Blog

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.

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About Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the con­text of the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts achieves this mis­sion through tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art 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.)

Apr 26 12:00 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island has dubbed 2024 as the ​“Year of Milk­weed,” a year­long ini­tia­tive that will engage New York­ers with pro­grams that will high­light the pow­er of native plants in the fight against bio­di­ver­si­ty loss. Pre­sent­ed through Gov­er­nors Island Nature, the ini­tia­tive will shine a light on the hor­ti­cul­ture prac­tices that have helped trans­form this for­mer mil­i­tary out­post into a resilient, immer­sive, thriv­ing locale for plants, wildlife, and New York­ers alike.

Events announced today include guid­ed nature walks, night­time insect ecol­o­gy events, and vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties in part­ner­ship with the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island — where par­tic­i­pants of all ages can help prop­a­gate milk­weed plants and learn about their ben­e­fits — in addi­tion to oth­er hor­ti­cul­tur­al hap­pen­ings to hon­or this vibrant plant. The Trust will also unveil a new demon­stra­tion gar­den in Liggett Ter­race this sum­mer, which will fea­ture 750 indi­vid­ual milk­weed plants and be open year-round for edu­ca­tion and relax­ation. All event details are avail­able at www​.gov​is​land​.org.

“It’s the Year of Milk­weed on Gov­er­nors Island, and we couldn’t be more excit­ed to shine a light on the incred­i­ble work our team does to care for the Island’s diverse nat­ur­al areas,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Our com­mit­ment to 5,000 plants is designed to edu­cate and direct­ly involve Island vis­i­tors in grow­ing native habi­tats and empow­er all New York­ers to help cre­ate a green­er, health­i­er city for all.”

“Milk­weed is such a spe­cial plant, and we can’t wait for it to find a home in the imag­i­na­tion of all New York­ers this year,” said Leo Framp­ton, senior gar­den­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Its part­ner­ship with Monarch but­ter­flies shows that, by find­ing a place for native plants, any­one can help our envi­ron­ment recov­er. Whether you have plants at home, par­tic­i­pate in your neighborhood’s com­mu­ni­ty gar­den, or have nev­er even heard of a native plant, we hope you’ll join us on Gov­er­nors Island to cel­e­brate the Year of Milkweed.”

Year of Milk­weed Spring/​Summer Event Schedule

• Guid­ed nature walks explor­ing rela­tion­ship between native plants and wildlife: May 30, June 27, July 25, August 29, Sep­tem­ber 26, Octo­ber 31, Novem­ber 21
• Insect Light Trap­ping: May 14, June 11, July 16, July 23, August 13, Sep­tem­ber 10
• Monarch Migra­tion com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­bra­tion: Sep­tem­ber 14

Since the Island’s 43-acre, award-win­ning park was com­plet­ed in 2016, the Trust’s hor­ti­cul­ture team has helped cul­ti­vate these areas as robust native habi­tats through eco­log­i­cal hor­ti­cul­ture — a prac­tice that pri­or­i­tizes bio­di­ver­si­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The Year of Milk­weed ini­tia­tive marks the first major effort to direct­ly involve all New York­ers in the Trust’s habi­tat cre­ation work. 

The Hills, the crown­ing fea­ture of the Island’s park designed by West 8, show­case the poten­tial for urban spaces to build back bio­di­ver­si­ty. While the orig­i­nal plant­i­ngs — many of which were native to the New York City region — worked to estab­lish them­selves short­ly after the park’s com­ple­tion, eco­log­i­cal­ly dam­ag­ing plants like mug­wort and bindweed invad­ed. Through inno­v­a­tive and exper­i­men­tal meth­ods of weed con­trol like solar­iza­tion, where areas full of inva­sive plants are cov­ered with a clear plas­tic tarp to har­ness solar pow­er to cook the roots and seeds, the Trust’s hor­ti­cul­tur­al team has suc­cess­ful­ly elim­i­nat­ed inva­sive plants in more than 5,000 square feet through­out the Hills and intro­duced 52 plants native to the New York City region, ben­e­fit­ing pol­li­na­tors and oth­er local wildlife.

Plant­i­ng efforts as part of the Year of Milk­weed will focus on three species native to New York City’s eco-region: Ascle­pias tuberosa (but­ter­fly weed, select­ed as WildflowerNYC’s 2023 New York City Wild­flower of the Year), Ascle­pias syr­i­a­ca (com­mon milk­weed), and Ascelpias incar­na­ta (swamp milk­weed). They will be plant­ed through­out the Island’s 120 acres of open space, with a focus on Ham­mock Grove, the Hills, and the Gov­er­nors Island His­toric Dis­trict, in addi­tion to the new demon­stra­tion gar­den in Liggett Ter­race — an area on the Island known for its land­scaped gar­dens, water fea­tures, and sea­son­al food vendors.

These plants were care­ful­ly cho­sen for the ben­e­fits they pro­vide to monarch but­ter­flies, whose cater­pil­lar lar­vae feed exclu­sive­ly on milk­weed leaves. With their strik­ing orange and black wings, East­ern mon­archs are abun­dant on Gov­er­nors Island dur­ing their migra­tion in late sum­mer and fall, but their pop­u­la­tions have been expe­ri­enc­ing sig­nif­i­cant decline through­out the Unit­ed States over the past sev­er­al years; the Xerx­es Soci­ety for Inver­te­brate Con­ser­va­tion reports an 80% decline in East­ern monarch pop­u­la­tions. Inte­grat­ing this vol­ume of milk­weed plants into Gov­er­nors Island’s green spaces will allow mon­archs to safe­ly com­plete their life cycles while increas­ing native plant habi­tats for all Island wildlife. 

The Year of Milk­weed is pre­sent­ed through the Trust’s 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. 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 at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​n​ature that includes an inter­ac­tive tree map, a ​“Plant Watch” page, and more.

Gov­er­nors Island has under­gone a tremen­dous trans­for­ma­tion over the last two decades, includ­ing the cre­ation of a resilient 43-acre park, a grow­ing arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram, year-round pub­lic access, and remark­able growth in audi­ence. The Island is home to a diverse num­ber of year-round ten­ants, includ­ing the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, Beam Cen­ter, the Insti­tute for Pub­lic Archi­tec­ture, and QC NY, as well as the soon-to-open But­ter­milk Labs — a new mul­ti-ten­ant hub for coastal cli­mate solutions.

In April 2023, fol­low­ing a two-year com­pet­i­tive process, May­or Eric Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced the selec­tion of a new anchor insti­tu­tion for the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island. The New York Cli­mate Exchange, led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty, will be a first-of-its-kind, cross-sec­tor non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to cli­mate research, solu­tion devel­op­ment, edu­ca­tion, work­force train­ing, and pub­lic pro­grams on Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust also recent­ly announced the Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab, a new plat­form for research, part­ner­ships, and pro­grams to ampli­fy cli­mate action that includes an annu­al cli­mate solu­tions chal­lenge open to non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, entre­pre­neurs, and start-ups; the launch of cli­mate field trip pro­grams; and an inter­im com­mu­ni­ty con­ven­ing space on the Island. 

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About the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island

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

Apr 3 12:43 pm

New York City may not be in the path of total­i­ty for the solar eclipse on April 8, but New York­ers can still expect a pret­ty spec­tac­u­lar sight. Vis­i­bil­i­ty is esti­mat­ed to start at 2:10pm, with max­i­mum vis­i­bil­i­ty at 3:25pm and the eclipse end­ing at 4:36pm.

Gov­er­nors Island is open from 7am-6pm on Mon­day, April 8. Hop on the fer­ry — we sug­gest noth­ing lat­er than the 2:30pm fer­ry from the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing — and head to one of our hand-picked eclipse view­ing spots, list­ed below. Free, ISO-cer­ti­fied solar eclipse glass­es, cour­tesy of War­by Park­er, will be dis­trib­uted to safe­ly view this celes­tial spectacle.

• West­ern water­front esplanade, near the entrance to Col­lec­tive Retreats or along­side Cas­tle Williams.
• The Play Lawns (base­ball fields) in the South Island Park.
• The top of Out­look Hill, or one of the switch­backs in the ADA-acces­si­ble path.
• The ridge­line of Dis­cov­ery Hill.
• Pic­nic Point, the south­ern-most point on the Island.
• The Parade Ground, locat­ed in between Nolan Park and Colonels Row.

We select­ed those spots for max­i­mum sky vis­i­bil­i­ty, but you real­ly can’t go wrong with any wide open area on Gov­er­nors Island. Vis­i­tors can pick up a pair of glass­es (one per per­son) inside the Secu­ri­ty Office at Build­ing 140 as soon as they get off the fer­ry at Sois­sons Land­ing. Glass­es are first come, first served as sup­plies last. Please remem­ber to only view the eclipse while wear­ing ISO-cert­Ti­fied solar eclipse glass­es or look­ing through a pin­hole projector. 

Click here to learn more about view­ing the solar eclipse in New York.

Mar 26 10:19 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and Gov­er­nors Island Arts announced today the hir­ing of Lau­ren Haynes as their new Head Cura­tor and Vice Pres­i­dent for Arts and Cul­ture — mark­ing an excit­ing step for­ward for one of New York City’s most unique cul­tur­al des­ti­na­tions. A world-renowned arts expert with decades of expe­ri­ence, Haynes comes to Gov­er­nors Island fol­low­ing a suc­cess­ful stint as Direc­tor of Cura­to­r­i­al Affairs and Pro­grams at the Queens Museum.

“New York City remains the glob­al cap­i­tal for the arts, a haven for cul­tur­al expres­sion, and the home of the best and bright­est tal­ent from around the globe. With Lau­ren Haynes join­ing Gov­er­nors Island, New York City is prov­ing that our rep­u­ta­tion still stands true,” said New York City May­or Eric Adams. ​“Lau­ren brings decades of expe­ri­ence that will only ele­vate the ongo­ing work at Gov­er­nors Island and open new, excit­ing doors. I wel­come her to the team and look for­ward to see­ing how she will trans­form Gov­er­nors Island into her own bold, vision­ary canvas.”

“I am thrilled to join the team at The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and Gov­er­nors Island Arts at this key moment in the organization’s tra­jec­to­ry,” said Lau­ren Haynes, Head Cura­tor and Vice Pres­i­dent for Arts and Cul­ture at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“I look for­ward to devel­op­ing pro­gram­ming and work­ing with artists to cre­ate projects and exhi­bi­tions for New York­ers and every­one who vis­its our city.”

“We are hon­ored to have a true vision­ary at the helm of our arts and cul­ture pro­gram­ming, and we wel­come Lau­ren Haynes to her new home at Gov­er­nors Island,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Our cul­tur­al offer­ings have grown sig­nif­i­cant­ly over the past five years, and Lau­ren is the best per­son to con­tin­ue our expan­sion as an arts des­ti­na­tion for both New York­ers and vis­i­tors from around the globe. We look for­ward to wel­com­ing the pub­lic to enjoy her inno­v­a­tive, thought­ful pro­gram­ming selec­tions in the near future.”

“As Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues to expand access to the arts through inno­v­a­tive and immer­sive pub­lic art projects, I am thrilled to have Lau­ren Haynes join the team as their new cura­tor,” said Deputy May­or for Hous­ing, Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment and Work­force Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“Lau­ren will bring new pro­gram­ming to a unique des­ti­na­tion in the mid­dle of New York Har­bor, fur­ther cement­ing our city’s sta­tus as a world-lead­ing cul­tur­al hub and sup­port­ing our efforts to diver­si­fy our workforce.”

“Encom­pass­ing both New York’s sto­ried his­to­ry with a view­point direct­ed towards the future, Governor’s Island has grown into a trea­sured cul­tur­al resource for all New York­ers,” said Eri­ka Mallin, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts. ​“On behalf of the staff and Coun­cil, con­grat­u­la­tions to Lau­ren Haynes. We all look for­ward to expe­ri­enc­ing your vision and tal­ents at this incred­i­ble destination.”

“Gov­er­nors Island shows us the incred­i­ble pow­er of the arts to trans­form our city’s pub­lic spaces into vibrant sites for trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ences and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment,” said NYC Cul­tur­al Affairs Com­mis­sion­er Lau­rie Cum­bo. ​“With her deep expe­ri­ence in NYC’s arts com­mu­ni­ty and track record of vision­ary lead­er­ship, I can’t wait to see what Lau­ren Haynes can accom­plish in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the extra­or­di­nary team at Gov­er­nors Island.” 

“Lau­ren Haynes will be an excep­tion­al addi­tion to Gov­er­nors Island, ush­er­ing in a new era of artis­tic pro­gram­ming,” said Man­hat­tan Bor­ough Pres­i­dent Mark Levine. ​“Bring­ing her decades of vision­ary work in the arts, she will undoubt­ed­ly con­tin­ue to advance the Trust’s com­mit­ment to bold and inclu­sive arts initiatives.”

“I’ve been so inspired to watch Gov­er­nors Island flour­ish as a hub for New York artists, and I know Lau­ren Haynes will con­tin­ue to grow and nur­ture the Island’s vibrant cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty,” said State Sen­a­tor Andrew Gounardes. ​“This sort of care and ded­i­ca­tion to the arts is more impor­tant than ever, and I’m grate­ful to the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and Gov­er­nors Island Arts for their vision and leadership.”

“Gov­er­nors Island, with its rich his­to­ry and evolv­ing cul­tur­al land­scape, con­tin­ues to assert its posi­tion as a cor­ner­stone of New York City’s artis­tic and pub­lic space inno­va­tion,” said Assem­bly­man Charles D. Fall. ​“I con­grat­u­late Lau­ren on her new role and am con­fi­dent that under her guid­ance, Gov­er­nors Island will con­tin­ue to be a place where art and com­mu­ni­ty inter­sect in dynam­ic and mean­ing­ful ways.”

“I extend my warmest con­grat­u­la­tions to Lau­ren Haynes as she leads the next phase of Gov­er­nor Island’s arts and cul­ture pro­gram­ming. Governor’s Island is a respite for New York­ers and vis­i­tors, offer­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty to enjoy world-class events and exhi­bi­tions in a unique­ly beau­ti­ful set­ting,” said Coun­cil Mem­ber Car­li­na Rivera (D‑02). ​“As Chair of the Com­mit­tee on Cul­tur­al Affairs and Libraries, I look for­ward to work­ing togeth­er in coali­tion to keep New York City a bea­con for cre­ativ­i­ty and expression.” 

“We’re delight­ed to hear that Lau­ren Haynes will join our Gov­er­nors Island com­mu­ni­ty as the new cura­tor for TGI’s Gov­er­nors Island Arts and bring her cre­ative vision to one of the most dynam­ic places in NYC. Since 2019, LMCC has pro­vid­ed artist res­i­den­cies and pub­lic pro­grams at our Arts Cen­ter as a key cul­tur­al part­ner to Island-based orga­ni­za­tions work­ing in sus­tain­abil­i­ty, edu­ca­tion and the arts. We extend a warm wel­come to Lau­ren from LMC­C’s vibrant com­mu­ni­ty of artists and inno­va­tors,” said Craig T. Peter­son, Pres­i­dent of Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC).

Dur­ing her time at the Queens Muse­um, Haynes was respon­si­ble for the over­all vision for the museum’s exhi­bi­tion pro­gram and super­vis­ing its exhi­bi­tions, pub­lic prac­tice, and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment teams. Haynes has over­seen exhi­bi­tions and curat­ed projects includ­ing Tracey Rose: Shoot­ing Down Baby­lon (2023) and Car­o­line Kent: A short play about watch­ing shad­ows move across the room (2023). Haynes is also the co-cura­tor of Lyle Ash­ton Har­ris: Our first and last love, which will be on view at the Queens Muse­um in May.

Orig­i­nal­ly from East Ten­nessee, Haynes moved to New York City when she was 12 years old. In 2023, Pres­i­dent Joseph R. Biden appoint­ed Haynes to the Com­mit­tee for the Preser­va­tion of the White House, on which she cur­rent­ly serves. 

Pri­or to join­ing the Queens Muse­um, Haynes was the Pat­sy R. and Ray­mond D. Nash­er Senior Cura­tor of Con­tem­po­rary Art at the Nash­er Muse­um of Art at Duke Uni­ver­si­ty, where she curat­ed Beyond the Sur­face: Col­lage, Mixed Media and Tex­tile Works from the Collection (2022−23) and co-curat­ed The Pow­er of Por­trai­ture: Recent Acqui­si­tions (2022−23) and Reck­on­ing and Resilience: North Car­oli­na Art Now (2022).

From 2016 – 2021, Haynes was Direc­tor of Artist Ini­tia­tives and Cura­tor of Con­tem­po­rary Art at Crys­tal Bridges Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art and the Momen­tary in Ben­tonville, Arkansas. Haynes led the cura­to­r­i­al team for State of the Art 2020, which opened at Crys­tal Bridges and the Momen­tary in Feb­ru­ary 2020. Haynes’s cura­to­r­i­al projects at Crys­tal Bridges and the Momen­tary includ­ed Ken­ny Rivero: The Floor is Crooked (2021); Crys­tal Bridges at 10 (2021; co-cura­tor); Sarah Cain: In Nature (2021); Nick Cave: Until (2020−21; insti­tu­tion­al cura­tor); Crys­tals in Art: Ancient to Today (2019; co-cura­tor) and The Beyond: Geor­gia O’Keeffe and Con­tem­po­rary Art (2018; co-cura­tor). Haynes was the insti­tu­tion­al cura­tor for the first Unit­ed States pre­sen­ta­tion of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Pow­er when it trav­eled to Crys­tal Bridges in 2018. Haynes also led the devel­op­ment of the visu­al arts team and pro­gram at the Momen­tary (a satel­lite con­tem­po­rary art space of Crys­tal Bridges) pri­or to its open­ing in Feb­ru­ary 2020.

Before join­ing Crys­tal Bridges, Haynes spent near­ly a decade at The Stu­dio Muse­um in Harlem where she held mul­ti­ple posi­tions, includ­ing Asso­ciate Cura­tor for the per­ma­nent col­lec­tion. As a spe­cial­ist in con­tem­po­rary art by artists of African Descent, Haynes curat­ed dozens of exhi­bi­tions at the Stu­dio Muse­um and con­tem­po­rary art insti­tu­tions in New York. At the Stu­dio Muse­um, Haynes over­saw the care and col­lec­tion of the per­ma­nent col­lec­tion as well as acqui­si­tions and exhibitions.

As Asso­ciate Cura­tor, Per­ma­nent Col­lec­tion, for the Stu­dio Muse­um Haynes curat­ed four main space exhi­bi­tions, includ­ing Alma Thomas (2016; co-cura­tor); Speak­ing of Peo­ple: Ebony, Jet and Con­tem­po­rary Art (2014−15); Tren­ton Doyle Han­cock: Skin and Bones, 20 Years of Draw­ing (2015; insti­tu­tion­al orga­niz­er) and Stan­ley Whit­ney: Dance the Orange (2015). As an assis­tant cura­tor at the Stu­dio Muse­um, Haynes over­saw the Artist-in-Res­i­dence pro­gram in 2011-12, 2012 – 13 and 2013 – 14. She also curat­ed over a dozen exhi­bi­tions, includ­ing Car­rie Mae Weems: The Muse­um Series (2014), Kira Lynn Har­ris: The Block/​Bellona (2011−12), and Spi­ral: Per­spec­tives on an African-Amer­i­can Art Col­lec­tive (2011). At the Stu­dio Muse­um, Haynes co-curat­ed sev­er­al exhi­bi­tions, includ­ing Fore, the fourth dis­play of emerg­ing artists in the Stu­dio Museum’s ground­break­ing ​“f” show series, which includes Freestyle, Fre­quen­cy, Flow and Fic­tions.

As part of her cura­to­r­i­al prac­tice, Haynes has authored and co-authored sev­er­al cat­a­logs, includ­ing Lyle Ash­ton Har­ris: Our first and last love; State of the Art 2020; The Beyond: Geor­gia O’Keeffe and Con­tem­po­rary Art; Alma Thomas, The Bear­den Pro­ject, Speak­ing of Peo­ple: Ebony, Jet, and Con­tem­po­rary Art and Stan­ley Whit­ney: Dance the Orange.

Haynes has par­tic­i­pat­ed in many pan­els and lec­tures about con­tem­po­rary art and artists. She has also lec­tured at venues around the Unit­ed States, includ­ing The Whit­ney Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art; The Brook­lyn Rail; Lamar Dodd School of Art; Arta­dia; and Texas State Uni­ver­si­ty, San Mar­cos. She has been a jurist for var­i­ous art prizes and exhi­bi­tions across the US, includ­ing the David C. Driskell Prize; the Out­win Boochev­er Por­trait Com­pe­ti­tion; Lyn­don House Arts Cen­ter; the Yeck Young Painters Com­pe­ti­tion; and Art­Prize. Haynes has writ­ten on lead­ing con­tem­po­rary artists includ­ing Jor­dan Cas­teel; Leonar­do Drew; Tren­ton Doyle Han­cock; Jen­nifer Pack­er; and Nari Ward. Haynes is on the board of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Art Muse­um Cura­tors and the AAMC Foun­da­tion and serves as Vice Pres­i­dent of Fundrais­ing. Haynes is on the vis­it­ing com­mit­tee for the Allen Memo­r­i­al Art Muse­um at Ober­lin Col­lege where she earned her bachelor’s degree. Haynes was a 2018 Cen­ter for Cura­to­r­i­al Lead­er­ship fel­low and a recip­i­ent of a 2020 Art­Table New Lead­er­ship Award. 

Since open­ing to the pub­lic in 2005, Gov­er­nors Island has become a beloved cul­tur­al resource for New York City. In an effort to expand arts pro­gram­ming, the Trust hired its first Head Cura­tor and Vice Pres­i­dent for Arts and Cul­ture Mered­ith John­son in 2016. Since then, the pro­gram has grown expo­nen­tial­ly in its offer­ings for Island vis­i­tors, artists, oth­er cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers — includ­ing tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art com­mis­sions by artists includ­ing Rachel Whiteread, Susan Philip­sz, David Brooks, Jacob Hashimo­to, Shantell Mar­tin, Duke Riley, Richard Move, Sam Van Aken, Mark Dion, and Charles Gaines; 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 cul­tur­al organizations. 

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.

Mar 11 10:49 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the win­ners of the inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge, pre­sent­ed through its Liv­ing Lab pro­gram. Through this ini­tia­tive, the Trust makes the Island avail­able as a site for local small busi­ness­es, entre­pre­neurs, and non­prof­its to test and demon­strate urban cli­mate solu­tions for cities and their diverse communities.

Dubbed the ​“Water Abun­dance Chal­lenge,” this ini­tial call for pro­pos­als sought projects that uti­lize water to help pow­er cli­mate solu­tions that grow blue and green jobs and cre­ate health­i­er com­mu­ni­ties. Each of the six New York City-based inno­va­tors will receive a site to demon­strate their projects, grant awards of up to $25,000, and access to a com­mon pool of addi­tion­al funds to sup­port pilot imple­men­ta­tion. Their pilot sites will also pro­vide valu­able oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage with the Island’s rapid­ly grow­ing audi­ence of near­ly one mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors through pub­lic demon­stra­tions, work­shops, train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, and oth­er initiatives.

“Where some peo­ple see chal­lenges, New York­ers see oppor­tu­ni­ties, and Gov­er­nors Island’s ​‘Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge’ is the per­fect exam­ple of how New York­ers’ cre­ativ­i­ty and inge­nu­ity will con­tin­ue to shape our world,” said New York City May­or Eric Adams. ​“By giv­ing these cli­mate solu­tions a chance to pilot, we will con­tin­ue to grow New York City’s green econ­o­my, address cli­mate change, and begin to cre­ate the good-pay­ing, acces­si­ble ​‘green-col­lar’ jobs of the future.”

“Build­ing on the recent­ly announced Green Econ­o­my Action Plan and the cre­ation of the New York Cli­mate Exchange on Gov­er­nors Island, I am excit­ed by today’s announce­ment and the selec­tion of six orga­ni­za­tions to par­tic­i­pate in the inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge,” said Deputy May­or for Hous­ing, Eco­nom­ic, and Work­force Devel­op­ment Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“New York City is and will con­tin­ue to be a leader in the green econ­o­my by enabling pilot pro­grams — like Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab — to test high-impact cli­mate tech, advanc­ing world-class research and devel­op­ment, and imple­ment­ing strate­gies that cre­ate both equi­ty and eco­nom­ic val­ue through green col­lar jobs.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is the per­fect place to test and show­case cli­mate projects that will cre­ate a more sus­tain­able and equi­table city for all, and we are thrilled to be able to offer a total­ly unique envi­ron­ment to these six teams,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“The Water Abun­dance Chal­lenge win­ners rep­re­sent inno­v­a­tive water-based solu­tions being devel­oped by New York­ers, for New York­ers, and we can­not wait for them to share their work with Gov­er­nors Island’s engaged — and grow­ing — annu­al audi­ence of near­ly one mil­lion people.”

“We are thrilled to sup­port these inno­va­tors and to shine a light on how cli­mate solu­tions move from con­cept to pro­to­typ­ing to a scal­able prod­uct,” said Lau­ren Wang, Direc­tor of Cli­mate Pro­grams at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“These founders and non­prof­it lead­ers are work­ing cre­ative­ly and thought­ful­ly every day to improve the city’s rela­tion­ship with water. We are look­ing for­ward to all New York­er join­ing us on the Island this sum­mer for demon­stra­tions and work­shops led by these teams.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is more than a spe­cial place in New York City. Now, it’s becom­ing a sym­bol of our val­ues and an incu­ba­tor for cli­mate solu­tions aimed at solv­ing the globe’s most press­ing chal­lenge. At a time when the impacts of the cli­mate cri­sis grow more appar­ent, the inno­v­a­tive pilot projects that will soon launch on the Island will undoubt­ed­ly move New York – and the world – for­ward as we work to make our city the epi­cen­ter of action,” said Dr. Stephen Ham­mer, CEO of The New York Cli­mate Exchange. ​“The Exchange could not be more proud to call Gov­er­nors Island home, great­ly val­ues our part­ner­ship, and looks for­ward to work­ing with part­ners across the five bor­oughs to address the cli­mate crisis.”

“To address the cli­mate chal­lenges of the future, we must invest today in a diverse group of inno­va­tors work­ing on new projects and tech­nolo­gies that will pro­tect New York City’s ecosys­tem,” said Abby Jo Sigal, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Tal­ent and Work­force Devel­op­ment. ​“The six win­ners of the Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge are just the ones we need to safe­guard our water­ways and har­bors. They will also cre­ate well-pay­ing green col­lar jobs, which is key to mak­ing our City more resilient, not just envi­ron­men­tal­ly but also eco­nom­i­cal­ly, for all New Yorkers.”

This cohort of pilot projects includes:

• Duro UAS – A South Bronx-based com­pa­ny with the goal of improv­ing how envi­ron­men­tal data is col­lect­ed and shared through advanced, afford­able, and easy-to-use water mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems and data ser­vices. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot their Nearshore Sonde, a portable water mon­i­tor­ing device and cloud-based data dashboard.
• Just EcoC­i­ties – A nature-based solu­tions con­sul­tan­cy work­ing to improve water qual­i­ty, expand habi­tat, and pro­mote engage­ment with New York City’s water­ways. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will part­ner with Bio­hab­i­tats, an eco­log­i­cal design firm whose mis­sion is to restore the Earth and inspire eco­log­i­cal stew­ard­ship, to pilot a Tidal Planter that cre­ates salt marsh while remov­ing pol­lu­tants from New York Harbor.
• LÆRO – A small busi­ness found­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with experts across fields of water advo­ca­cy, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and electro­mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, work­ing to reduce the lev­els of untreat­ed waste­water that enter New York City’s water­ways. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot Cycleau, their com­pact grey­wa­ter treat­ment sys­tem at water refill sta­tions and restrooms. 
• Object Ter­ri­to­ries – A crit­i­cal design prac­tice based in New York and Hong Kong that works at the inter­sec­tion of archi­tec­ture, land­scape, and urban­ism. Their pilot on Gov­er­nors Island will test their Inter­tidal Objects, habi­tat-friend­ly coastal pro­tec­tion units designed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Cen­ter for Archi­tec­ture, Sci­ence, and Ecol­o­gy (CASE) at Rens­se­laer Poly­tech­nic Insti­tute, Fort Miller Group and after NATURE.
• RETI Cen­ter – A Red Hook-based non­prof­it that works to edu­cate, train, and work with local youth, experts, pro­fes­sion­als, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to trans­form our coastal city from one that is dri­ven by fos­sil fuels to one bal­anc­ing equi­ty, ecol­o­gy, and econ­o­my. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot their Float­ing Blue­Blocks Gar­dens, inte­grat­ed eco­log­i­cal sys­tems that can be installed in any body of water, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with thread collective.
• Sea­weed City – A non­prof­it cit­i­zen sci­ence ini­tia­tive explor­ing the ben­e­fits of sea­weed aqua­cul­ture in New York City’s water­ways. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot their urban kelp farm­ing infra­struc­ture. The project is fis­cal­ly spon­sored by New­town Creek Alliance.

Of the select­ed pilots, 100 per­cent are local­ly based, 50 per­cent are women-led, and 33 per­cent are minor­i­ty-led. Pilots will be installed on Gov­er­nors Island over the com­ing months for peri­ods span­ning six to 18 months, with an inau­gur­al pub­lic Demo Day to be held in ear­ly sum­mer 2024. They will join ongo­ing pilot­ing projects led by Vycarb, a Brook­lyn-based com­pa­ny work­ing to mea­sure and mit­i­gate car­bon diox­ide in New York Har­bor; Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Man­u­fac­tur­ing, a Brook­lyn-based com­pa­ny that trans­forms post-con­sumer plas­tics into upcy­cled prod­ucts through scal­able solar-pow­ered tech­nol­o­gy; and South Bronx Unite, a Bronx-based com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tion that is pilot­ing a street-lev­el air qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing net­work. For more infor­ma­tion on the pilots, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​l​i​v​i​n​g-lab.

The Cli­mate Solu­tions Pilot­ing Pro­gram is a key com­po­nent of Pilot:NYC, an ini­tia­tive announced by Gov­er­nor Kathy Hochul and May­or Eric Adams as part of the ​“New” New York Plan that seeks to make New York City a hub for urban inno­va­tion. The Pilot­ing Pro­gram includes two com­po­nents: the themed annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge and a gen­er­al rolling call. Through the annu­al chal­lenge, a select­ed cohort of com­pa­nies receives pilot­ing project sites, grant awards, deploy­ment sup­port, and pub­lic engage­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. The Trust also offers a year-round gen­er­al appli­ca­tion for self-fund­ed pilot­ing pro­pos­als across all dis­ci­plines. Non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, entre­pre­neurs, and start-ups are invit­ed to apply to the gen­er­al rolling call at any time at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​c​h​a​l​lenge.

The pilots announced today will com­ple­ment an exist­ing group of busi­ness­es and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions that are cur­rent­ly show­cas­ing inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island, includ­ing Con Edi­son, GrowNYC, Earth Mat­ter NY, the Bee Con­ser­van­cy, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, and others.

“Duro is thrilled to part­ner with Gov­er­nors Island to launch the first IoT (Inter­net of Things) water mon­i­tor­ing net­work in New York Har­bor. This excit­ing ini­tia­tive, fea­tur­ing a pub­lic data

dash­board and work­shop series, will gen­er­ate unprece­dent­ed insight into the Har­bor ecosys­tem, strength­en the exist­ing body of research, sup­port the growth of key­stone species, and much more,” said Bri­an Wil­son and Gabriel Fore­man, CEO and Vice Pres­i­dent, respec­tive­ly, at Duro UAS.

“Just Ecoc­i­ties is thrilled to part­ner with Bio­hab­i­tats to pilot a Tidal Planter cli­mate solu­tion on

Gov­er­nors Island. The Tidal Planter will improve water qual­i­ty and expand salt marsh habitat,

with a mod­u­lar design that can be adapt­ed for water­ways through­out the region. We look for­ward to engag­ing with youth and com­mu­ni­ty groups in mon­i­tor­ing and main­te­nance of the planter, build­ing local capac­i­ty and train­ing the cli­mate work­force of the future,” said Jamie Ong, Found­ing Prin­ci­pal of Just Ecocities.

“We’re excit­ed to show the pos­si­bil­i­ties of diver­si­fy­ing grey­wa­ter treat­ment across New York City, and to pilot­ing a scal­able solu­tion capa­ble of restor­ing access to safe water­fronts in some of New York’s most under­served neigh­bor­hoods,” said Noe­mi Flo­rea, founder and direc­tor of LÆRO.

“RETI Cen­ter is proud and excit­ed to launch our Float­ing Blue­Blocks Gar­dens at Gov­er­nors Island. We see the cre­ation of nat­ur­al habi­tats and sup­port of bio­di­ver­si­ty as a cru­cial ele­ment in cli­mate adap­ta­tion. All vis­i­tors to the Island, no mat­ter their age or expe­ri­ence lev­el, are wel­come to come help us build and launch our gar­dens this sum­mer,” said Tim Gilman-Sev­cik, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of RETI Center.

“Deutsche Bank Amer­i­c­as Foun­da­tion is a proud sup­port­er of the Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab and con­grat­u­lates the win­ners of the inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge. We are excit­ed by the pos­si­bil­i­ties of these pilot projects and the pos­i­tive impact they can bring to New York City’s vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties and beyond,” said Lisa Tal­ma, Vice Pres­i­dent of Phil­an­thropic Ini­tia­tives in the Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Finance Group at Deutsche Bank.

“As a strong part­ner in ush­er­ing our state’s clean ener­gy tran­si­tion, we’re proud to sup­port The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s unique Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge ini­tia­tive that places New York City at the fore­front of cut­ting-edge research tack­ling the great­est chal­lenges posed by cli­mate change,” said Tim Caw­ley, Chair­man and CEO of Con Edi­son. ​“These inno­v­a­tive projects will pave the way for a more sus­tain­able future for our city while boost­ing green jobs, eco­nom­ic growth, and health­i­er communities.”

“As we con­tin­ue to work to close the racial wealth gap and address oth­er dis­par­i­ties that affect New York’s under­served neigh­bor­hoods, we must not ignore the role cli­mate issues can play in exac­er­bat­ing these inequal­i­ties through the ways they dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly harm com­mu­ni­ties of col­or,” said Valerie White, Senior Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of LISC NY. ​“Pro­grams like the Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge on Gov­er­nors Island not only encour­age inno­va­tion that can pro­vide tan­gi­ble com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tric cli­mate ini­tia­tives but also offer diverse­ly owned start-ups access to key resources that will enable suc­cess. We look for­ward to see­ing the water-based solu­tions this cohort cre­ates and the ways their work will ulti­mate­ly ben­e­fit New Yorkers.”

“The New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust is proud to sup­port Gov­er­nors Island’s evo­lu­tion into a hub for prac­ti­cal, inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to the chal­lenges pre­sent­ed by accel­er­at­ing cli­mate change. From improv­ing data col­lec­tion to exper­i­ment­ing with sea­weed aqua­cul­ture in New York City’s water­ways, the vari­ety and inge­nu­ity of these projects gives me hope,” said Arturo Gar­cia-Costas, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer, Local, Nation­al and Inter­na­tion­al Envi­ron­ment, The New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.

“At Ama­zon, we’re active­ly work­ing to reduce emis­sions to reach net zero car­bon by 2040, and are excit­ed to con­tin­ue our part­ner­ship with Gov­er­nors Island to show­case what sus­tain­able and resilient cities can look like. The emerg­ing busi­ness­es announced today are demon­strat­ing inno­v­a­tive approach­es to tack­ling the glob­al cli­mate cri­sis that are poised to scale, and we’re proud to sup­port their work as part of the Cli­mate Solu­tions chal­lenge,” said Car­ley Gra­ham Gar­cia, Head of Com­mu­ni­ty Affairs and Pub­lic Pol­i­cy, Ama­zon New York.

Today’s announce­ment marks an excit­ing step for­ward in Gov­er­nors Island’s growth as a resource for cli­mate demon­stra­tion and inno­va­tion. Announced in June 2023, the Liv­ing Lab is a new pro­gram led by the Trust that pro­vides a plat­form for part­ner­ships and pro­grams to ampli­fy cli­mate action. In addi­tion to the Cli­mate Solu­tions Pilot­ing Pro­gram, the Liv­ing Lab includes a cli­mate field trip pro­gram launch­ing this spring and a com­mu­ni­ty con­ven­ing space for cli­mate on the Island. The Liv­ing Lab is made pos­si­ble with the gen­er­ous sup­port of Ama­zon, Con Edi­son, Deutsche Bank, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, LISC, and the New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.

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. The Exchange will cre­ate a state-of-the-art, $700-mil­lion, 400,000-square-foot cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island ded­i­cat­ed to research­ing and devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions that will be scaled across New York City and the world and that will equip New York­ers to hold the green jobs of the future. The Exchange will also cre­ate thou­sands of per­ma­nent green jobs and gen­er­ate $1 bil­lion in fis­cal impact for New York City.

Mar 7 10:06 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island today announced the return of two icon­ic spring events to Gov­er­nors Island: the annu­al Egg Hunt and Earth Day cel­e­bra­tions. The Egg Hunt will fea­ture 50,000 eggs hid­den around Gov­er­nors Island and take place on Sat­ur­day, March 30, 2024, from 10am to 3pm. The Earth Day Cel­e­bra­tion, high­light­ing the impor­tance of native plants with stew­ard­ship activ­i­ties, arts, and edu­ca­tion, will take place on Sat­ur­day, April 20, 2024, from 10am to 3pm. 

“We’re look­ing for­ward to cel­e­brat­ing spring on Gov­er­nors Island with the return of these two fan-favorite events,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Egg Hunt and Earth Day both pro­vide vis­i­tors with incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties to explore our 120 acres of open space and come togeth­er to cel­e­brate the return of warm weath­er. Whether you’re com­ing out to hunt for eggs or help us cre­ate native plant habi­tats, we can’t wait to see you on the Island this spring.” 

“The Friends of Gov­er­nors Island is excit­ed to wel­come vis­i­tors to the Island this sea­son for two spec­tac­u­lar spring pro­grams: our 2^nd annu­al Egg Hunt on March 30 and our Earth Day cel­e­bra­tion on April 20,” said Pat­ti Davis, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island. ​“These free, fam­i­ly-friend­ly pub­lic events high­light all that is spe­cial and unique about Gov­er­nors Island with fun-filled activ­i­ties, tours, and oppor­tu­ni­ties to give back.”

Gov­er­nors Island Egg Hunt

Back for a sec­ond year, this pop­u­lar spring­time event will see 50,000 can­dy-filled eggs spread across sev­er­al areas of Gov­er­nors Island, along with an Island-wide scav­enger hunt that every­one can take a crack at and an addi­tion­al hunt for chil­dren ages 5 and under. The cel­e­bra­tion will take place on Sat­ur­day, March 30, 2024, from 11am to 3pm in Colonels Row and will also include per­for­mances from Bub­bledad and Won­der­Spark Pup­pets, spring-themed arts and crafts with Red Hook Art Project, ​“Meet the Chick­ens” with Earth Mat­ter NY, and more to be announced. Food will be avail­able for pur­chase onsite from Gov­er­nors Island ven­dors Mak­i­na Café and Lit­tle Eva’s, along­side food trucks includ­ing ANAO’s Caribbean Fla­vors, Yan­kee Doo­dles, Par­adise Taquil­la, and Deploy Cof­fee. Vis­i­tors will also be able to meet and take pic­tures with a Spring Bunny. 

The egg hunt is first come, first served as sup­plies last, and will take place con­tin­u­ous­ly through­out the day. No pre-reg­is­tra­tion is required, and the event is rain or shine. The Gov­er­nors Island Egg Hunt is co-pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island, with gen­er­ous sup­port from Tony’s Cho­colone­ly. Addi­tion­al sup­port pro­vid­ed by New York Cares. 

Earth Day on Gov­er­nors Island

Gov­er­nors Island’s third annu­al Earth Day cel­e­bra­tion will cel­e­brate the pow­er of native plants through free edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties and work­shops for all ages, guid­ed tours through the Island’s open space, a par­tic­i­pa­to­ry mur­al inspired by the rela­tion­ship between milk­weed and Monarch but­ter­flies, and vol­un­teer stew­ard­ship projects. The fes­tiv­i­ties will take place on Sat­ur­day, April 20, 2024, from 10am to 3pm, and will also include cyan­otype print­ing activ­i­ties, seed ball work­shops, free bike lessons with Bike New York, and more.

Earth Day on Gov­er­nors Island is co-pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island, with pro­gram­ming sup­port from Stu­dent Con­ser­va­tion Asso­ci­a­tion, Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Man­u­fac­tur­ing, Wind Sup­port, Bike New York, Earth Mat­ter NY, the Nation­al Park Ser­vice, and Bee Con­ser­van­cy. Earth Day is spon­sored by AECOM, Dai­wa Cap­i­tal Mar­kets Amer­i­ca Inc., and Lazard. Gen­er­ous sup­port for Gov­er­nors Island’s green spaces is pro­vid­ed by Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies and Black­stone Char­i­ta­ble Fund.