Blog

Aug 15 3:47 pm

New York City May­or Eric Adams today announced new plans to expand the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School on Gov­er­nors Island. Dou­bling the school’s foot­print from two to four build­ings — includ­ing one that will be new­ly con­struct­ed — the plan will bring addi­tion­al class­room space and new facil­i­ties, includ­ing a pool, gym­na­si­um, and lab space to sup­port the school’s unique mar­itime and envi­ron­men­tal cur­ricu­lum. The plan is the prod­uct of a part­ner­ship between the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, the New York City Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion (DOE), and the New York City School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty (SCA).

“For many New York­ers, Gov­er­nors Island is a place to get away over the week­end. And for so many oth­ers, it is a place to learn about our world or pre­pare our city for the threats of cli­mate change,” said May­or Adams. ​“This project will give our young peo­ple the best of all worlds: a holis­tic, high-qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion, brand new facil­i­ties to help stu­dents learn, and access to one of our city’s gems where nature tru­ly is the classroom.”

“The Urban Assem­bly Har­bor School expan­sion will pro­vide our youth with brand-new facil­i­ties, a unique learn­ing envi­ron­ment, and expo­sure to a city trea­sure in Gov­er­nors Island,” said First Deputy May­or Lor­raine Gril­lo. ​“Thank you, May­or Adams, the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty, and all the city and com­mu­ni­ty stake­hold­ers for mak­ing this project possible.”

“Gov­er­nors Island has proven itself to be a recre­ation­al, cul­tur­al, and edu­ca­tion­al resource for over a decade in part­ner­ship with the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School,” said Deputy May­or for Eco­nom­ic and Work­force Devel­op­ment Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“We know the excep­tion­al stu­dents at the Har­bor School have bright futures, and I am excit­ed to see all they can accom­plish with state-of-the-art expand­ed space and resources.”

Expan­sion plans announced today include the con­struc­tion of a new, state-of-the-art facil­i­ty locat­ed on a site with­in the Island’s West­ern Devel­op­ment Zone. The new facil­i­ty will house a com­pe­ti­tion-sized pool to sup­port the school’s unique water-depen­dent mar­itime pro­grams, a new gym­na­si­um, and expand­ed lab­o­ra­to­ry space ded­i­cat­ed to career-tech­ni­cal train­ing and research. The new facil­i­ty will be the first new con­struc­tion build­ing locat­ed with­in a devel­op­ment zone on Gov­er­nors Island since its trans­fer from fed­er­al to local con­trol and will be a key com­po­nent of the trust’s planned mul­ti-ten­ant Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions. The con­struc­tion of the new pool, gym­na­si­um, and lab­o­ra­to­ry facil­i­ty will demon­strate bold sus­tain­able and resilient design as out­lined in the trust’s goals for the Cli­mate Cen­ter and the island’s over­all transformation. 

The School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty will also ren­o­vate Build­ing 555 — a des­ig­nat­ed land­mark build­ing orig­i­nal­ly con­struct­ed in 1938 as fam­i­ly hous­ing by the Unit­ed States Army — to sup­port 32,000 square feet of addi­tion­al class­room space. Both projects will expand the Har­bor School’s facil­i­ties on Gov­er­nors Island from two build­ings to four. The over­all expan­sion project includes cap­i­tal fund­ing sup­port from the New York City Coun­cil and the Man­hat­tan Bor­ough President’s Office.

The first year-round ten­ant on Gov­er­nors Island since its trans­fer from fed­er­al to local con­trol in 2003, the mis­sion of the Har­bor School — a DOE pub­lic high school — is to pro­vide a col­lege-prepara­to­ry edu­ca­tion built upon New York City’s mar­itime expe­ri­ence with a focus on envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship. With its part­ners — includ­ing the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project — the school devel­ops authen­tic activ­i­ties for its stu­dents on, around, and relat­ed to the water that cre­ates a sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty to the New York Har­bor and devel­op a new gen­er­a­tion of mar­itime advo­cates, enthu­si­asts, work­ers, and deci­sion-mak­ers. The Har­bor School cur­rent­ly occu­pies near­ly 80,000 square feet across two build­ings locat­ed with­in the Gov­er­nors Island His­toric Dis­trict, includ­ing Build­ing 550 and the Marine and Sci­ence Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­ter, which sup­ports the school’s water depen­dent activity. 

The expan­sion of the Har­bor School comes at a trans­for­ma­tion­al moment as the trust moves for­ward, with plans to devel­op a Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions, which will expand part­ner­ship, learn­ing and train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents on Gov­er­nors Island. The trust is cur­rent­ly in the process of attract­ing an anchor edu­ca­tion­al and research insti­tu­tion as part of the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions, a ground­break­ing ini­tia­tive designed to fur­ther New York City as a glob­al leader in efforts to respond to the cli­mate cri­sis. A key part of May­or Eric Adams’ Blue­print for New York City’s Eco­nom­ic Recov­ery, the project will sup­port the research, devel­op­ment, and demon­stra­tion of equi­table cli­mate solu­tions for New York City — that can be scaled and applied globally.

“The Urban Assem­bly Har­bor School is an incred­i­ble exam­ple of how a school’s cam­pus and facil­i­ties can help mold our stu­dents’ pas­sions, inter­ests, and, ulti­mate­ly, their path to eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty. Most impor­tant­ly, we lis­tened to and heard from the stu­dents, edu­ca­tors, and fam­i­lies of the Har­bor School, who advo­cat­ed for these facil­i­ty invest­ments,” said DOE Chan­cel­lor David C. Banks. ​“I look for­ward to the impact that these new and sus­tain­able facil­i­ties, includ­ing a new pool, gym­na­si­um, and lab­o­ra­to­ry, will have on this unique school com­mu­ni­ty, and thank the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island for their con­tin­ued partnership.”

“For over a decade, the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School has uti­lized Gov­er­nors Island and New York Har­bor as a liv­ing class­room, where stu­dents from across the five bor­oughs receive career train­ing in mar­itime and envi­ron­men­tal fields and are empow­ered to take action in the face of cli­mate change, and today’s announce­ment of an expand­ed cam­pus means more stu­dents than ever will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence its unique cur­ricu­lum,” said Clare New­man, pres­i­dent and CEO, Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We’re hon­ored to have worked with May­or Eric Adams, the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty, Schools Chan­cel­lor David Banks, and the Har­bor School com­mu­ni­ty to devel­op new state-of-the-art lab­o­ra­to­ry and aquat­ic facil­i­ties here on Gov­er­nors Island, where stu­dents will gain expo­sure to real-world train­ing for jobs in the mar­itime, cli­mate, and the envi­ron­men­tal fields.”

“I am thrilled that the SCA will be able to improve and expand upon our orig­i­nal plans for the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School,” said SCA pres­i­dent and CEO Nina Kub­o­ta. ​“The col­lab­o­ra­tive effort between the SCA, DOE, and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island has led to this ter­rif­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty for the school’s unique mar­itime pro­gram­ming to serve even more New York City stu­dents as well as an addi­tion­al resource for the community.”

“The expan­sion of Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School brings to life our chancellor’s vision of reimag­in­ing the stu­dent learn­ing expe­ri­ence,” said Fred Walsh, high school super­in­ten­dent for CUNY and the Urban Assem­bly, DOE. ​“We are thrilled about the plan to expand and improve the school’s facil­i­ties, which will ulti­mate­ly expand oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents across the city. Stu­dents who attend the Har­bor School engage in a wide range of mar­itime- and marine sci­ence-focused career and tech­ni­cal edu­ca­tion (CTE) pro­grams and work-based learn­ing, lead­ing to indus­try cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, and prepar­ing them for suc­cess­ful expe­ri­ence in col­lege or a career of their choice. As our world changes and the need for cli­mate change solu­tions evolves, this expan­sion will enrich the lives of count­less stu­dents, while prepar­ing future grad­u­ates to be at the fore­front of the field and enter the work­force pre­pared to lead. We look for­ward to see­ing the impact the expan­sion has on all of the stu­dents and fam­i­lies who join the Har­bor School Community.”

“I am proud to have long cham­pi­oned Gov­er­nors Island; it is tru­ly one of our city’s hid­den gems,” said U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jer­ry Nadler. ​“I have long sup­port­ed the Har­bor School on Gov­er­nors Island. I believe that its edu­ca­tion­al mis­sion is so impor­tant today, which is why after many years of advo­ca­cy it is great news that the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty and the city are final­ly announc­ing an expan­sion of the school and build­ing, a much-need­ed pool, gym­na­si­um, and new sci­ence labs.”

“The New York Har­bor School’s CTE pro­gram is one of the most unique in the city, and because of that, care­ful con­sid­er­a­tions must be made when devel­op­ing a space that is intend­ed to be of opti­mal ser­vice to the school com­mu­ni­ty there,” said Man­hat­tan Bor­ough Pres­i­dent Mark Levine. ​“I am extreme­ly pleased to see that SCA is act­ing on those con­sid­er­a­tions and cen­ter­ing equi­ty as it relates to a school whose mis­sion is to pro­vide robust, unique, on-water expe­ri­ences for their stu­dents and offer path­ways into mar­itime careers.”

“I am thrilled that the Har­bor School will be expand­ing its facil­i­ties and that they will final­ly get their long-await­ed swim­ming pool and gym­na­si­um,” said New York State Sen­a­tor Bri­an Kavanagh. ​“For near­ly twen­ty years, the Har­bor School has offered unique edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties to a diverse stu­dent body. Learn­ing marine biol­o­gy, sail­ing, and oth­er water­craft skills, and col­lab­o­rat­ing with the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, all pre­pare stu­dents for careers engag­ing with and being good stew­ards of our nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment — and serv­ing Gov­er­nors Island, the har­bor, and New York. The aquat­ic cen­ter will allow stu­dents to take full advan­tage of the school’s mar­itime-themed aca­d­e­mics. I am glad that the expan­sion includes addi­tion­al class­room space, giv­ing more stu­dents the chance to expe­ri­ence this excep­tion­al edu­ca­tion on Gov­er­nors Island. Thank you to the trust, the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty, Prin­ci­pal Jeff Che­tirko, the Har­bor School PTA, the stu­dents, Com­mu­ni­ty Board 1, and all of the ded­i­cat­ed advo­cates who helped make this possible.”

“I am excit­ed to see that after years of advo­ca­cy from par­ents, com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, and elect­ed offi­cials, Har­bor School is final­ly get­ting the resources it deserves,” said New York State Assem­bly­mem­ber Yuh-Line Niou. ​“It is vital that we sup­port our CTE pro­grams and that we increase access to spe­cial­ized resources and oth­er facil­i­ties for our stu­dents. This pro­pos­al does both, and I am proud to have advo­cat­ed for these projects.”

“Since tak­ing office, we have been work­ing with the Har­bor School staff and par­ents to advo­cate for a full-sized com­pet­i­tive pool for their stu­dents,” said New York City Coun­cilmem­ber Christo­pher Marte. ​“We are so excit­ed that the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty has heard our call and com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing an incred­i­ble facil­i­ty for one of our district’s most unique pub­lic high schools. Har­bor School stu­dents have unique oppor­tu­ni­ties to grad­u­ate high school with skills that make them unique­ly qual­i­fied to work green jobs and with our water­ways. How­ev­er, the lack of access to a com­pet­i­tive-sized swim­ming pool has left a sig­nif­i­cant gap in this edu­ca­tion. The addi­tion of this pool shows the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty activism and the will­ing­ness of the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty to work with par­ents and staff.”

“CB1 is thrilled that the Har­bor School will final­ly have their long-await­ed aquat­ics cen­ter on Gov­er­nors Island,” said Tri­cia Joyce, chair­per­son, Youth and Edu­ca­tion Com­mit­tee, Man­hat­tan Com­mu­ni­ty Board 1 (CB1). ​“The School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island respond­ed to PTA and com­mu­ni­ty feed­back to find a solu­tion, and the loca­tion and design of the new build­ing will make this spe­cial pro­gram for envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence and mar­itime careers on the water whole at last. We thank our elect­ed offi­cials for their tire­less sup­port of edu­ca­tion in Com­mu­ni­ty Dis­trict 1.”

“We are thrilled and excit­ed that the New York Har­bor School’s long quest for an aquat­ics cen­ter and gym will final­ly have a facil­i­ty empow­er­ing suc­cess for this spe­cial pro­gram of envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence and mar­itime careers in our city on the water,” said Nan Richard­son, chair, SEA com­mit­tee; and Amy Koza, PTA pres­i­dent, New York Har­bor School. ​“Grat­i­tude to the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty and to the chan­cel­lor for their com­mit­ment to a vision­ary future of edu­ca­tion, as well as to Con­gress­man Nadler, Coun­cilmem­ber Marte, Sen­a­tor Kavanagh, Assem­bly­mem­ber Fall, Assem­bly­mem­ber Niou, and Man­hat­tan Bor­ough Pres­i­dent Levine for their unflag­ging sup­port and belief in inno­v­a­tive learn­ing. Every sin­gle fam­i­ly and friend of Har­bor School past, present, and future, will be joy­ous at this news.”

“The Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School com­mu­ni­ty great­ly appre­ci­ates the sup­port of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the School Con­struc­tion Author­i­ty for pro­vid­ing our pub­lic school the nec­es­sary tools to meet the require­ments of our sev­en career and tech­ni­cal edu­ca­tion path­ways,” said Jef­frey Che­tirko, prin­ci­pal, The Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School. ​“This invest­ment will ensure greater oppor­tu­ni­ties to pre­pare our stu­dents to pur­sue careers in the blue and green economies of the future and con­tin­ue to appre­ci­ate and pro­tect our city’s great­est nat­ur­al resources, New York Har­bor and Gov­er­nors Island. These resources will cre­ate equi­table facil­i­ties, allow­ing New York City stu­dents to learn to swim, space for phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion, and state-of-the-art facil­i­ties that will sup­port the envi­ron­men­tal work we do with the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project.”

“The Urban Assembly’s abil­i­ty to pro­vide robust work-based learn­ing and career path­ways in the mar­itime indus­try has been strength­ened by this expan­sion,” said David Adams, CEO, The Urban Assem­bly. ​“We look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing the work of devel­op­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of stew­ards and lead­ers of the New York Harbor.”

“The New York Har­bor School pro­vides fan­tas­tic, hands-on, place based edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents that are depen­dent on its loca­tion, on Gov­er­nors Island, in the cen­ter of New York Har­bor. This invest­ment by the City and the Trust for Gov­er­nor’s Island is a tes­ta­ment to over a decade of excel­lent instruc­tion and unique and excit­ing learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. All of us at Bil­lion Oys­ter Project are thrilled to see Har­bor School expand and final­ly have con­ve­nient access to a pool for dive and swim train­ing as well as much need­ed lab spaces for expand­ing Career and Tech­ni­cal Edu­ca­tion,” said Pete Mali­nows­ki, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project. 

Aug 2 11:09 am

In July 2022, Gov­er­nors Island Arts, Times Square Arts, and Cre­ative Time joint­ly announced the first pub­lic art exhi­bi­tion by Charles Gaines, The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest. This sweep­ing instal­la­tion will take place in three parts in three dif­fer­ent loca­tions over the course of three years — ­­Times Square, Gov­er­nors Island, and Cincinnati.

Chap­ter One debuted on July 13 in Times Square with two per­for­mances of Gaines’ Man­i­festos 4: The Dred and Har­ri­et Scott Deci­sion. The per­for­mance was a musi­cal inter­pre­ta­tion of the orig­i­nal text of the 1857 U.S. Supreme Court case of Dred Scott vs. San­ford, and was per­formed with a wood­wind quin­tet, piano, and tenor. The per­for­mance built upon the artist’s Man­i­festos series, in which Gaines dis­arms and draws upon his­tor­i­cal texts, unit­ing the ratio­nal, math­e­mat­i­cal, and lyri­cal struc­tures of music with the irra­tional­i­ty of vio­lence, racial ten­sions, and social injustice. 

Read the text fea­tured in the per­for­mance here, and read the full speech by Fred­er­ick Dou­glass in response to the deci­sion — which was sung by tenor Dar­i­an Clonts as the final part of each per­for­mance—here.

Roots, Chap­ter One’s sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion, also opened on July 13, and will be on view in Times Square through Sep­tem­ber 23. It fea­tures sev­en paint­ed Amer­i­can Sweet­gum trees, which his­tor­i­cal­ly grew in what is now Times Square, with their roots up to give the piece a sur­re­al and dystopi­an feel. 

Look­ing ahead, Chap­ter Two of The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest will come to Gov­er­nors Island in Octo­ber 2022. Locat­ed at the base of Out­look Hill, Mov­ing Chains will fea­ture a large kinet­ic sculp­ture instal­la­tion com­posed of nine chains. Eight of the chains will be move at the pace of New York Harbor’s cur­rents, while the ninth will move at the speed of the many ships that have passed through the har­bor through­out his­to­ry. Mov­ing Chains illu­mi­nates the exchange of peo­ple, cap­i­tal, and goods cycling between the north and south that made up the slave trade, while call­ing atten­tion to the polit­i­cal, judi­cial, and eco­nom­ic oper­a­tions estab­lished in this country’s foun­da­tion­al finan­cial sys­tem. Chap­ter Two will also include free pub­lic pro­gram­ming on Gov­er­nors Island relat­ed to the piece, stay tuned for announce­ments and updates. 

Click here to learn more about The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest.

Jul 21 9:46 am

Today, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island launched a new, dig­i­tal guide on Bloomberg Con­nects, the free arts and cul­tur­al app cre­at­ed by Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies. The Bloomberg Con­nects app helps to expand Gov­er­nors Island’s acces­si­bil­i­ty for both onsite and off­site vis­its through mul­ti­me­dia fea­tures offer­ing insights into this unique land­mark in New York Harbor. 

“New York City is back, and we are spread­ing the word,” said New York City May­or Eric Adams. ​“Gov­er­nors Island is one of the real gems of our city, and this new dig­i­tal guide on the Bloomberg Con­nects app will help us share this great asset and all our city has to offer with more New York­ers and visitors.”

“We are excit­ed to part­ner with Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies to launch of this new dig­i­tal guide to Gov­er­nors Island,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Island vis­i­tors far and wide will be able to deep­en their expe­ri­ence by explor­ing this acces­si­ble library of infor­ma­tion on our trans­for­ma­tive arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming, recre­ation­al activ­i­ties and ameni­ties, his­toric build­ings, and more.” 

The new guide fea­tures in depth infor­ma­tion to enrich vis­i­tor expe­ri­ence on Gov­er­nors Island, with sec­tions that include pop­u­lar things to do and free recre­ation activ­i­ties along with a detailed map allow­ing vis­i­tors to nav­i­gate the Island dur­ing their vis­it. In addi­tion, Gov­er­nors Island Arts — the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust — fea­tures heav­i­ly in the guide, with detailed sec­tions on pub­lic art com­mis­sions dat­ing back to 2014, infor­ma­tion on the two dozen sea­son­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence in Nolan Park and Colonels Row, and fea­tures on upcom­ing events and free pro­grams. Vis­i­tors will also be able to fur­ther explore Gov­er­nors Island’s his­toric build­ings through the app, with a vir­tu­al exhib­it on the His­toric Dis­trict illu­mi­nat­ing the Island’s archi­tec­tur­al history. 

“Help­ing more peo­ple enjoy all that Gov­er­nors Island has to offer is a con­tin­u­a­tion of the work that the Bloomberg admin­is­tra­tion began 20 years ago, work­ing with our part­ners to trans­form an untapped trea­sure into one of the world’s great parks,” said Patri­cia E. Har­ris, CEO of Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies. ​“Our Bloomberg Con­nects app will allow any­one with a smart phone to nav­i­gate the island, learn its his­to­ry, and enjoy all the free recre­ation­al and cul­tur­al activ­i­ties that are hap­pen­ing. There’s nev­er been a bet­ter time to explore an island that keeps offer­ing new rea­sons to visit.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is one of New York City’s most dynam­ic and fas­ci­nat­ing des­ti­na­tions — and now there is so much more to dis­cov­er here, thanks to the part­ner­ship with Bloomberg Con­nects,” said Mer­ritt Birn­baum, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island. ​“This new online tool brings to life the his­to­ry, art, cul­ture, recre­ation, and sci­ence in a con­ve­nient and acces­si­ble for­mat that will be a ter­rif­ic resource for vis­i­tors. The abil­i­ty to use the map fea­ture to enrich their expe­ri­ence as they nav­i­gate the pub­lic space will be a game-chang­er for exploration.”

The Bloomberg Con­nects app is avail­able for down­load from Google Play or the App Store. Vis­i­tors can down­load and explore on-site by con­nect­ing to free Gov­er­nors Island Wi-Fi. 

Bloomberg Con­nects offers free dig­i­tal guides to cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions around the world. The app plat­form is part of Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies’ long­stand­ing com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing dig­i­tal inno­va­tion in the arts. Bloomberg Con­nects makes it easy to access and engage with arts and cul­ture from mobile devices when vis­it­ing in per­son, or any­time from any­where. With dynam­ic con­tent exclu­sive to each part­ner orga­ni­za­tion, the app pro­vides a range of fea­tures includ­ing video, audio, and text; expert com­men­tary; and way-find­ing maps. Fol­low Bloomberg Con­nects on Insta­gram, Face­book, and Twit­ter for updates on new guide launch­es, exhib­it high­lights, and more.

Jul 19 8:51 am

Gov­er­nors Island Arts announced today the launch of ​‘House Fest,’ a three-day fes­ti­val cel­e­brat­ing the incred­i­ble range of works pre­sent­ed by the sea­son­al arts, cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al, and envi­ron­men­tal Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence on Gov­er­nors Island. From August 5 to 7, 2022, Gov­er­nors Island Arts will bring togeth­er more than 15 cul­tur­al part­ners for a week­end-long cre­ative cel­e­bra­tion in the his­toric Nolan Park and Colonels Row areas on the Island, fea­tur­ing free dance and music per­for­mances, out­door instal­la­tions, inter­ac­tive work­shops, open stu­dios, pan­el dis­cus­sions, and more.

“Gov­er­nors Island attracts New York­ers and inter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors alike with its wide-rang­ing Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence high­light­ing the arts, cul­ture, and the envi­ron­ment,” said Deputy May­or for Eco­nom­ic and Work­force Devel­op­ment Maria-Tor­res Springer. ​“This weekend’s cel­e­bra­tion of these unique orga­ni­za­tions will bring even more atten­tion to the edu­ca­tion­al and cul­tur­al gems in the heart of New York Harbor.”

“Through Gov­er­nors Island Arts, we are thrilled to bring togeth­er a unique group of orga­ni­za­tions that ful­ly embod­ies the diverse cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty here in New York City,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“The sin­gu­lar envi­ron­ment of Gov­er­nors Island fos­ters a cul­tur­al expe­ri­ence like no oth­er, and I encour­age all New York­ers to come out and cel­e­brate with Gov­er­nors Island Arts at House Fest this August.” 

“Each year, the Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence acti­vate Nolan Park and Colonels Row with evoca­tive arts expe­ri­ences, and we are so excit­ed to cel­e­brate this cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty with the inau­gur­al House Fest,” said Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Gov­er­nors Island Arts is priv­i­leged to have such a ded­i­cat­ed group of orga­ni­za­tions here on the Island col­lab­o­rat­ing to help bring trans­for­ma­tive, acces­si­ble pro­gram­ming to Island vis­i­tors and all New Yorkers.”

House Fest will invite col­lab­o­ra­tion between Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ two dozen sea­son­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence and a diverse ros­ter of chore­o­g­ra­phers and per­form­ers from through­out New York City, build­ing upon the cul­tur­al land­scape the pro­gram fos­ters each year in the for­mer mil­i­tary homes of Nolan Park and Colonels Row on Gov­er­nors Island.

The three-day cel­e­bra­tion will fea­ture free per­for­mances from Pigeon­wing Dance, Jer­ron Her­man, and Dance to the Peo­ple, along with free pub­lic pro­grams and acti­va­tions from Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence that include the Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary African Dias­po­ran Art (MoCA­DA), Har­vest­works, The Cli­mate Muse­um, Art­Crawl Harlem, 4heads, NYU Gal­latin Wet­Lab, Tri­an­gle Arts, and more to be announced. 

Cen­tral to the weekend’s fes­tiv­i­ties is ​‘Dance Par­ty NYC’ on Sat­ur­day, August 6, a city-wide dance par­ty tak­ing place on the same night across 80 loca­tions through­out the five bor­oughs – includ­ing Nolan Park on Gov­er­nors Island. Fes­ti­val goers will dance their hearts out along­side their fel­low New York­ers, with sound­tracks pro­vid­ed by Brook­lyn Unit­ed March­ing Band, Brass Queens, DJ Agua­pan­ela Mami, and DJ Yung Mayne. Dance Par­ty NYC on Gov­er­nors Island is pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Council.

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

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. Since Gov­er­nors Island opened to the pub­lic in 2005, the Trust has invit­ed cul­tur­al, edu­ca­tion­al, and non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions to uti­lize its his­toric hous­es to present engag­ing pub­lic pro­grams while pro­vid­ing work­space for artists and cul­tur­al practitioners.

Through this unique Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence Pro­gram, Gov­er­nors Island Arts pro­vides a plat­form for non-prof­it groups to reach a diverse and grow­ing audi­ence of engaged vis­i­tors, where col­lab­o­ra­tion is encour­aged between par­tic­i­pat­ing orga­ni­za­tions and space is pro­vid­ed to pre­sen­ters free of charge.

Invest­ment in Gov­er­nors Island Arts advances a key com­po­nent of ​“Rebuild, Renew, Rein­vent: A Blue­print for NYC’s Eco­nom­ic Recov­ery,” the mayor’s vision for the future of the city’s econ­o­my. Over the next decade, the City and the Trust will invest in evolv­ing this sea­son­al pro­gram into year-round per­ma­nent homes for cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions on Gov­er­nors Island.

Gov­er­nors Island Arts 2022 Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence include 4heads, Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House, Art­Crawl Harlem, Beam Cen­ter, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, BronxArt­Space, The Cli­mate Muse­um, Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons, Flux Fac­to­ry, Har­vest­works, KODA, MoCA­DA, NARS Foun­da­tion, Nation­al Acad­e­my of Design, New Art Deal­ers Alliance (NADA), New York Vir­tu­al Vol­cano Obser­va­to­ry, NYC Audubon, NYU Gal­latin Wet­Lab, Pratt School of Archi­tec­ture, Swale, Syra­cuse Uni­ver­si­ty, Tri­an­gle Arts, and West Harlem Art Fund. 

House Fest 2022 is pre­sent­ed with sup­port from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Enter­tain­ment. Click here to view the full sched­ule of House Fest events. 

Jul 14 8:48 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today released two Request for Pro­pos­als (RFPs) invit­ing oper­a­tors of event, food and bev­er­age, and hos­pi­tal­i­ty venues to ground lease, rede­vel­op and oper­ate sev­er­al build­ings through­out Gov­er­nors Island’s His­toric Dis­trict. The RFPs released today build upon the Trust’s recent mile­stone of open­ing Gov­er­nors Island to the pub­lic year-round and sup­port the long-term vision to expand vis­i­tor ameni­ties while breath­ing new life into fifty land­marked for­mer mil­i­tary buildings. 

“Gov­er­nors Island has become a cul­tur­al and recre­ation­al ​‘must see’ in New York City,” said Deputy May­or for Eco­nom­ic and Work­force Devel­op­ment Maria Torres-Springer. ​“Today’s RFP release is a crit­i­cal step to also make the Island a full-ser­vice hos­pi­tal­i­ty des­ti­na­tion, spurring our eco­nom­ic recov­ery through tourism and job cre­ation. I thank the Gov­er­nors Island team for their vision­ary stew­ard­ship of this unique New York City resource.”

“In the past year Gov­er­nors Island has grown tremen­dous­ly as a vibrant resource for all New York­ers, with open space now acces­si­ble year-round, an array of arts and cul­tur­al pro­grams, new ameni­ties, and a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of ten­ants,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Through the release of these RFPs, we are excit­ed to make progress on expand­ing ways for New York­ers to enjoy all the Island has to offer, while fur­ther­ing our long-term com­mit­ment to breath­ing new life into our his­toric assets. We look for­ward to receiv­ing pro­pos­als from New York City’s diverse hos­pi­tal­i­ty community.”.

Through the two RFPs released today, The Trust is mak­ing avail­able up to 45,000 SF of space across five build­ings locat­ed with­in the Gov­er­nors Island His­toric Dis­trict for adap­tive reuse by suc­cess­ful respon­dents. Prop­er­ties made avail­able through the RFPs include:

Build­ing 140: Request for Pro­pos­als Seek­ing Food and Bev­er­age Con­cepts and/​or Event Venues

Devel­op­ers and oper­a­tors of food and bev­er­age con­cepts and event venues are invit­ed to sub­mit pro­pos­als to ground lease, rede­vel­op, and oper­ate Build­ing 140 an approx­i­mate­ly 10,000 square-foot water­front build­ing on Gov­er­nors Island fea­tur­ing high ceil­ings, a col­umn-free inte­ri­or, and an approx­i­mate­ly 13,000-square-foot out­door water­front ter­race. Con­struct­ed in the mid-1800s as a muni­tions ware­house and used over the years as a bank and a post office, Build­ing 140 is locat­ed at Sois­sons Land­ing, Gov­er­nors Island’s pri­ma­ry fer­ry dock with 7‑minute ser­vice to Low­er Man­hat­tan, and fea­tures unob­struct­ed views of the Low­er Man­hat­tan sky­line, Brook­lyn Bridge, and New York Harbor.

Build­ings 1, 2, 3, and 25: Hos­pi­tal­i­ty and Vis­i­tor Amenities

Devel­op­ers and oper­a­tors of food and bev­er­age con­cepts, event and con­ven­ing spaces, overnight accom­mo­da­tions, and oth­er ameni­ty spaces are invit­ed to sub­mit pro­pos­als to ground lease, rede­vel­op, and oper­ate Build­ings 1, 2, 3, and 25 on Gov­er­nors Island. Togeth­er, the Build­ings offer approx­i­mate­ly 35,000 square feet of com­bined indoor space locat­ed with­in Nolan Park, for­mer­ly home to Com­mand­ing Officer’s quar­ters dur­ing Gov­er­nors Island’s his­to­ry as a US Army and Coast Guard Base, and today home to a grow­ing hub of arts and cul­tur­al ten­ants. Suc­cess­ful respon­dents will be locat­ed adja­cent to the Nolan Park Cul­tur­al Cam­pus, a grow­ing hub of cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions pro­vid­ing dynam­ic pub­lic pro­grams dur­ing the Island’s spring, sum­mer and fall sea­sons. Over time, the Trust plans to grow Nolan Park as a per­ma­nent, mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary arts and cul­ture cam­pus, pro­vid­ing afford­able space to cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions and attract­ing a grow­ing audi­ence of vis­i­tors expe­ri­enc­ing the Island’s arts pro­gram. Suc­cess­ful respon­dents will help com­ple­ment this unique and grow­ing cul­tur­al des­ti­na­tion with sup­port­ing amenities. 

Pro­pos­als will be eval­u­at­ed based on the Respondent’s pro­posed pro­gram and vision, includ­ing serv­ing a broad and diverse audi­ence and align­ing with the Trust’s cli­mate and sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals, team and fea­si­bil­i­ty, pro­posed terms, and qual­i­ty of design. Respons­es to both RFPs are due Octo­ber 31, 2022, by 5:00 p.m. For more infor­ma­tion or to view the full RFP doc­u­ments click here.

Gov­er­nors Island has under­gone a tremen­dous trans­for­ma­tion over the last decade, includ­ing the cre­ation of a resilient 43-acre park, a grow­ing arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram, and remark­able growth in audi­ence. The Island is home to a diverse num­ber of year-round ten­ants, includ­ing the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, the Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil, the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, Shan­dak­en Projects, Beam Cen­ter, the Insti­tute for Pub­lic Archi­tec­ture, and QC NY Spa, as well as But­ter­milk Labs — a new mul­ti-ten­ant hub for coastal cli­mate solu­tions announced in Fall 2021. 

The Trust is cur­rent­ly in the process of attract­ing an anchor edu­ca­tion­al and research insti­tu­tion as part of the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions, a ground­break­ing ini­tia­tive designed to fur­ther New York City as a glob­al leader in efforts to respond to the cli­mate cri­sis. A key part of May­or Eric Adams’ ​“Rebuild, Renew, Rein­vent: A Blue­print for NYC’s Eco­nom­ic Recov­ery,” the project will sup­port the research, devel­op­ment and demon­stra­tion of equi­table cli­mate solu­tions for New York City — that can be scaled and applied globally. 

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

Jun 30 8:49 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today new extend­ed hours for the area Sois­sons Land­ing, one of the best spots in the city to watch the sun­set on the hori­zon. Start­ing Fri­day, July 1, Sois­sons Land­ing will remain open late every night of the week through Octo­ber 31. Sois­sons Land­ing will be open until 10 p.m. Sun­day through Thurs­day, and until 11 p.m. Fri­days and Sat­ur­days. Vis­i­tors can enjoy deli­cious food and drink from Island Oys­ter, Taco Vista and Gitano Island, along with unique well­ness expe­ri­ences from QC NY Spa and beau­ti­ful pic­nic spots with­in the area sur­round­ing Sois­sons Land­ing in the Gov­er­nors Island His­toric District. 

“There real­ly is no bet­ter place to spend a sum­mer evening than Gov­er­nors Island,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“With unpar­al­leled water­front views, deli­cious food and drinks, unique ameni­ties, and peace­ful pic­nic spots, Sois­sons Land­ing has some­thing for every­one. We are thrilled to announce these expand­ed pub­lic hours and can’t wait to wel­come our vis­i­tors to the best place to catch the sun­set in New York City.” 

Evening fer­ries to Gov­er­nors Island run from the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing in Low­er Man­hat­tan, with the last pub­lic fer­ry over to the Island depart­ing at 8:15 p.m. Sun­day through Thurs­day and 9:15 p.m. Fri­day and Sat­ur­day. The last fer­ry off of the Island departs at 10 p.m. Sun­day through Thurs­day and 11 p.m. Fri­day and Sat­ur­day. While Sois­sons Land­ing will be open until 10 p.m., all oth­er areas on Gov­er­nors Island will close at reg­u­lar­ly post­ed pub­lic hours — 10 p.m. on Fri­days and Sat­ur­days through Sep­tem­ber 3, and 6 p.m. Sun­day through Thursday. 

The Sois­sons Land­ing area includes the below ven­dors and ameni­ties, in addi­tion to rolling lawns avail­able for pic­nick­ing or tak­ing in the views. 

Taco Vista: Clas­sic Mex­i­can menu includ­ing tacos, bur­ri­tos, que­sadil­las, craft beer, and mar­gar­i­tas with a casu­al din­ing area and water­front views. Open Wednes­day through Sun­day from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Island Oys­ter: A unique out­door des­ti­na­tion for easy­go­ing sum­mer seafood, trop­i­cal cock­tails, and panoram­ic views. Open Wednes­day through Sun­day from 12:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Gitano Island: A brand-new restau­rant and beach club from Grupo Gitano fea­tur­ing an exten­sive cock­tail menu, mod­ern Mex­i­can cui­sine, dance floors, and reg­u­lar live events. Open Sun­day through Thurs­day from 12 to 10pm and Fri­day and Sat­ur­day from 12:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

QC NY Spa: Guests can unwind with more than 20 well­ness expe­ri­ences includ­ing mas­sages, saunas, steam rooms, water ther­a­pies, and more, along with two infin­i­ty spa pools over­look­ing the Low­er Man­hat­tan sky­line. Open Sun­day through Thurs­day from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Fri­day and Sat­ur­day from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

Vis­i­tors are encour­aged to reserve fer­ry tick­ets at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​ferry in advance of their trip, and face cov­er­ings con­tin­ue to be required on Trust-oper­at­ed fer­ries. Evening fer­ries will only oper­ate to and from the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing in Low­er Man­hat­tan dur­ing the Sun­set at Sois­sons Land­ing hours.

Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $4 for adults. Gov­er­nors Island fer­ries are always free for chil­dren 12 and under, seniors 65 and up, res­i­dents of NYCHA, IDNYC hold­ers, cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers, and Gov­er­nors Island mem­bers. Fer­ries before noon on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers at any time.

NYC Fer­ry also serves Gov­er­nors Island week­days on the South Brook­lyn route and week­ends via a ded­i­cat­ed shut­tle from Pier 11/​Wall Street. NYC Fer­ry does not serve Gov­er­nors Island after 5:19 p.m. on week­days and 5:42 p.m. on week­ends. Vis­it ferry.nyc for more infor­ma­tion and schedules. 

Jun 21 11:26 am

Pre­sent­ed by Cre­ative Time, Gov­er­nors Island Arts, and Times Square Arts

Debut­ing in New York this sum­mer, a series of new art­works con­tends with the over 400-year set­tle­ment of the Unit­ed States and its ongo­ing lega­cies of colo­nial­ism and racial capitalism

Cre­ative Time, Gov­er­nors Island Arts, and Times Square Arts are pleased to present the first pub­lic art exhi­bi­tion by Charles Gaines, The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest. The seri­al­ized pub­lic art instal­la­tion will unfold in three parts, or chap­ters, across three loca­tions over the course of two years — Times Square, Gov­er­nors Island, and Cincin­nati. The project will debut in New York City on July 13, 2022 in Times Square with a new iter­a­tion of the artist’s pio­neer­ing Man­i­festos per­for­mances cou­pled with an instal­la­tion of sculp­tures of the com­plex root sys­tems of the Amer­i­can Sweet­gum tree on view through the sum­mer. Mov­ing Chains, a mon­u­men­tal, kinet­ic sculp­tur­al work sit­ed on Gov­er­nors Island in New York Har­bor opens next in ear­ly Octo­ber 2022 before jour­ney­ing to the banks of the Ohio Riv­er in Cincin­nati in the sum­mer of 2023.

Trac­ing the flow of these north­east­ern water­ways — the his­tor­i­cal­ly charged rivers and ports of New York City and Cincinnati’s Ohio Riv­er, which are not often con­sid­ered in rela­tion to each oth­er — Gaines offers a mul­ti­fac­eted inter­ro­ga­tion of the dual role of the north­ern states in both main­tain­ing and abol­ish­ing slav­ery, and the endur­ing impli­ca­tions of the racial­ized sys­tems, myths, and log­ics that under­pin the nation’s eco­nom­ic and legal foun­da­tions that per­sist today. Through large-scale son­ic and sculp­tur­al works, the project grap­ples with the entan­gled sys­tems of prop­er­ty, cit­i­zen­ship, dis­place­ment, and free­dom that enables and fur­thers racial cap­i­tal­ism, a mech­a­nism for enforc­ing white suprema­cy in the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. Gaines’s work for The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest orig­i­nates with the 1857 Dred and Har­ri­et Scott his­toric Supreme Court deci­sion, which decreed that peo­ple of African ances­try were not U.S. cit­i­zens and there­fore could not sue for their right to free­dom, and demands the view­er con­tend with the lega­cies and after­lives of chat­tel slav­ery, Man­i­fest Des­tiny, and colonialism. 

“By explor­ing the Dred and Har­ri­et Scott Deci­sion, The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest is intend­ed both crit­i­cal­ly and poet­i­cal­ly to unpack the com­plex­i­ty of Amer­i­ca’s human­ist ideals. It is intend­ed to take us through the slip­pery con­tra­dic­tions that make up the Amer­i­can nar­ra­tive,” said Charles Gaines.

Charles Gaines has been a piv­otal fig­ure in con­cep­tu­al art for the past five decades, known for his body of work engag­ing for­mu­las and sys­tems that inter­ro­gate rela­tion­ships between the objec­tive and the sub­jec­tive realms. The con­cept of iden­ti­ty pol­i­tics has played a cen­tral role with­in Gaines’s oeu­vre, and the rad­i­cal approach he employs address­es issues of race in ways that tran­scend the lim­its of representation.

“The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest is a sharp look at the his­to­ry of the Unit­ed States and how our laden past man­i­fests in our con­tem­po­rary strug­gles. It is only through an inter­ro­ga­tion and under­stand­ing of these entan­gled his­to­ries that we may face our sys­temic soci­etal ills,” said Cre­ative Time Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Jus­tine Lud­wig.

ABOUT THE AMER­I­CAN MANIFEST

Sit­ed with­in two key cities whose his­to­ries have shaped the iden­ti­ty of Amer­i­ca, this project invites the pub­lic to con­sid­er New York and Cincinnati’s water­ways’ in both uphold­ing slav­ery and secur­ing lib­er­a­tion, a dual­i­ty that chal­lenges reduc­tive nar­ra­tives of the his­to­ry and lega­cy of slav­ery in Amer­i­ca. Times Square, often called ​“the cross­roads of the world,” exists as a glob­al emblem of cap­i­tal­ism, com­merce, and media, with over 300,000 dai­ly pedes­tri­ans. Five miles away, in the mid­dle of the New York Har­bor, Gov­er­nors Island feels com­par­a­tive­ly serene. The island played an inte­gral role in the city’s eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal his­to­ry; it served as a Lenape fish­ing and hunt­ing camp, an ear­ly colo­nial Dutch set­tle­ment, a home for the British rul­ing Gov­er­nors and, lat­er, a U.S. Mil­i­tary and Coast Guard base from the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War until the late 1990s, before becom­ing pub­licly acces­si­ble in the mid-2000s. Halfway across the coun­try, Cincinnati’s John G. and Phyl­lis W. Smale River­front Park con­nects down­town Cincin­nati to the Ohio Riv­er, which his­tor­i­cal­ly served as a demar­ca­tion point and trans­porta­tion route between south­ern slave states and the free states in the north.

CHAP­TER ONE

Times Square, New York | July 13 – Sep­tem­ber 23, 2022

Broad­way and 46^th St, Duffy Square

The project orig­i­nates in Times Square with a per­for­mance-based instal­la­tion, Man­i­festos 4: The Dred and Har­ri­et Scott Deci­sion, and sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion, Roots.

Con­tin­u­ing Gaines’s Man­i­festos series, and specif­i­cal­ly build­ing upon his Man­i­festos 4 com­po­si­tion with the cre­ation of a new vocal arrange­ment, this per­for­mance trans­forms the orig­i­nal text of the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred and Har­ri­et Scott his­toric deci­sion, which decreed that peo­ple of African ances­try were not U.S. cit­i­zens and there­fore could not sue for their right to free­dom. Fea­tur­ing a wood­wind quin­tet, piano and tenor, the 5‑part per­for­mance will be staged on July 13 and July 14 in America’s mod­ern-day com­mer­cial cross­roads, Times Square. 

Roots, on view from July 13 through Sep­tem­ber 23, 2022, con­sists of a series of sev­en Amer­i­can Sweet­gum trees, pre­sent­ed with the root sys­tems upside down and paint­ed to a sur­re­al and dystopic effect. The trees, which were indige­nous to the east­ern Unit­ed States and grew in Times Square, a forest­ed area and beaver pond pri­or to col­o­niza­tion, are known for their impres­sive root sys­tems that require vast open spaces to grow.

“We are incred­i­bly hon­ored to launch the first chap­ter of Charles Gaines’s mon­u­men­tal, mul­ti-sit­ed exhi­bi­tion with works that call upon both Indige­nous his­to­ries and present day sym­bol­ism of Times Square to tell the sto­ry of our country’s com­plex lega­cies,” said Times Square Arts Direc­tor Jean Cooney.

CHAP­TER TWO

Gov­er­nors Island, New York | Octo­ber 2022 – June 2023

Sit­ed at the base of Out­look Hill on Gov­er­nors Island with views of the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, Ellis Island, and Low­er Man­hat­tan, Mov­ing Chains — a 100 foot-long immer­sive, kinet­ic sculp­ture — evokes the hull of a ship rever­ber­at­ing with the low rum­ble of nine chains churn­ing over­head, while vis­i­tors pass through below. Eight of the chains move along at the pace of New York Harbor’s cur­rents, while a cen­tral ninth chain moves notice­ably faster, at the speed of the ships and barges that have trav­eled the city’s water­ways over cen­turies. Com­pli­cat­ing nar­ra­tives of slav­ery that eas­i­ly demar­cate north­ern virtue and south­ern sin, Mov­ing Chains illu­mi­nates the exchange of peo­ple, cap­i­tal, and goods between the north and south, call­ing atten­tion to the nation’s eco­nom­ic, judi­cial, and polit­i­cal frame­works that con­tin­ue to shape the lives and define the free­doms of Amer­i­cans today.

“The sec­ond chap­ter in Charles Gaines’s mon­u­men­tal project The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest, Mov­ing Chains is a his­toric work that we are hum­bled to present on Gov­er­nors Island, a site whose land­scape is inter­twined with the sto­ries and strug­gles of New Har­bor and the water­ways that have defined this nation’s past, present, and future,” said Mered­ith John­son, VP of Arts and Cul­ture and Head Cura­tor at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We are hon­ored to present Charles Gaines’s piv­otal work on Gov­er­nors Island, and look for­ward to wel­com­ing vis­i­tors and all New York­ers to engage through a dynam­ic cal­en­dar of pub­lic pro­grams,” added Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Mov­ing Chains rep­re­sents a key invest­ment in Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ mis­sion to cre­ate trans­for­ma­tive art expe­ri­ences for all New York­ers to engage with crit­i­cal issues of our time while in this extra­or­di­nary pub­lic space.”

The project will be accom­pa­nied by a series of pub­lic pro­grams that re-con­sid­er legal and cul­tur­al def­i­n­i­tions of free­dom, bring­ing togeth­er an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary group of thinkers. 

CHAP­TER THREE

Cincin­nati, Ohio | Sum­mer 2023

Open­ing in mul­ti­ple loca­tions through­out Cincin­nati in Sum­mer 2023, The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest will trav­el to the banks of the Ohio Riv­er in Cincinnati’s John G. and Phyl­lis W. Smale River­front Park, accom­pa­nied by an addi­tion­al site-spe­cif­ic com­mis­sioned work to deep­en the geo­graph­ic nuances of colo­nial expan­sion. The Ohio Riv­er has his­tor­i­cal­ly rep­re­sent­ed both a route to lib­er­a­tion, as the one-time gate­way between slave and ​“free soil” states, as well as a his­toric route used to trans­port enslaved per­sons to the infa­mous port of New Orleans. The project’s jour­ney to this loca­tion from New York makes a final con­nec­tion between the plan­ta­tion log­ic of peo­ple as prop­er­ty, fed­er­al­ly rec­og­nized in the case of Dred and Har­ri­et Scott, and the era of Man­i­fest Des­tiny and west­ward expan­sion, which estab­lished the Amer­i­can West land­scape as the right­ful prop­er­ty of the Unit­ed States government. 

PROJECT SUP­PORT

Charles Gaines: The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest is made pos­si­ble in New York and Cincin­nati by the vision­ary sup­port of the Ford Foun­da­tion, Lam­bent Foun­da­tion, VIA Art Fund, Foto­Fo­cus, The Stavros Niar­chos Foun­da­tion, Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, the Jacques and Natasha Gel­man Foun­da­tion, Mor­gan Stan­ley, Wave Pool, and mediaThe Foun­da­tion, inc. 

Major sup­port is pro­vid­ed by Hauser & Wirth, Deb­o­rah Beck­mann and Jacob Kotzubei, Bob and Renee Par­sons, San­jeev Rathi, Christo­pher Walk­er, Debi and Steven Wisch, and addi­tion­al anony­mous supporters. 

We are also grate­ful for the sup­port of the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts; pub­lic funds from the New York City Depart­ment of Cul­tur­al Affairs in part­ner­ship with the City Coun­cil; and the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts with the sup­port of Gov­er­nor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

“We are thrilled to work with Cre­ative Time, Times Square Arts, and Gov­er­nors Island Arts to bring Charles Gaines’ mon­u­men­tal series to the city,” said Rocío Aran­da-Alvara­do, pro­gram offi­cer for Cre­ativ­i­ty and Free Expres­sion at the Ford Foun­da­tion. ​“This ini­tia­tive sheds an impor­tant light on our nation’s past and offers crit­i­cal per­spec­tive for those work­ing to build a more equi­table future.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is alive with dynam­ic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming, pro­vid­ing unfor­get­table and acces­si­ble expe­ri­ences for New York­ers. This pow­er­ful new work by Charles Gaines will serve to con­nect New York­ers across the bor­oughs to the essen­tial arts and cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences that are a core part of May­or Adams’ eco­nom­ic recov­ery blue­print,” said Deputy May­or for Eco­nom­ic and Work­force Devel­op­ment Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“I encour­age all New York­ers to expe­ri­ence the wide-rang­ing pow­er of this project through­out the city.”

ABOUT CHARLES GAINES

A piv­otal fig­ure in the field of con­cep­tu­al art, Charles Gaines’s body of work engages for­mu­las and sys­tems that inter­ro­gate rela­tion­ships between the objec­tive and the sub­jec­tive realms. Using a gen­er­a­tive approach to cre­ate series of works in a vari­ety of medi­ums, he has built a bridge between the ear­ly con­cep­tu­al artists of the 1960s and 1970s and sub­se­quent gen­er­a­tions of artists push­ing the lim­its of con­cep­tu­al­ism today. Gaines lives and works in Los Ange­les. He recent­ly retired from the CalArts School of Art, where he was on fac­ul­ty for over 30 years and estab­lished a fel­low­ship to pro­vide crit­i­cal schol­ar­ship sup­port for Black stu­dents in the M.F.A. Art pro­gram. He has been the sub­ject of numer­ous exhi­bi­tions in the Unit­ed States and around the world, most notably a mid-career sur­vey at the Pomona Col­lege Muse­um of Art and the Pitzer Col­lege Art Gallery in Clare­mont CA, as well as a muse­um sur­vey of his Grid­work at The Stu­dio Muse­um, Harlem NY, and Ham­mer Muse­um, Los Ange­les CA. His work has also been pre­sent­ed at the 1975 Whit­ney Bien­ni­al and the Venice Bien­nale in 2007 and 2015. An exhi­bi­tion of his work is cur­rent­ly on long term view at Dia:Beacon in New York. In addi­tion to his artis­tic prac­tice, Gaines has pub­lished sev­er­al essays on con­tem­po­rary art, includ­ing ​‘The­ater of Refusal: Black Art and Main­stream Crit­i­cism’ (Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Irvine, 1993) and ​‘The New Cos­mopoli­tanism’ (Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty, Fuller­ton, 2008). In 2019, Gaines received the 60^th Edward Mac­Dow­ell Medal. He was induct­ed into the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Design’s 2020 class of Nation­al Aca­d­e­mi­cians and will be induct­ed into the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Arts and Let­ters in May 2022. 

ABOUT CRE­ATIVE TIME

Since 1974, Cre­ative Time has com­mis­sioned and pre­sent­ed ambi­tious pub­lic art projects with thou­sands of artists through­out New York City, across the coun­try, around the world — even in out­er space. The organization’s work is guid­ed by three core val­ues: art mat­ters, artists’ voic­es are impor­tant in shap­ing soci­ety, and pub­lic spaces are places for cre­ative and free expres­sion. Cre­ative Time is acclaimed for the inno­v­a­tive and mean­ing­ful projects they have com­mis­sioned, from​Trib­ute in Light,​the twin bea­cons of light that illu­mi­nat­ed low­er Man­hat­tan six months after ⁹⁄₁₁, to bus ads pro­mot­ing HIV aware­ness, to Paul Chan’s pro­duc­tion of Wait­ing for Godot in New Orleans​, and much more. In part­ner­ship with a vari­ety of well-known cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions and com­mu­ni­ty groups, Cre­ative Time has com­mis­sioned art in unique land­mark sites from the Brook­lyn Bridge Anchor­age, Times Square, Rock­e­feller Cen­ter, Gov­er­nors Island, and the High Line, to neglect­ed urban trea­sures like the Low­er East Side’s his­toric Essex Street Mar­ket, Coney Island, and New Orleans’s Low­er 9^th Ward. Cre­ative Time is com­mit­ted to pre­sent­ing impor­tant art for our times and engag­ing broad audi­ences that tran­scend geo­graph­ic, racial, and socioe­co­nom­ic barriers.

ABOUT TIMES SQUARE ARTS

Times Square Arts, the pub­lic art pro­gram of the Times Square Alliance, col­lab­o­rates with con­tem­po­rary artists and cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions to exper­i­ment and engage with one of the world’s most icon­ic urban places. Through the Square’s elec­tron­ic bill­boards, pub­lic plazas, vacant areas and pop­u­lar venues, and the Alliance’s own online land­scape, Times Square Arts invites lead­ing con­tem­po­rary cre­ators, such as Mel Chin, Tracey Emin, Jef­frey Gib­son, Ryan McGin­ley, Yoko Ono, and Kehinde Wiley, to help the pub­lic see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, inno­va­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty, and the Arts Pro­gram ensures these qual­i­ties remain cen­tral to the dis­tric­t’s unique identity. 

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. 

Jun 7 2:45 pm

On June 7, 2022, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, in part­ner­ship with Trust for Pub­lic Land and The North Face, unveiled a new­ly installed Com­mu­ni­ty Climb­ing Boul­der locat­ed on Gov­er­nors Island. At the rib­bon cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny, stu­dents from the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School along with youth from Beam Cen­ter and play:groundNYC were among the first ever to climb the boul­der, which is free and open to the pub­lic. As part of a unique col­lab­o­ra­tive design process, youth par­tic­i­pants from play:groundNYC’s Island-based sum­mer camp and Beam Cen­ter’s pro­grams on the Island used clay to design their dream boul­ders near­ly a year ago, and ele­ments from their designs were incor­po­rat­ed into the fin­ished boulder⁠. 

“As a des­ti­na­tion that offers one of the largest and most unique open spaces in the city, and dur­ing a time in his­to­ry when access to parks, recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, and well­ness are more impor­tant than ever, we’re hon­ored to present Gov­er­nors Island and this ameni­ty as a resource for all com­mu­ni­ties in New York City.” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island.

“We want to, all the time, hand over a bet­ter world to the peo­ple who fol­low us, and that’s what the kids did just last year.” said Carter Strick­land, Vice Pres­i­dent Mid-Atlantic Region and New York State Direc­tor of Trust for Pub­lic Land ​“The design process is real­ly crit­i­cal. We want to cre­ate out­door spaces that are yours…so stop by on your way to The Hills or Pic­nic Point and give it a climb.”

The Com­mu­ni­ty Climb­ing Boul­der is locat­ed on the West­ern Prom­e­nade adja­cent to Col­lec­tive Retreats and the Har­bor School and boasts unpar­al­leled view of New York Har­bor and the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty. Climb­ing routes are post­ed onsite. Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic Sun­day through Thurs­day from 7am to 6pm. From Memo­r­i­al Day week­end through Labor Day, the Island is open to the pub­lic until 10pm on Fri­days and Sat­ur­days. 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 on week­ends through Sep­tem­ber 25, 2022: Pier Six in Brook­lyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Basin in Red Hook. For sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion, click here.

NYC Fer­ry also serves Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly, with week­day ser­vice on the South Brook­lyn route and via the sum­mer week­end shut­tle from Wall Street/​Pier 11. For tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion and full sched­ules for NYC Fer­ry, vis­it www.ferry.nyc.

Jun 1 9:36 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is offi­cial­ly wel­com­ing baaaaack to New York City its five most famous employ­ees from last sum­mer: a fam­i­ly of land­scap­ing sheep. This fluffy flock — Flour, Sam, Evening, Chad, and Philip Aries — hail from Friends of Tivoli Lake Pre­serve and Farm in Albany and for the sec­ond straight year will spend the sum­mer Gov­er­nors Island, help­ing to con­trol inva­sive plant species in Ham­mock Grove’s young urban for­est and ensur­ing the area’s bio­di­ver­si­ty can thrive for years to come.

The sheep’s love for herba­ceous plants, such as grass­es, phrag­mites, and flow­er­ing plants like mug­wort and sun­flow­ers make them a nat­ur­al fit to join Gov­er­nors Island’s hor­ti­cul­ture team. Replete with such del­i­ca­cies (phrag­mites being the sheep’s favorite), the flock will live on the Island, enjoy­ing a lush grove and eat­ing its inva­sive plants for the sec­ond straight summer. 

“We are thrilled to wel­come our four-legged land­scap­ers back to Gov­er­nors Island. They may be cute and fuzzy, but these hard­work­ing sheep also pro­vide an incred­i­ble ser­vice to the Island by sup­port­ing our hor­ti­cul­ture team in clear­ing inva­sive species that oth­er­wise would harm our grow­ing urban for­est in Ham­mock Grove,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Flour, Sam, Evening, Chad, and Philip Aries will help pro­vide a groomed and beau­ti­ful­ly main­tained green space this sum­mer for all of our vis­i­tors to enjoy.” 

“We are excit­ed to be back on Gov­er­nors Island this year, shar­ing the ani­mals and expand­ing their graz­ing ser­vices,” said Kim Tateo, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor and Farm Man­ag­er of Friends of Tivoli Lake Pre­serve and Farm. ​“It’s been so great to see the how the sheep have helped to improve the plant diver­si­ty on Gov­er­nors Island, and to have that work con­nect direct­ly with the rest of our flock doing sim­i­lar work upstate. We can’t wait for Island vis­i­tors to learn more about these ani­mals this summer.” 

Mug­wort, phrag­mites, and oth­er inva­sive plant species have a com­pet­i­tive nature and crowd oth­er plant­i­ngs with­in the park, 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.

Recruit­ing a herd of sheep is extreme­ly ben­e­fi­cial to the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s efforts to care for the park, as it reduces the time spent on inva­sive species removal to less than 30 per­cent of the gar­den­ing staff time. Hav­ing the sheep deal with the inva­sive plants allows the hor­ti­cul­ture team to focus more on the well-being of the trees and soil and ensure that the for­est in Ham­mock Grove thrives on Gov­er­nors Island. 

Pri­or to the arrival of these sheep last year, the Trust’s hor­ti­cul­ture team spent a tremen­dous amount of time weed­ing, and the sheep rep­re­sent a cost effec­tive and eco-friend­ly solu­tion that allows the team to focus on more pro­duc­tive tasks. Dur­ing their first year on the Island, they cleared more than eight acres of inva­sive plants, expe­di­tious­ly keep­ing up with the active grow­ing sea­son and com­plete­ly clear­ing many sec­tions of the Island’s park sev­er­al times over.

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.

Through­out the sum­mer, the Trust will part­ner with Friends of Tivoli Lake Pre­serve and Farm to host sev­er­al pub­lic sheep herd­ing demon­stra­tions on the Island; dates will be announced in the com­ing weeks. 

Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic Sun­day through Thurs­day from 7am to 6pm. From Memo­r­i­al Day week­end through Labor Day, the Island is open to the pub­lic until 10pm on Fri­days and Sat­ur­days. 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 on week­ends through Sep­tem­ber 25, 2022: Pier Six in Brook­lyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Basin in Red Hook. For sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion, click here.

NYC Fer­ry also serves Gov­er­nors Island dai­ly, with week­day ser­vice on the South Brook­lyn route and via the sum­mer week­end shut­tle from Wall Street/​Pier 11. For tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion and full sched­ules for NYC Fer­ry, vis­it www.ferry.nyc.

May 19 8:37 pm

Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Film at Lin­coln Cen­ter announced today the return of free out­door film screen­ings on the Island for sum­mer 2022 fea­tur­ing John Cameron Mitchell’s Hed­wig and the Angry Inch on Fri­day, June 3 and Sid­ney Lumet’s The Wiz on Fri­day, August 5. This summer’s screen­ings are curat­ed by Film at Lin­coln Cen­ter and pro­duced by Rooftop Films and will take place on the Island’s his­toric Parade Ground — an expan­sive eight-acre lawn with wide-open views of Low­er Manhattan. 

“Out­door films on the Parade Ground have become an icon­ic sum­mer tra­di­tion, and we can­not wait to wel­come film buffs and all New York­ers to Gov­er­nors Island for the fourth year of this land­mark series,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Ensur­ing access to acces­si­ble, afford­able, and trans­for­ma­tive arts and cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences is a core ten­ant of Gov­er­nors Island Arts, and we are so excit­ed to part­ner with Film at Lin­coln Cen­ter once again for two evenings of free movie mag­ic with our amaz­ing city as backdrop.”

“There’s no bet­ter spot than Gov­er­nors Island to catch a free movie under the stars, and this year’s selec­tion pro­vides audi­ences with an incred­i­ble range of engag­ing cin­e­mat­ic expe­ri­ences. We are thrilled to be launch­ing our fourth sea­son of this incred­i­ble part­ner­ship with Film at Lin­coln Cen­ter, pro­vid­ing even more New York­ers with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to gath­er togeth­er and enjoy film on Gov­er­nors Island,” said Mered­ith John­son, VP of Arts and Cul­ture at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island.

“Free out­door screen­ings in the sum­mer are a treat for New York audi­ences. Film at Lin­coln Cen­ter looks for­ward to cel­e­brat­ing icon­ic films on Gov­er­nors Island, a spec­tac­u­lar loca­tion to gath­er,” said Lesli Klain­berg, Pres­i­dent, Film at Lin­coln Cen­ter. ​“With our friends at NewFest we are pleased to show­case the cult clas­sic Hed­wig and the Angry Inch and, togeth­er with our col­leagues at Dance Films Asso­ci­a­tion and the New York Inter­na­tion­al Chil­dren’s Film Fes­ti­val, we invite fam­i­lies and fans to expe­ri­ence the musi­cal adven­ture that is The Wiz.”

Both screen­ings are free and open to the pub­lic with pre-show enter­tain­ment kick­ing off at 7pm and films begin­ning at dusk. Food and drinks will be avail­able for pur­chase, includ­ing a beer gar­den by Threes Brew­ing along with food from Piz­za Yard and addi­tion­al Gov­er­nors Island ven­dors to be announced. 

Evening fer­ry ser­vice will run from Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing in Low­er Man­hat­tan, locat­ed at 10 South Street, depart­ing Low­er Man­hat­tan at 5:15, 5:45, 6:15, and 6:45pm. Fer­ries will return to Low­er Man­hat­tan from Sois­sons Land­ing at 9, 9:30, 10, 10:30, and 11pm. 

Vis­i­tors are encour­aged to reserve fer­ry tick­ets at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​ferry in advance of their trip, and face cov­er­ings con­tin­ue to be required on Trust-oper­at­ed fer­ries. Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $4 for adults. Gov­er­nors Island fer­ries are always free for chil­dren 12 and under, seniors 65 and up, res­i­dents of NYCHA, IDNYC hold­ers, cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice­mem­bers, and Gov­er­nors Island mem­bers. Fer­ries before noon on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers at any time. 

Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic dai­ly year-round, Sun­day through Thurs­day from 7am to 6pm and Fri­day and Sat­ur­day from 7am to 7pm. Begin­ning Memo­r­i­al Day Week­end, the Island will remain open until 10pm on Fri­days and Sat­ur­days through Labor Day. 

Fri­day, June 3

Hed­wig and the Angry Inch (2001), direct­ed by John Cameron Mitchell, invites you to rock out! After falling in love with a U.S. Army sergeant, an East Berlin boy named Hansel under­goes a sex-change oper­a­tion so that he can legal­ly mar­ry his beloved. But the oper­a­tion is botched, leav­ing the boy less than a man, but not quite a woman. Desert­ed in a Kansas trail­er park, the boy/​girl, now named Hed­wig, rein­vents himself/​herself as a rock star. Based on the hit off-Broad­way musi­cal. Pre­sent­ed in asso­ci­a­tion with NewFest.

Fri­day, August 5

The Wiz (1978), direct­ed by Sid­ney Lumet, invites you to ease on down the yel­low-brick road! Relive all of the mag­ic of this beloved musi­cal when Dorothy is whisked away to the enchant­i­ng won­der­land of Oz, where she encoun­ters the Scare­crow, the Tin­man and the Lion. The Wiz fea­tures spec­tac­u­lar musi­cal num­bers from leg­endary pro­duc­er Quin­cy Jones and an all-star cast includ­ing Diana Ross, Michael Jack­son, Lena Horne, Richard Pry­or, Nipsey Rus­sell, and Ted Ross. Pre­sent­ed in asso­ci­a­tion with Dance Films Asso­ci­a­tion and New York Inter­na­tion­al Chil­dren’s Film Festival.