­ner, and bar ser­vice, West­ern Promenade

Open Week­ends and Select Weekdays

• Brigs Sweet Shop – Week­ends, 12 – 4pm, Liggett Ter­race (Open Wednes­day-Sun­day begin­ning Memo­r­i­al Day Weekend)
• Car­reau Club – Fri­day-Sun­day, 11am-6pm, King Ave
• Fauzia’s Heav­en­ly Delights – Week­ends, 11am-6pm, Liggett Terrace
• The Food­ie Spot – Fri­day-Sun­day, 11am-5pm, Liggett Terrace
• La Newyork­i­na – Week­ends, 12 – 5 pm, Colonels Row 
• On Tea Road – Week­ends, 12 – 5pm, Colonels Row
• Sea Bis­cuit – Week­ends, 10am-6pm, West­ern Promenade
• Spec­tro – Week­ends, 11am-6pm, Liggett Terrace
• Threes Brew­ing – Week­ends, 12 – 6pm, Liggett Terrace 
• Tokyo Drum­stick – Fri­day-Sun­day, 11am-4pm, Liggett Ter­race (Open dai­ly July 1‑September 3)
• Yed­i­nadas – Week­ends begin­ning mid-June, 12 – 5pm, Liggett Terrace 
• Wheeler’s – Week­ends, 12 – 6pm, Colonels Row

GOV­ER­NORS ISLAND ARTS

Through pub­lic art com­mis­sions, the annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram, and pub­lic events and pro­grams, 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. Click here to view the program’s pre­vi­ous­ly announced sum­mer sea­son of free cul­tur­al offer­ings includ­ing per­for­mances, work­shops, pub­lic art­works, and more. 

VIS­I­TOR INFOR­MA­TION

Gov­er­nors Island’s sum­mer hours will return begin­ning May 25, 2024. 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 — open until 6pm dai­ly. From Labor Day through Memo­r­i­al Day, the Island is open 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. Trust-oper­at­ed fer­ries also serve two Brook­lyn loca­tions dur­ing the sum­mer months — Pier Six in Brook­lyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Basin in Red Hook. These routes run direct­ly to Yan­kee Pier on Gov­er­nors Island from each loca­tion every Sat­ur­day, Sun­day, and hol­i­day Mon­day from May 25 through Sep­tem­ber 2. For sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion, click here.

Vis­i­tors are encour­aged to reserve fer­ry tick­ets in advance of their trip on 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 through­out New York City. To inquire about group vis­its, orga­ni­za­tions may email groupvisits@​govisland.​org.

NYC Fer­ry ser­vice to Gov­er­nors Island on the South Brook­lyn route oper­ates week­days and non-sum­mer week­ends. On sum­mer week­ends dur­ing the high­est rid­er­ship sea­son, NYC Fer­ry will con­tin­ue to oper­ate its ded­i­cat­ed sea­son­al shut­tle from Pier 11/​Wall Street in Low­er Man­hat­tan. NYC Fer­ry rid­ers may take any route to Pier 11 and trans­fer to the shut­tle for free, or NYC Fer­ry rid­ers may trans­fer for free at either Atlantic Ave/​Pier 6 or Red Hook/​Atlantic Basin to Trust-oper­at­ed Brook­lyn fer­ries. For tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion and full sched­ules for NYC Fer­ry, vis­it the NYC Fer­ry web­site, www.ferry.nyc.

“As we get ready to swing into Sum­mer, I’m excit­ed to see the roll out of Gov­er­nors Island’s sum­mer pro­gram­ming,” Con­gress­man Dan Gold­man said. ​“Fam­i­lies across our City should take the time this sum­mer to vis­it Gov­er­nors Island, one of the attrac­tions that makes NY-10 the coolest con­gres­sion­al dis­trict in America.” 

“Gov­er­nors Island is the per­fect warm-weath­er escape for New York­ers and tourists – there’s more than 120 acres of open space, recre­ation­al activ­i­ties, arts and cul­ture, fam­i­ly pro­gram­ming, and local his­to­ry,” said Man­hat­tan Bor­ough Pres­i­dent Mark Levine. ​“With a five-minute fer­ry ride, you can escape the con­crete jun­gle for a day. I encour­age every­one to take advan­tage of this unique get­away and bask in all that Gov­er­nors Island has to offer.” 

“I can’t wait to enjoy Gov­er­nors Island with my con­stituents dur­ing this peak sea­son. As the biggest park in our dis­trict, Gov­er­nors Island is an oasis for fresh air and for Low­er Man­hat­tan­ites, and peo­ple across the city, to enjoy nature,” said New York City Coun­cilmem­ber Christo­pher Marte. There are so many great stew­ards of the Island who will be run­ning pro­grams for the entire fam­i­ly, and I encour­age every­one to take the quick fer­ry ride as much as they can this summer.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is a New York gem: a get­away with­in the city, a cul­ture hub for New York­ers to cre­ate and cel­e­brate local artists, a cli­mate edu­ca­tion cen­ter, and a refuge to sim­ply relax and enjoy the weath­er,” said State Sen­a­tor Andrew Gounardes. ​“I’m excit­ed for the slate of pro­gram­ming the Trust has put togeth­er, and I’m look­ing for­ward to spend­ing qual­i­ty time on Gov­er­nors Island with my own fam­i­ly this sum­mer. I’ll see you there!”

“I am thrilled to wel­come every­one to Gov­er­nors Island for the start of the peak sea­son this Memo­r­i­al Day week­end. With extend­ed hours, excit­ing new pro­grams, and addi­tion­al fer­ry ser­vices, there’s no bet­ter way to kick off the sum­mer. Come enjoy the stun­ning views, diverse food offer­ings, and the vibrant com­mu­ni­ty spir­it that makes Gov­er­nors Island a unique and cher­ished des­ti­na­tion in New York City,” said New York State Assem­bly­man Charles D. Fall.

“Gov­er­nors Island is one of the most beau­ti­ful spots in New York City. I hope Brook­lynites take advan­tage of the easy fer­ry access to come out and enjoy extend­ed evening hours and excit­ing sum­mer pro­gram­ming!” said New York City Coun­cilmem­ber Lin­coln Restler.

“Com­ing off a cold win­ter, head­ing into the Spring and Sum­mer sea­sons, Man­hat­tan Com­mu­ni­ty Board 1 (CB1) is look­ing for­ward to the beau­ti­ful weath­er, bucol­ic open spaces and diverse pro­gram­ming avail­able on Gov­er­nors Island. CB1 is look­ing for­ward to the dozens of arts, cul­ture and edu­ca­tion Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence around Nolan Park and Colonel Row as much as relax­ing in the Ham­mock Grove and din­ing with friends at Pic­nic Point. We are so excit­ed to enjoy the 120 acres of nat­ur­al and built open spaces through the free guid­ed walk­ing tours, pub­lic art and fab­u­lous park­land,” said Tam­my Meltzer, Chair of Man­hat­tan Com­mu­ni­ty Board One. ​“We encour­age all New York­ers to hop on the fer­ry and enjoy the Island’s nature and amaz­ing unfet­tered har­bor and sky­line views.”

“I’m pleased to wel­come vis­i­tors back to Gov­er­nors Island Nation­al Mon­u­ment start­ing Fri­day, May 24, 2024, Memo­r­i­al Day Week­end,” said Shirley McK­in­ney, Man­hat­tan sites super­in­ten­dent, Nation­al Park Ser­vice. ​“This year, we will offer Park Ranger led tours at 11:00am and 2:00pm by reser­va­tion at www​.reser​va​tion​.gov. Self-guid­ed pub­lic tours of the his­toric forts are also avail­able from 10:00am‑5:00pm, with our park rangers on site to answer ques­tions and pro­vide infor­ma­tion on the Island’s unique his­to­ry to our visitors.”

May 16 11:08 am

For the fourth con­sec­u­tive year the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is wel­com­ing baaaaack a team of upstate sheep to stroll the Island’s grounds to eat inva­sive species of plants and pre­serve its ecosystem’s het­ero­gene­ity. The five sheep – Evening, Chad, Philip Aries, Bowie and Jupiter – returned to the Island this week from their home at Friends of Tivoli Lake Pre­serve and Farm in Albany. They will spend the spring and sum­mer in Ham­mock Grove, munch­ing away on inva­sive plant species like phrag­mites, bindweed and mugwort.

Since this pro­gram first start­ed in 2021 the sheep have eat­en rough­ly 14.5 acres worth of inva­sive plant species, start­ing with a whop­ping 8.26 acres that first year. The sheep ate three acres of plants in 2022 and 3.22 acres in 2023.

This work freed up thou­sands of work hours for the human beings that make up the Gov­er­nors Island hor­ti­cul­ture team, allow­ing them to focus on more impor­tant tasks. That includ­ed build­ing and land­scap­ing new path­ways in Ham­mock Grove that vis­i­tors to the Island can enjoy, among oth­er items.

“Every year we are excit­ed to wel­come our sheep friends to their sum­mer home on Gov­er­nors Island, not only because they are amaz­ing crea­tures and beloved by our vis­i­tors but also because they put in the hard work that allows our hor­ti­cul­ture team to focus on more impor­tant tasks than mow­ing lawns and pulling weeds,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We encour­age New York­ers and vis­i­tors from all over the world to take a quick fer­ry ride to Gov­er­nors Island, see the sheep in action, enjoy the best view in New York City and take in every­thing this won­der­ful place has to offer.”

“We are thrilled to con­tin­ue to part­ner with Gov­er­nors Island, and our flock is hap­py to be back at work in Ham­mock Grove,” said Kim Tateo, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor and Farm Man­ag­er of Friends of Tivoli Lake Pre­serve and Farm. ​“It has been incred­i­ble to wit­ness how, over the past four years, the sheep have been able to improve the plant diver­si­ty in Ham­mock Grove and help cre­ate a health­i­er habi­tat for all vis­i­tors to Gov­er­nors Island. We are excit­ed to offer more pub­lic engage­ment with the sheep this year, allow­ing them to edu­cate New York­ers on the inno­v­a­tive ser­vices they pro­vide both here on the Island and at their home upstate.” 

The sheep issued a joint state­ment express­ing their ela­tion on return­ing to Gov­er­nors Island for the fourth year.

“Baaaaaaa, baaaaaa, baaaaaa,” they bleat­ed. ​“Baaaaa, baaaaaa!”

Mug­wort, phrag­mites, bindweed and oth­er inva­sive plant species have a com­pet­i­tive nature and crowd oth­er plant­i­ngs on Gov­er­nors Island, essen­tial­ly cre­at­ing a mono­cul­ture. The sheep eat­ing these herba­ceous plants helps to break down and weak­en them, pre­vent­ing them from flow­er­ing and the seeds spreading.

Sheep are also unique­ly suit­ed to the work on Gov­er­nors Island, more so than goats or oth­er ani­mals, since their culi­nary tastes do not include tree bark. The sheep will eat around the young trees in Ham­mock Grove and focus on phrag­mites and oth­er del­i­ca­cies, while goats would devour vir­tu­al­ly any plant life they could get their hooves on — inva­sive or not.

Sev­er­al pub­lic engage­ment events will be held on Gov­er­nors Island in part­ner­ship with Friends of Tivoli Lake Pre­serve and Farm, fea­tur­ing live sheep herd­ing, Q&A’s with our shep­herds, and hands-on wool activ­i­ties, with dates to be announced on www​.gov​is​land​.org/​t​h​i​n​g​s​-​to-do.

In Novem­ber 2023, the Trust launched the Gov­er­nors Island Nature pro­gram, which fos­ters vis­i­tor engage­ment with Gov­er­nors Island’s 120 acres of nat­ur­al and built open spaces and pro­motes hor­ti­cul­ture prac­tices employed by the Trust’s team that sup­port bio­di­ver­si­ty — of which the land­scap­ing sheep are an ide­al exam­ple. In addi­tion to help­ing main­tain healthy, bio­di­verse habi­tats in Ham­mock Grove, the sheep allow our team to min­i­mize use of her­bi­cide along with mow­ers and oth­er tools pow­ered by fos­sil fuels. 

Through learn­ing, pub­lic pro­grams, and stew­ard­ship projects, Gov­er­nors Island Nature aims to edu­cate New York­ers about hor­ti­cul­ture and the impacts of cli­mate change on our nat­ur­al sur­round­ings, while pro­mot­ing Gov­er­nors Island as a sanc­tu­ary for all beings. In-per­son events and activ­i­ties are accom­pa­nied by a suite of dig­i­tal resources that includes an inter­ac­tive tree map, a ​“Plant Watch” page, and more.

May 7 2:11 pm

Gov­er­nors Island Arts today announced a sched­ule of free pro­gram­ming and exhi­bi­tions for the Island’s Spring and Sum­mer arts sea­son, includ­ing a new per­for­mance series titled Inter­ven­tions, and 28 New York City-based non-prof­it cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions who will present pro­grams span­ning visu­al arts, per­for­mance, envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion and more. Gov­er­nors Island Arts and NRDC will also co-present Oth­er of Pearl, a new series of pub­lic art­works by artist and envi­ron­men­tal activist Jen­ny Kendler open­ing on June 14.

“The bur­geon­ing arts and cul­ture scene that has grown on Gov­er­nors Island dur­ing the past few years has become the home to some of the most antic­i­pat­ed exhi­bi­tions and per­for­mances not only in New York City but across the world, and this year is no excep­tion,” said Lau­ren Haynes, Head Cura­tor and Vice Pres­i­dent for Arts and Cul­ture at Gov­er­nors Island Arts. ​“We encour­age art lovers from all walks of life to vis­it Gov­er­nors Island this sea­son and take in the many var­ied pro­grams and exhibits on offer from our numer­ous cul­tur­al partners.” 

INAU­GUR­AL SUM­MER PER­FOR­MANCE SERIES: INTER­VEN­TIONS

Gov­er­nors Island Arts will present Inter­ven­tions, a site-respon­sive, mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary free annu­al per­for­mance series that presents local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al artists and invites audi­ences to expe­ri­ence work made and adapt­ed for the out­doors. Pre­sent­ed between June and Sep­tem­ber, Inter­ven­tions will present per­for­mances in dance, sound art, and the­ater that include: an invit­ed open rehearsal by Dance Hegin­both­am of their newest work, You Look Like a Fun Guy on Fri­day, June 7 and Sat­ur­day, June 8 and a per­for­mance by inter­dis­ci­pli­nary artist Rena Anakwe on Fri­day, July 19, and Sat­ur­day, July 20. 

Addi­tion­al per­for­mances as part of Inter­ven­tions will be announced through­out the sum­mer. Inter­ven­tions is curat­ed by Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er Juan Pablo Siles.

ORGA­NI­ZA­TIONS IN RESIDENCE

Each year, over two dozen arts, cul­ture, edu­ca­tion­al, and envi­ron­men­tal non-prof­its uti­lize space inside the his­toric hous­es of Nolan Park and Colonels Row to present a robust cal­en­dar of free pub­lic pro­grams, host artist res­i­den­cies, and engage vis­i­tors in spe­cial activ­i­ties for all ages through­out the sum­mer months. Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence will open for the sea­son with a spe­cial cel­e­bra­tion on Fri­day, May 17 and will be open every Fri­day, Sat­ur­day, and Sun­day from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through the end of October. 

Pro­gram­ming high­lights from the 2024 Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence include:

Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House Man­hat­tan

Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House is a com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tion with a mis­sion to improve and pro­mote the well-being of the Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty and to increase the vis­i­bil­i­ty of Amer­i­can Indi­an cul­tures in an urban set­ting. Their space on Gov­er­nors Island is used to present exhi­bi­tions, per­for­mances, and oth­er cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams, as well as to host artists in residence. 

AnkhLave Arts Alliance Man­hat­tan*

AnkhLave Arts Alliance is a NYC-based non-prof­it ded­i­cat­ed to advanc­ing BIPOC artists in the con­tem­po­rary art realm. Through annu­al pro­gram­ming includ­ing the AnkhLave Gar­den Project Fel­low­ship, Cura­tor in Res­i­dence, and Pub­lic Artist in Res­i­dence, they pro­vide plat­forms for artis­tic expres­sion and exchange. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will present artist res­i­den­cies, open stu­dios, and out­door sculp­tur­al installations. 

Art­Crawl Harlem Man­hat­tan

Art­Crawl Harlem’s Bound­aries & Con­nec­tions pro­gram will pro­vide space for artists to explore, inno­vate, and cre­ate under the theme ​“Games Peo­ple Play.” The pro­gram will fea­ture 12 res­i­dent artists, three poets in res­i­dence, and a pho­tog­ra­phy exhibit. 

BronxArt­Space The Bronx

BronxArt­Space will hold artist res­i­den­cies and indoor and out­door instal­la­tions fea­tur­ing a range of Bronx based artists. From May – Octo­ber, join BronxArt­Space in 410A Colonels Row Fri­days through Sun­days to meet their artists and learn more about their artis­tic practice. 

Bronx Coun­cil on the Arts The Bronx*

Bronx Coun­cil on the Arts will present Long­wood @ Gov­er­nors Island, a res­i­den­cy pro­gram that will serve a cohort of five Bronx artists, pro­vid­ing them with free stu­dio space, expo­sure through open stu­dios, and oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties. Bronx Coun­cil on the Arts will also present sev­er­al per­for­mances and oth­er pro­grams through­out the season. 

Bil­lion Oys­ter Project Man­hat­tan

Based on Gov­er­nors Island, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project is restor­ing oys­ter pop­u­la­tions to New York Har­bor in col­lab­o­ra­tion with NYC com­mu­ni­ties and through pub­lic edu­ca­tion ini­tia­tives, in turn improv­ing water qual­i­ty, fos­ter­ing new marine habi­tats, and cre­at­ing greater coastal resilience. Each week­end this sea­son, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project’s house will hold an oys­ter dis­play, invit­ing vis­i­tors to learn more about ecosys­tems and these engi­neers, their impor­tance to New York Har­bor, and how every­one can get involved.

caribBE­ING Brook­lyn

I AM CaribBE­ING brings their unique and inspired upcy­cled solar-pow­ered mobile art + cul­tur­al + mar­ket space reflect­ing the cul­tur­al her­itage of NYC’s Caribbean Dias­po­ra to Colonels Row on Gov­er­nors Island for the sec­ond year in a row. This year’s pro­gram will open with par­tic­i­pa­to­ry teacher project ​“Teach­ers in Focus” fol­lowed by a site-spe­cif­ic graf­fi­ti inter­ven­tion by Guade­lou­pean graf­fi­ti col­lec­tive 4KG, res­i­den­cy in part­ner­ship with Cal­abar Gallery and month­ly Caribbean-themed pic­nics fea­tur­ing Lit­tle Caribbean arti­sans and small businesses. 

Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um Man­hat­tan*

The Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um is a new con­sor­tium of cli­mate orga­ni­za­tions debut­ing their cen­ter for the arts on Gov­er­nors Island. Their space will serve as a com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter for cli­mate and cul­ture, with gal­leries and spaces for exhi­bi­tions, per­for­mances, film screen­ings, and events that respond to the cli­mate cri­sis with visions for hope and justice.

DuYe Moves Brook­lyn*

DuYe Moves will present a vari­ety of free dance and move­ment class­es along­side art work­shops out­doors on Gov­er­nors Island. Fea­tured class­es include tra­di­tion­al African, Sam­ba and yoga with live drum­ming, Hula, Afro Dance, Qigong and Tai Chi. They will also hold inti­mate out­door per­for­mances from emerg­ing choreographers. 

Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons Man­hat­tan

Escap­ing Time will exhib­it art cre­at­ed in pris­ons across the Unit­ed States, high­light­ing the cre­ativ­i­ty and tal­ent that exists in places of con­fine­ment while also inform­ing vis­i­tors about the myr­i­ad issues that exist with­in the carcer­al sys­tem. The exhi­bi­tion, open­ing in the fall, includes paint­ings, draw­ings, sculp­tures, and quilts made with tra­di­tion­al mate­ri­als, as well as pieces made with impro­vised mate­ri­als. Their sea­son will also fea­ture sev­er­al art workshops.

Filmshop Man­hat­tan*

The Filmshop House will host film screen­ings, film­mak­er Q&As, and hands-on work­shops on the craft of film­mak­ing led by mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty. Filmshop is cel­e­brat­ing its 15^th anniver­sary, and the house will also high­light a ret­ro­spec­tive exhi­bi­tion hon­or­ing their evo­lu­tion over the years.

Flux Fac­to­ry Queens

Flux Fac­to­ry returns to Gov­er­nors Island with Flux Island 2024. A col­lec­tive of alum­ni from Flux Fac­to­ry’s res­i­den­cy pro­gram will pro­duce month­ly ​“Flux Sat­ur­day” salons open to the pub­lic, as well as three group exhi­bi­tions tak­ing place in the spring, sum­mer, and fall, respectively.

Foun­tain House Gallery Man­hat­ta

Foun­tain House Gallery and Stu­dio will present a com­mu­ni­ty-pow­ered, site-spe­cif­ic instal­la­tion co-led by Foun­tain House mem­bers and staff. They will host col­lab­o­ra­tive Open Stu­dio Art Mak­ing with mem­bers of the pub­lic and artists to help con­tribute to this instal­la­tion. All artists are mem­bers of Foun­tain House, found­ed in New York City in 1948 with the belief that peo­ple liv­ing with men­tal ill­ness can be active par­tic­i­pants in their own and each other’s recovery. 

Har­vest­works Man­hat­tan

Har­vest­works will present their Art and Tech­nol­o­gy Pro­gram on Gov­er­nors Island, includ­ing a group show study­ing human per­cep­tion, work­shops, and oth­er pro­grams from Live­Code NYC, and more. 

KODA Brook­lyn

KODA House will present a sea­son that spot­lights the theme of Men­tal Health, fea­tur­ing sev­er­al res­i­dent artists. KODA will also present the 5^th Annu­al Pro­fes­sion­al Devel­op­ment for Artists Sym­po­sium, explor­ing the future of artist res­i­den­cies and ways to bet­ter sup­port artists.

The Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary African Dias­po­ran Arts (MoCA­DA) Brook­lyn

Com­mit­ted to giv­ing wings to artists by bring­ing dynam­ic, con­tem­po­rary art to a broad audi­ence, MoCA­DA con­tin­ues its lega­cy on Gov­er­nors Island with a high­ly antic­i­pat­ed exhi­bi­tion along with spe­cial art instal­la­tions, work­shops, film screen­ings, and oth­er gath­er­ings. Their 2024 sea­son will include a mul­ti­me­dia group exhi­bi­tion with works made by artists explor­ing the Black Trans­gen­der, Non-Bina­ry, and Gen­der-Non­con­form­ing (TGNC) expe­ri­ence; an exper­i­men­tal immer­sive archive inspired by Temescal cer­e­mo­ni­al prac­tices; and much more. 

New Art Deal­ers Alliance (NADA) Man­hat­tan

NADA will present their annu­al col­lab­o­ra­tive NADA House pro­gram, where more than two dozen art gal­leries and spaces from around the coun­try present pieces from a large cohort of artists, in the fall.

New York Arts Pro­gram Man­hat­tan*

For the 2024 sea­son, the New York Arts Pro­gram will invite artists to par­tic­i­pate in a net­work of per­for­mances titled Four­teen Porch­es that will fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion, explore the way the Island’s struc­tures can break out of their tra­di­tion­al domains and con­nect to each oth­er both lit­er­al­ly and metaphor­i­cal­ly. They will also present an incu­ba­tor pro­gram for artists dur­ing the sum­mer months. 

New York Latin Amer­i­can Art Tri­en­ni­al Man­hat­tan

NYLAAT moves to Nolan Park in 2024 and will host an artist and cura­tor in res­i­dence pro­gram. This year’s pro­gram will kick off with ​“Body and Iden­ti­ty” Print­mak­ers and Writ­ers from the Domini­can Repub­lic, one of sev­en exhi­bi­tions each curat­ed by their cura­tors in residence. 

NYC Audubon Man­hat­tan

NYC Audubon’s sea­son­al envi­ron­men­tal cen­ter on Gov­er­nors Island will engage vis­i­tors in wildlife con­ser­va­tion and urban bio­di­ver­si­ty through week­ly bird out­ings, an artist-in-res­i­dence pro­gram, con­ser­va­tion work­shops, and a dis­play of bird-friend­ly glass options.

Pratt Insti­tute Cen­ter for Cli­mate Adap­ta­tion Brook­lyn

Adap­ta­tions 2.0, Pratt Institute’s 2024 sea­son, will fea­ture projects by lead­ing artists, archi­tects and stu­dents work­ing on cli­mate adap­ta­tion and with a focus on arch­i­pel­a­gos around the world — includ­ing New York City. Events will occur month­ly and with vary­ing fre­quen­cy with expand­ed events and walk­ing tours dur­ing NYC Cli­mate Week in Sep­tem­ber 2024.

Red Hook Ini­tia­tive and Red Hook Art Project Brook­lyn*

Red Hook Art Project (RHAP) and Red Hook Initiative’s ​“Art Saves Lives” sum­mer pro­gram will offer diverse class­es cov­er­ing media, com­put­er build­ing, game design, audio pro­duc­tion, dig­i­tal art, port­fo­lio prepa­ra­tion, sketch­ing, ceram­ics, and more. Led by pas­sion­ate instruc­tors and vol­un­teers, the pro­gram encour­ages stu­dents to explore their artis­tic abil­i­ties freely and think creatively. 

Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed (RU) Brook­lyn

RU will present a group show fea­tur­ing artists from Aus­tralia, Turkey, Hun­gary, Japan, Croa­t­ia and Switzer­land, along with mul­ti­ple open stu­dio events, curat­ed exhi­bi­tions, and per­for­mances along with work­shops led by local BIPOC artists par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Voic­es of Mul­ti­plic­i­ty (VoM) Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice Artist Res­i­den­cy Pro­gram, tack­ling issues relat­ed to air, land, and water pollution.

Stat­en Island Urban Cen­ter Stat­en Island

Stat­en Island Urban Cen­ter will present We Are a Water­front: Water Into Land, a mul­ti-media, envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice exhi­bi­tion born out of the work of the organization’s activists and inde­pen­dent film­mak­ers of Lost Hori­zon Films. The exhi­bi­tion cen­ters on select scenes from the films, cur­rent­ly in pro­duc­tion, accom­pa­nied by visu­al art that shares neigh­bor­hood sto­ry­telling from var­i­ous Stat­en Island artists and activists. 

Swale Brook­lyn

Swale’s 2024 sea­son focus­es on art and cli­mate, with a series of exhi­bi­tions each month from sev­er­al dif­fer­ent artists. Through­out the sea­son, Swale House pro­motes com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment with free soil work­shops and Pub­lic Food stew­ard­ship meet­ings, advo­cat­ing for envi­ron­men­tal stewardship.

Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Coun­cil Queens

Island Sun­rise, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Council’s 2024 pro­gram on Gov­er­nors Island, will com­pare com­mon­al­i­ties between dif­fer­ent islands — includ­ing Tai­wan and its var­i­ous island ter­ri­to­ries — and Gov­er­nors Island, fea­tur­ing exhi­bi­tions from a broad range of artists. 

West Harlem Art Fund Man­hat­tan

The West Harlem Art Fund will present a fiber art show with per­for­mances in the spring that delves deep in Amer­i­can land­scape, his­to­ry, and water. Dur­ing the sum­mer, the orga­ni­za­tion will once again bring back their artist res­i­den­cy pro­gram with mul­ti­ple work­shops for the pub­lic to engage and their con­cert series with exper­i­men­tal and fusion jazz. They will end the sea­son with an Afro-futur­ism show in part­ner­ship with sev­er­al artists across the city.

*Orga­ni­za­tions with an aster­isk rep­re­sent first time Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence participants.

In cel­e­bra­tion of this diverse com­mu­ni­ty of cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions, Gov­er­nors Island Arts will present the pop­u­lar THIRD Sat­ur­days, a spe­cial pro­gram held on the third Sat­ur­day of each month through Octo­ber, and the annu­al House Fest from August 16 – 19. These free events will include a line­up of per­for­mances and work­shops, with more to be announced in the com­ing months. Pro­grams announced today include:

THIRD Sat­ur­day: May 18, 2024

• Fogo Azul: New York City-based all-women, trans, and non-bina­ry Brazil­ian Sam­ba Reg­gae drum line, Fogo Azul, will offer an Open Rehearsal and work­shop in Nolan Park. 11am, Nolan Park
• Rue­da de Oro: Rue­da de Oro is a NYC based musi­cal ini­tia­tive; a non-phys­i­cal space of gath­er­ing around the Afro-Indige­nous tra­di­tion­al rhythms, drums, and dances from the Caribbean region of Colom­bia. The col­lec­tive will hold a Rue­da on Gov­er­nors Island to con­tin­ue their month­ly gath­er­ings and learn, teach, and prac­tice a rich cat­a­log of tra­di­tion­al music. 12pm, Colonels Row
• The Isado­ra Dun­can Dance Foun­da­tion: Found­ed in New York City in 1980 to extend the dream, dance, and indomitable spir­it of the moth­er of mod­ern dance, Isado­ra Dun­can, the Isado­ra Dun­can Dance Foun­da­tion will offer a free open class in Nolan Park led by com­pa­ny mem­ber Emi­ly D’An­ge­lo. 1pm, Nolan Park
• Film Screen­ing – In a Vio­lent Nature, co-pre­sent­ed with Rooftop Films: Don’t miss the New York pre­mière of this ambi­ent slash­er film direct­ed by Chris Nash that fol­lows John­ny, a venge­ful undead brute, as he method­i­cal­ly slaugh­ters a group of campers in the wilder­ness after they remove a pen­dant from his rest­ing grounds. Live Q&A to fol­low. Click here to RSVP. 6pm, Nolan Park

House Fest: August 16 – 19, 2024

• After­noon Per­for­mance with Miri­am Elha­jli, Zoh Amba, and Eliana Glass: Eliana Colachis Glass is a singer, pianist, and visu­al artist born in Aus­tralia and raised in Seat­tle. She is a grad­u­ate of the jazz pro­gram at The New School where she stud­ied with such men­tors as Andrew Cyrille, Ben Street, Kris Davis, and Jay Clay­ton. Zoh Amba is a com­pos­er, sax­o­phon­ist, and flutist from Ten­nessee. Her music blends avant-garde, noise, and devo­tion­al hymns. Her pow­er­ful­ly unique avant-garde music is full of folk melodies, mes­mer­iz­ing refrains, and repeat­ed incan­ta­tions. Miri­am Elha­jli is a Venezue­lan Moroc­can Amer­i­can com­pos­er and vocal­ist whose work is influ­enced strong­ly by the folk­loric musics of South and North Amer­i­ca, mod­ern jazz, and con­tem­po­rary clas­si­cal music. August 17, 3pm, Out­look Hill
• After­noon Per­for­mance with Eli Fola: Eli Fola is a Niger­ian Amer­i­can mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary sound artist, sax­o­phon­ist, DJ, and pro­duc­er. He is the cre­ator and pio­neer of the live hybrid set ​“Yoru­ba Tech Soul”, an inno­v­a­tive fusion of Afro­House, tech­no, jazz, and clas­si­cal music. He is often regard­ed as a sax­o­phone genius and brand­ed with the visu­al art world due to his pow­er­ful imagery that high­lights Afro­house and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty in a mod­ern con­text. August 18, 3pm, Out­look Hill
• Dance is Life: Abdiel Jacob­sen and Natasha Dig­gs bring their social dance par­ty to Gov­er­nors Island dur­ing House Fest. Cre­at­ed as a pub­lic com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice to pro­vide the vital force that dance and music ignites with­in humans, this event unites peo­ple of all walks of life through com­mu­nal heal­ing and cel­e­bra­tion. Inspired by the lega­cy of Hus­tle being danced in Cen­tral Park for over 50 years, Dance Is Life revi­tal­izes cul­tur­al his­tor­i­cal spaces and incites inter­per­son­al con­nec­tions, expres­sions, and play among mul­ti-gen­er­a­tional com­mu­ni­ties around the globe. August 19, 7:30pm, Liggett Archway

PUB­LIC ART 

The 2024 sea­son fea­tures a new work co-pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and NRDC (Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Coun­cil) titled Oth­er of Pearl, a site-spe­cif­ic pub­lic art exhi­bi­tion by Jen­ny Kendler telling the sto­ry of our planet’s chang­ing cli­mate. Locat­ed in the his­toric Fort Jay on Gov­er­nors Island, Oth­er of Pearl con­sid­ers the oys­ter and whale as cen­tral play­ers in the eco­log­i­cal and eco­nom­ic entan­gle­ment between human and non­hu­man beings. The artist con­fronts con­tem­po­rary envi­ron­men­tal issues — ocean noise, chem­i­cal pol­lu­tion, cli­mate change and sea lev­el rise — while point­ing to the extrac­tive his­to­ries that form the ori­gin sto­ries of our cli­mate cri­sis. Oth­er of Pearl opens to the pub­lic on Fri­day, June 14 and will remain on view every Wednes­day through Sun­day through the end of October.

Addi­tion­al works com­mis­sioned through Gov­er­nors Island Arts can be found through­out the Island’s park and his­toric dis­trict and are on view dai­ly, includ­ing Duke Riley’s Not for Nut­ten, Rachel Whiteread’s Cab­in, Mark Dion’s The Field Sta­tion of the Melan­choly Marine Biol­o­gist, Shantell Martin’s Church, Sam Van Aken’s The Open Orchard, Sheila Berger’s Bird MMXXI­II, and Mark Handforth’s Yan­kee Hanger.

YEAR-ROUND TEN­ANTS

Gov­er­nors Island is also home to a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of edu­ca­tion­al and cul­tur­al ten­ants who will present free cul­tur­al pro­grams through­out the spring and sum­mer. High­lights include:

Beam Cen­ter

Beam Cen­ter will present The Oth­er­worlds Fair, a brand-new youth-led cul­tur­al fes­ti­val, on August 17, 2024. 70 NYC high school stu­dents will work in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Beam Cen­ter through­out the sum­mer to design and pro­duce per­for­mances, art projects, and work­shops that express the world they envi­sion build­ing for them­selves. At the August event, the youth-pro­duc­ers will invite the pub­lic to learn and engage in these expe­ri­ences through the cul­tur­al lens­es of fash­ion, food, design, music, and storytelling.

Insti­tute for Pub­lic Architecture

The Insti­tute for Pub­lic Archi­tec­ture (IPA), which runs the only overnight res­i­den­cy pro­gram on Gov­er­nors Island, is host­ing an exhi­bi­tion of work by IPA Spring Fel­lows, open on week­ends 12 – 4pm through May 26 in the Block House at 9 Nolan Park. On June 1^st, six Sum­mer Fel­lows from dis­ci­plines includ­ing archi­tec­ture, ecol­o­gy, com­mu­ni­ca­tions design, sculp­ture, indus­tri­al design, and urban design will arrive for an eleven-week res­i­den­cy. Through­out the sum­mer, the IPA will host a series of events – free and open to the pub­lic – includ­ing open stu­dios, work­shops, and screen­ings of The Sto­ry of the BQE, a doc­u­men­tary about the Brook­lyn-Queens Express­way and its impact on peo­ple who live in its midst.

Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC)’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island

LMCC will present month­ly events and pro­grams at the Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island, includ­ing open stu­dios and a par­tic­i­pa­to­ry Par­ty as Practice cel­e­bra­tion on May 18; the annu­al Riv­er to Riv­er Fes­ti­val June 7 – 23; exhi­bi­tions curat­ed by LMCC cura­to­r­i­al fel­lows Kiara Cristi­na Ven­tu­ra and Meghan Karnik, and more pub­lic pro­grams to be announced. 

This sum­mer, Bloomberg Con­nects — a free app focused on arts and cul­ture from Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies — will include an exten­sive guide for the pub­lic art on view, new inter­views with artists, and fea­tures on oth­er key aspects of the Gov­er­nors Island expe­ri­ence. The guide will pro­vide infor­ma­tion for vis­i­tors onsite and is acces­si­ble from any­where in the world.

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram­ming with the vision­ary sup­port of the Ford Foun­da­tion, as well the Mel­lon Foun­da­tion, the Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Don­ald R. Mullen Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion, Stavros Niar­chos Foun­da­tion, Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies, The Gottes­man Fund, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts, and the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts with the sup­port of the Office of the Gover­nor and the New York State Legislature.

Apr 30 12:45 pm

Gov­er­nors Island Arts and NRDC (Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Coun­cil) today announced a part­ner­ship to present Oth­er of Pearl, a site-spe­cif­ic pub­lic art exhi­bi­tion by Jen­ny Kendler telling the sto­ry of our planet’s chang­ing cli­mate. Locat­ed in the his­toric Fort Jay on Gov­er­nors Island, Oth­er of Pearl con­sid­ers the oys­ter and whale as cen­tral play­ers in the eco­log­i­cal and eco­nom­ic entan­gle­ment between human and non­hu­man beings. The artist con­fronts con­tem­po­rary envi­ron­men­tal issues — ocean noise, chem­i­cal pol­lu­tion, cli­mate change and sea lev­el rise — while point­ing to the extrac­tive his­to­ries that form the ori­gin sto­ries of our cli­mate crisis.

Oth­er of Pearl opens to the pub­lic on Fri­day, June 14, and will be open Wednes­day to Sun­day through the end of Octo­ber at his­toric Fort Jay, part of the Gov­er­nors Island Nation­al Mon­u­ment. The exhib­it marks the first pub­lic art exhi­bi­tion open­ing on Gov­er­nors Island fol­low­ing the March 2024 announce­ment of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s new Head Cura­tor and Vice Pres­i­dent for Arts and Cul­ture, Lau­ren Haynes, who joined in March 2024.

“I am thrilled that Oth­er of Pearl is the cen­ter­piece of our 2024 Gov­er­nors Island Arts pro­gram­ming,” said Lau­ren Haynes, Head Cura­tor and Vice Pres­i­dent for Arts and Cul­ture at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Work­ing with Jen­ny, NRDC, and the Gov­er­nors Island team on a project that touch­es on many of the pil­lars of our pro­gram­ming has been a delight and we look for­ward to wel­com­ing vis­i­tors to the Island this sum­mer to expe­ri­ence it.”

Kendler’s first solo exhi­bi­tion in New York City, Oth­er of Pearl fea­tures a series of sev­en inti­mate, del­i­cate works — all dis­played in the cav­ernous, sub­ter­ranean mag­a­zine of his­toric Fort Jay, a star-shaped for­ti­fi­ca­tion built on Gov­er­nors Island between 1775 and 1776. In dark­ened rooms that echo with whale song, vis­i­tors will encounter pearl sculp­tures grown inside oys­ters, bells rung by fos­silized whale ear bones, a crys­talline whale eye cast of sea salt and human tears, glass vials filled with oil from long-dead whales, and a human ner­vous sys­tem metic­u­lous­ly strung from thou­sands of tiny pearls. In the adjoin­ing gal­leries, two large hand­blown glass instru­ments evoke the organs hump­back and sperm whales use to com­mu­ni­cate, invit­ing vis­i­tors’ son­ic acti­va­tion. David Gru­ber of Project CETI has pro­vid­ed the whale record­ings that become part of these sound works. After the con­clu­sion of the exhi­bi­tion, pearl sculp­tures from the show will be auc­tioned to raise funds to help cre­ate a new oys­ter reef along­side project part­ner Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, redis­trib­ut­ing resources in a ges­ture of eco­log­i­cal restora­tion. A full descrip­tion of indi­vid­ual works fea­tured as part of the exhi­bi­tion can be found at gov​is​land​.org.

“While cli­mate change can be over­whelm­ing, con­fus­ing and polar­iz­ing — art has a unique abil­i­ty to reach peo­ple and help us process the chal­lenge,” said Kristin Wil­son-Palmer, Chief Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer for NRDC. ​“This beau­ti­ful and pow­er­ful new exhib­it from Jen­ny Kendler brings peo­ple togeth­er for reflec­tion and con­ver­sa­tion on the most sig­nif­i­cant envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenge of our time — and, hope­ful­ly, will inspire them to act.” 

An inter­dis­ci­pli­nary eco­log­i­cal artist, envi­ron­men­tal activist, nat­u­ral­ist and wild for­ager whose work has been exhib­it­ed nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly at muse­ums, bien­ni­als, pub­lic spaces and nat­ur­al areas, Jen­ny Kendler’s work focus­es on cli­mate change and bio­di­ver­si­ty loss. Her prac­tice seeks to decen­ter humans and re-enchant our rela­tion­ship to the more-than-human human world. Since 2014, she has been the first Artist-in-Res­i­dence with NRDC, a co-pre­sen­ter of Oth­er of Pearl. Recent exhi­bi­tions of Kendler’s work include Dear Earth at Hay­ward Gallery in Lon­don, UK, Water After All at the MCA Chica­go, Music for Ele­phants at the Smith­son­ian Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry, and Indi­ca­tors: Artists on Cli­mate Change at Storm King Art Center.

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram with the vision­ary sup­port of the Ford Foun­da­tion, as well the Mel­lon Foun­da­tion, the Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Don­ald R. Mullen Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion, Stavros Niar­chos Foun­da­tion, Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies, The Gottes­man Fund, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts, and the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Leg­is­la­ture. Addi­tion­al sup­port for Oth­er of Pearl is pro­vid­ed by the Rip­ple Foun­da­tion as well as Roseate Jewelry.

Addi­tion­al pro­grams will be announced in the com­ing months. For vis­i­tor hours and more infor­ma­tion, vis­it gov​is​land​.org.

###

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 com­mis­sions, an annu­al Orga­ni­za­tion in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es, and free pub­lic pro­grams and events in part­ner­ship with a wide range of cross-dis­ci­pli­nary NYC cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions. Recent art­works com­mis­sioned by Gov­er­nors Island Arts include projects by Charles Gaines, Sam Van Aken, Duke Riley, Shantell Mar­tin, and Mark Dion; for more infor­ma­tion, vis­it gov​is​land​.org.

About NRDC (Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Council)

NRDC (Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Coun­cil) is an inter­na­tion­al non­prof­it envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion with more than 3 mil­lion mem­bers and online activists. Estab­lished in 1970, NRDC uses sci­ence, pol­i­cy, law, and peo­ple pow­er to con­front the cli­mate cri­sis, pro­tect pub­lic health ​‚and safe­guard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Los Ange­les, San Fran­cis­co, Chica­go, Boze­man, MT, Bei­jing, and Del­hi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd.)