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Adven­tures, Art, Goats, Live Music and More: What’s New on GI This Weekend

May 24, 2017 2:02 pm

Please note: this arti­cle is from 2017. Adven­tures at Gov­er­nors Island (and the zipline) closed in 2021.

We’ve had a love­ly spring on Gov­er­nors Island thus far, but Memo­r­i­al Day Week­end is when the fun real­ly starts to pick up. From ziplin­ing, adven­ture play­grounds and goat pet­ting to free live music and new arts exhi­bi­tions, we’ve got some­thing for every­one. Check out our guide to what’s new this weekend!

Activ­i­ties

Adven­tures @GI Open­ing Sat­ur­day, May 27. Open 10AM-6PM week­ends, 10AM-5PM weekdays.

Adven­tures at Gov­er­nors Island is NYC’s new pre­mier des­ti­na­tion for recre­ation­al enter­tain­ment locat­ed on the shore of beau­ti­ful Gov­er­nors Island fea­tur­ing 3 world class attrac­tions; Fly­wire Zip Line, 3D Climb­ing Chal­lenge, and the Amazen’ Maze. 

Fly­wire Zip Line – Chan­nel your inner super­hero and soar to free­dom on the most antic­i­pat­ed zip line in New York City. The Fly­wire Zip Line allows two peo­ple to zip down our 300 feet long cable side by side and hit up to 21 mph. The aer­i­al attrac­tion has a 35 foot peak at its start­ing point, high enough to deliv­er a sen­sa­tion­al ride for the expe­ri­enced thrill seek­er but also able to accom­mo­date begin­ner adven­ture seek­ers. Per­haps best of all, the ride expe­ri­ence will offer sen­sa­tion­al views of the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty and down­town Man­hat­tan. Please note you must be at least 40 inch­es tall and 45 lbs to ride and must be less than 250 lbs. Safe­ty har­ness­es must be worn. $12 or 2 tries for $20.

Amazen’ Maze — The kid in all of us is brought to life in this excit­ing adven­ture that is pure fam­i­ly fun. A giant maze near­ly 3,600 square feet will chal­lenge your sense of direc­tion and prob­lem solv­ing skills. Fam­i­lies can com­pete with each oth­er or with oth­er fam­i­lies. It is not just about wan­der­ing around inside look­ing for the exit. Kids and adults sharp­en their nav­i­ga­tion skills. Maze run­ners must locate four check­points, each with a let­ter they punch on their pass­port. The object is to spell the word ​“MAZE” then exit as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. $8.

Climb­ing Chal­lenge — Gone are the days where rock climb­ing is for only the tried and test­ed. Par­tic­i­pants can jump into the Climb­ing Chal­lenge with any skill lev­el. Scale your choice of 3 unique 25 foot walls that fit your abil­i­ty. With a self-guid­ing belay sys­tem, each climber can choose their line and begin at their own pace. The wall chal­lenge is fun for all ages. Please note climbers must weigh at least 40 lbs. and must be less than 250 lbs. to par­tic­i­pate. Safe­ty har­ness must be worn. $6.

Earth Mat­ter Com­post Learn­ing Cen­ter, open­ing Sat­ur­day, May 27, open to the pub­lic week­ends, 12 – 4PM, Urban Farm

Earth Mat­ter NY’s Cen­ter on Gov­er­nors Island show­cas­es numer­ous devices and meth­ods for mak­ing com­post and car­ing for the 60 ani­mals liv­ing in the Urban Farm, includ­ing goats and chick­ens (+50,000 if you count worms and bees)! Earth Mat­ter com­posts yard waste from Gov­er­nors Island, 28,000 pounds of on-Island food scraps and NYC green mar­kets each month. The pub­lic is wel­come to learn about com­post­ing through activ­i­ties and ani­mal care work­shops with the goats and chick­ens week­ends on Gov­er­nors Island. https://​earth​mat​ter​.org/​c​o​m​p​o​s​t​-​l​e​a​r​n​i​n​g​-​c​e​nter/

GrowNYC Teach­ing Gar­den open­ing Sat­ur­day, May 27, open to the pub­lic week­ends 12PM-4PM, Urban Farm

GrowNYC’s Teach­ing Gar­den is a 21,000 square foot urban farm that aims to excite and edu­cate its vis­i­tors in all aspects of urban farm­ing and envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The gar­den fea­tures over 65 veg­etable beds, a ¼ acre small scale veg­etable farm, an aquapon­ics sys­tem, an out­door kitchen, a large solar oven, fruit trees, a rain gar­den and much more. Vis­i­tors can take a tour of the space or drop in on a rota­tion of pro­gram­ming offer­ing gar­den activ­i­ties, scav­enger hunts and cook­ing demon­stra­tions. https://​www​.grownyc​.org/​g​a​r​d​e​n​s​/​m​a​n​h​a​t​t​a​n​/​g​o​v​ernor…

CMA Free Arts Island Out­post, open­ing Sat­ur­day, May 27, open to the pub­lic week­ends 10AM-5PM, Nolan Park House 14

Vis­it Children’s Muse­um of the Arts’ Free Arts Island Out­post on Gov­er­nors Island every Sat­ur­day & Sun­day this sum­mer for free hands-on art mak­ing work­shops and art-view­ing expe­ri­ences! The open out­door space of the Free Arts Island Out­post beck­ons you to come col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly cre­ate! Young artists will be inspired and chal­lenged to explore big projects uti­liz­ing found objects and tra­di­tion­al medi­ums. www​.cmany​.org.

play:groundNYC, open to the pub­lic week­ends 11AM-4PM, Bar­ry Road (near South Battery)

play:groundNYC oper­ates a 50,000 square foot junk­yard play­ground on Gov­er­nors Island. The play­ground is free and open to the pub­lic every week­end. Trained staff pro­vides mate­ri­als and super­vi­sion so that young adven­tur­ers may have the chance to work with tools and build­ing mate­ri­als and explore phys­i­cal, social and emo­tion­al prob­lem solv­ing. With the pro­vid­ed sup­port, space and mate­ri­als, young peo­ple can take con­trol, con­struct, cre­ate and estab­lish their own agen­das. http://play-ground.nyc.

Ongo­ing Exhibitions

Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil Arts Cen­ter on Gov­er­nors Island, Open­ing Week­end Sat­ur­day, May 27-Mon­day, May 29, 12PM-5PM, Build­ing 110

LMCC​’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island opens Memo­r­i­al Day week­end with three FREE, art-filled days includ­ing the open­ing of LMCC’s 2017 sum­mer exhi­bi­tion, A Sup­ple Perime­ter by Kamee­lah Janan Rasheed. In A Sup­ple Perime­ter, Rasheed begins with her research into ecol­o­gy, entropy, and black tra­di­tions of exper­i­men­tal writ­ing to con­struct an immer­sive ecosys­tem of texts, videos, pro­jec­tions, objects, and sound exper­i­ments that com­ment on selec­tive leg­i­bil­i­ty and the ten­sion between pub­lic and pri­vate selves.

The week­end will also include Open Stu­dios with Process Space Artists-in-Res­i­dence. Over the course of two days, audi­ences can roam this his­toric con­vert­ed ware­house and expe­ri­ence a wide range of art­work, from live per­for­mance and the­ater to paint­ing and sculp­ture to fic­tion and poet­ry. See the full list of par­tic­i­pat­ing artists below.

Final­ly, there will be four Open Rehearsals with some of LMCC’s Extend­ed Life Artists-in-Res­i­dence includ­ing Cori Oling­house, Mar­jani Forté-Saun­ders, Jil­lian Peña, and Wal­ly Car­dona and Jen­nifer Lacey.

Writ­ing on It All, Opens May 27 & will be open week­ends & Tues­days May 27-June 25, 1PM-4PM, Nolan Park House 11

Writ­ing On It All is a par­tic­i­pa­to­ry writ­ing project open to all inter­est­ed mem­bers of the pub­lic. In ses­sions led by artists and writ­ers, par­tic­i­pants are invit­ed to write on the inte­ri­or sur­faces of an out-of-use house – and no two ses­sions are alike. Facil­i­ta­tors and ses­sion mem­bers take to the walls to write, attend­ing to the dynam­ics of writ­ing as well as to press­ing issues of the day.

Art of Intu­itive Pho­tog­ra­phy, open week­ends 11AM-5PM, Nolan Park House 8A

Vis­it Art of Intu­itive Pho­tog­ra­phy’s juried show with the theme of intu­itive pho­tog­ra­phy. A mix of teen and adult stu­dents as well as pho­to teach­ers will show­case images cap­tured in an intu­itive moment. Smart­phone and Intu­itive Pho­tog­ra­phy class­es will be offered at the house on select­ed afternoons.

Bil­lion Oys­ter Project Exhib­it, open week­ends 11AM-5PM, Nolan Park House 16

Be a Har­bor Stew­ard! Come learn about the Bil­lion Oys­ter Project & New York Har­bor School’s efforts to restore NY Har­bor. Dive into our estu­ary and enjoy inter­ac­tive activites, build your own oys­ter reef and find out how you can be a part of oys­ter restora­tion efforts in your neighborhood!

Spe­cial Events

Rite of Sum­mer – Talu­jon Per­cus­sion Presents ​“Dark Full Ride”, Sat­ur­day, May 27, Per­for­mances at 1PM and 3PM, Colonels Row, FREE

Enter­ing its 7^th sea­son on Gov­er­nors Island, Rite of Sum­mer is a clas­si­cal con­tem­po­rary music fes­ti­val run by NYC pianists Pam Gold­berg and Blair McMil­lan. Rite of Sum­mer show­cas­es the country’s finest artists with an empha­sis on the cut­ting edge. Memo­r­i­al Day week­end, will fea­ture Talu­jon Per­cus­sion. Over the past 25 years, Talu­jon has com­mis­sioned dozens of new works for per­cus­sion includ­ing quar­tets by Alvin Luci­er, Hen­ry Thread­g­ill, Ralph Shapey, Wayne Peter­son, Julia Wolfe, Ushio Torikai, Louis Karchin, and Eric Moe. The group has col­lab­o­rat­ed with com­posers and insti­tu­tions includ­ing Steve Reich, James Ten­ney, The Brook­lyn Phil­har­mon­ic, Mered­ith Monk, and Tan Dun at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tul­ly Hall, Merkin Con­cert Hall, Sym­pho­ny Space, and Roulette as well as uni­ver­si­ties and con­cert halls through­out the US, and at such fes­ti­vals as Taipei’s Lantern Fes­ti­val, BAM’s Next Wave Fes­ti­val, Muzik3 Fes­ti­val, Chau­tauqua, Fes­ti­val of New Amer­i­can Music. Talu­jon main­tains an active tour­ing sched­ule includ­ing mas­ter classes/​workshops at insti­tu­tions such as the Juil­liard School, Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­ginia, SUNY Buf­fa­lo, Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oregon.

Fam­i­ly Fun Day, Sun­day, May 28, 11AM-4PM, Nolan Park, FREE

Kick off an excit­ing sum­mer on Gov­er­nors Island! Fam­i­ly Fun Day cel­e­brates the season’s open­ing and the Island’s play­ful nature and free-range atti­tude. All per­for­mances and activ­i­ties are fam­i­ly-friend­ly and FREE to the public. 

Impro­vise with Sto­ry Pirates, be amazed and inspired by Mario the Magi­cian and his inven­tions, show off your mad dance moves to Gram­my-win­ning Tim Kubart and the Space Cadets, march with Shin­bone Alley Stilt Band, and goof around with Loony Toony the Clown!