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Gov­er­nors Island Arts Announces 2023 Sum­mer Season

May 2, 2023 12:30 pm

Gov­er­nors Island Arts today announced a sched­ule of pro­gram­ming and exhi­bi­tions for the Island’s peak sum­mer sea­son, includ­ing a range of events for locals and vis­i­tors of all ages to enjoy. This season’s line­up includes art exhibits, edu­ca­tion­al work­shops, the return of out­door films on the Parade Ground, pub­lic art instal­la­tions, and the annu­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence pro­gram — where 24+ NYC-based non­prof­its will high­light arts, cul­ture, envi­ron­men­tal­ism, and edu­ca­tion through exhi­bi­tions, talks, screen­ings, res­i­den­cies, and work­shops in the his­toric for­mer mil­i­tary hous­es in Nolan Park and Colonels Row.

“Gov­er­nors Island has grown into one of our city’s pre­mière arts and cul­ture des­ti­na­tions, and our 2023 Sum­mer Sea­son offer­ings show­case just how vital the arts com­mu­ni­ty is to the ongo­ing suc­cess of our island,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Some of the most com­pelling arts instal­la­tions in the world make their home on Gov­er­nors Island, and we encour­age vis­i­tors to join us on the Island, enjoy the excel­lent weath­er and take in the amaz­ing free arts and cul­ture offer­ings we are proud to present this season.”

“This year we are thrilled to wel­come myr­i­ad tal­ent­ed artists and cre­ators to the Island for a sea­son full of cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming unlike any oth­er,” said Mered­ith John­son, VP of Art and Cul­ture at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“As we con­tin­ue to expand pub­lic access to the Island, Gov­er­nors Island Arts is proud to offer inter­ac­tive and engag­ing edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram­ming that is free for all vis­i­tors to enjoy and to con­tin­ue to grow the cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty that has long thrived on Gov­er­nors Island.” 

PUB­LIC ART COMMISSIONS

The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest Chap­ter Two: Mov­ing Chains, by Charles Gaines will reopen in sum­mer 2023. Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Cre­ative Time will host a free con­ven­ing event in response to this work on Sat­ur­day, May 20, 2023. Mov­ing Chains: Toward Abo­li­tion will bring togeth­er an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary group of artists, schol­ars, and edu­ca­tors work­ing on strate­gies for abo­li­tion with­in art, law, edu­ca­tion, and polit­i­cal action. The event con­tin­ues a crit­i­cal dia­logue exam­in­ing the Amer­i­can ori­gin sto­ry, ini­ti­at­ed by Charles Gaines last sum­mer with the launch of his mul­ti-year, mul­ti-site pub­lic art project anchored by Mov­ing Chains, which will be acti­vat­ed dur­ing the event and reopens for reg­u­lar pub­lic hours this sum­mer on Gov­er­nors Island.

Sam Van Aken’s mon­u­men­tal The Open Orchard, on view in the Island’s award-win­ning, cli­mate-resilient park, wel­comes vis­i­tors year-round to expe­ri­ence the chang­ing sea­sons in this orchard com­prised of 102 fruit trees that acts as a liv­ing archive for antique and heir­loom vari­eties that were grown in and around New York City in the past 400 years but have most­ly dis­ap­peared due to cli­mate change and the indus­tri­al­iza­tion of agri­cul­ture. Addi­tion­al long-term pub­lic art instal­la­tions—includ­ing Rachel Whiteread’s Cab­in, Mark Handforth’s Yan­kee Hang­er, Duke Riley’s Not for Nutten, and Mark Dion’s The Field Sta­tion of the Melan­choly Marine Biol­o­gist—remain on view daily. 

ORGA­NI­ZA­TIONS IN RESIDENCE

Two dozen arts, cul­ture, edu­ca­tion­al, and envi­ron­men­tal non­prof­its uti­lize space inside the his­toric hous­es of Nolan Park and Colonels Row to present a robust cal­en­dar of free pub­lic pro­grams, host artist res­i­den­cies, and engage vis­i­tors in spe­cial activ­i­ties for all ages through­out the sum­mer months. Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence are open every Fri­day, Sat­ur­day, and Sun­day from 11am to 5pm from May 5 through Octo­ber 29.

This year’s line­up fea­tures a wide array of pro­gram­ming span­ning dis­ci­plines — includ­ing dance class­es and oth­er per­for­mance-based works, out­door sculp­tures, envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties, youth pro­gram­ming, and film instal­la­tions, and explores themes includ­ing def­i­n­i­tions of home, the inter­con­nect­ed­ness of soil ecosys­tem health, mem­o­ry and fam­i­ly his­to­ries, the idea of the mater­nal with­in the African dias­po­ra, the inter­sec­tion of envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and art, and much more. Pro­grams from this year’s Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence will include the fol­low­ing, with more to be announced:

Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House (AICH) Man­hat­tan

Nolan Park Build­ing 15

AICH has a long tra­di­tion of sup­port­ing indige­nous per­form­ers through its ​“Indi­an Sum­mer” per­form­ing arts, visu­al arts, and writ­ten word pro­grams. This sum­mer, these artists will plan and enact arts pro­grams for the pub­lic while using space on Gov­er­nors Island to cre­ate new works. 

Art­Crawl Harlem Man­hat­tan

Colonels Row Build­ing 406B

Art­Crawl Harlem will ush­er in their fourth sea­son on Gov­er­nors Island with the annu­al Bound­aries and Con­nec­tions artist res­i­den­cy pro­gram, fea­tur­ing Daquane Cher­ry, Court­ney Minor, and Mar­tyryce Roach, and their first-ever Lit­er­ary Artist in Res­i­dence Mis­sy Burton. 

ArtsCon­nec­tion Man­hat­tan*

Colonels Row Build­ing 408B

ArtsCon­nec­tion will kick off their Gov­er­nors Island res­i­den­cy with a cal­en­dar of arts an cul­tur­al offer­ings includ­ing: free sum­mer pro­gram­ing through Map Free City sum­mer inten­sive, ArtsConnection’s Teens Pro­gram Finale Event on Sat­ur­day, May 20, a Teens Curate Teens Art Exhi­bi­tion, and artist res­i­den­cies invit­ing 15 pro­fes­sion­al artists from ArtsConnection’s teach­ing artist roster. 

BronxArt­Space The Bronx

Colonels Row Build­ing 407A

BronxArts­Space will host 12 Bronx-based artists in res­i­dence on Gov­er­nors Island this sum­mer with sev­er­al free open stu­dios and oth­er events. Fea­tured artists include Eugene Blu­ford, Andrea Resendiz Gomez, Alex­is Mon­toya, Dau­ris Mar­tinez, Alexan­der Rubil­do, Deb­o­rah Yasin­sky, and more. 

Bil­lion Oys­ter Project Man­hat­tan

Nolan Park Build­ing 16

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. 

Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons Man­hat­tan

Nolan Park Build­ing 8B 

Escap­ing Time show­cas­es art­work cre­at­ed by indi­vid­u­als who have expe­ri­enced or are cur­rent­ly expe­ri­enc­ing incar­cer­a­tion in the Unit­ed States. In addi­tion to week­ly exhi­bi­tions, Escap­ing Time will also hold sev­er­al events and work­shops — includ­ing a work­shop on cre­at­ing art in prison and a dis­cus­sion explor­ing the evo­lu­tion of plan­ta­tions into pris­ons across the Unit­ed States. 

Flux Fac­to­ry Queens

Colonels Row Build­ing 404A

Flux Fac­to­ry will host Flux Sat­ur­days on the last Sat­ur­day each month from May through Octo­ber. Orga­nized by dif­fer­ent artists each month, the pro­gram will take many forms includ­ing pop-up exhi­bi­tions, per­for­mances, work­shops, screen­ings, artist pre­sen­ta­tions and more.

KODA Brook­lyn

Colonels Row Build­ing 404B

KODA will present a solo exhi­bi­tion and three-month res­i­den­cy with Queens-born mul­ti­me­dia artist Sa’dia Rehman. Rehman’s solo show, titled Desire Lin­ies, will fea­ture a video, works on paper, and an evolv­ing installation.

Foun­tain House Gallery Man­hat­tan*

Colonels Row Build­ing 410A

Foun­tain House Gallery will hold month­ly artist res­i­den­cies with par­tic­i­pat­ing artists Michal Behar, Guiomar Giral­do-Baron, Rene San­ti­a­go, Roger Jones, Ray Lopez, Mary Minty, Eva Tor­to­ra, Nan­cy Caton, Je’Jae Mizrahi (aka mx.enigma), ver­mil­ion, Guiomar Giral­do-Baron, Aracelis Rivera, Boo Lynn Walsh, Ker­ry Kennedy, and Valerie Kerr. 

Har­vest­works Man­hat­tan

Nolan Park Build­ing 10A

Har­vest­works and social group/​artist col­lec­tive LiveCode_​NYC will co-present Regen Cir­cuit, an arts and tech exhi­bi­tion that will also fea­ture per­for­mances, work­shops and pre­sen­ta­tions, and oth­er installations.

The Low­er East­side Girls Club Man­hat­tan*

Colonels Row Build­ing 408A

The Low­erEast­Side Girls Club will bring Mem­o­ry Lab to Gov­er­nors Island. Show­cas­ing a cul­mi­na­tion of stu­dent work along with inter­ac­tive rooms, this exhib­it explores the inner work­ings of nos­tal­gia and cel­e­brates fam­i­ly his­to­ries through sto­ry­telling while seek­ing to evoke col­lec­tive mem­o­ry through sto­ry shar­ing, pho­tog­ra­phy, sound, child­hood games, archival tex­tiles, and media.

The Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary African Dias­po­ran Arts (MoCA­DA) Brook­lyn

Nolan Park Build­ing 7A

MoCA­DA will present The M’Dear Project, a mul­ti­me­dia exhi­bi­tion fea­tur­ing ris­ing women-iden­ti­fied artists that hon­ors the pow­er of the ever-present fem­i­nine prin­ci­ple cen­tered promi­nent­ly through­out the African dias­po­ra, and the Ban­dung Res­i­den­cy, a res­i­den­cy pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Asian Amer­i­can Arts Alliance (A4) in col­lab­o­ra­tion with MoCA­DA designed to uplift the work of orga­niz­ers, artists, and edu­ca­tors whose prac­tice is intend­ed to fos­ter sol­i­dar­i­ty between Asian American/​Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Black communities.

New Art Deal­ers Alliance (NADA) Man­hat­tan

Nolan Park Build­ing 18

The New Art Deal­ers Alliance will present the fifth edi­tion of NADA House, a col­lab­o­ra­tive pub­lic exhi­bi­tion fea­tur­ing gal­leries, non-prof­its, and artist-run spaces pre­sent­ing artists in the his­toric spaces in Nolan Park.

New York Latin Amer­i­can Art Tri­en­ni­al (NYLAAT) Man­hat­tan

Colonels Row Build­ing 405B

NYLAAT will present The Earth is Blue, an exhi­bi­tion of recent draw­ings by Nel­son Avarez that explores the inter­con­nect­ed­ness of our plan­et’s ecosys­tems and the frag­ile bal­ance that exists with­in them, along with an artist res­i­den­cy pro­gram fea­tur­ing Car­los Llo­bet, Maria Ele­na Pom­bo, Miguel Braceli Sier­ra, Mil­dor Cheva­lier and Yohan­na Roa. 

NYC Audubon Man­hat­tan

Nolan Park Build­ing 17

NYC Audubon will hold week­ly bird­ing work­shops and events along with an Artist in Res­i­dence (AiR) pro­gram that offers three local artists an oppor­tu­ni­ty to inves­ti­gate birds and wildlife con­ser­va­tion in the con­text of urban nat­ur­al space and pub­lic engage­ment. The 2023 AiR cohort, made up of Den­nis Red­Moon Dar­k­eem, Dario Mohr, and Car­olyn Mon­stra, will exhib­it works devel­oped dur­ing the res­i­den­cy peri­od through­out August to the end of October.

Oye Group Brook­lyn*

Nolan Park Build­ing 18

Dive into the Mer­cedes sto­ry, inspired by Modesto ​“Flako” Jimenez’s grand­moth­er and the lega­cy of Latine indi­vid­u­als she helped migrate to the coun­try and gain their foot­ing in Brook­lyn. Inte­grat­ing inter­ac­tive aug­ment­ed real­i­ty, video, audio, pho­tog­ra­phy, and fam­i­ly heir­looms, learn about Mer­cedes’ jour­ney to the Unit­ed States and her bat­tle with demen­tia. Vis­i­tors may also par­tic­i­pate in the Mer­cedes Heal­ing Room Work­shop Series — free, 2‑hour art work­shops for com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers with demen­tia and their care­givers. Led by var­i­ous artists, this pro­gram will pro­vide a relaxed atmos­phere to engage in self-care and cre­ative self-expression.

Pratt School of Archi­tec­ture Brook­lyn

Nolan Park Build­ing 14

Project Bring It Home/​The Stars of Tomor­row Project, Inc. Man­hat­tan*

Nolan Park Build­ing 8B

Project Bring It Home/​The Stars of Tomor­row Project, Inc. will hold youth devel­op­ment pro­grams and activ­i­ties that use the per­form­ing arts to help young peo­ple dis­cov­er the world and how to nav­i­gate it. 

Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed (RU) Brook­lyn

Colonels Row Build­ing 404B

RU res­i­dent artists will present exhi­bi­tions and per­for­mances through­out the sum­mer, begin­ning in May with work by Ahmet Civelek, Agri­na Vllasal­iu, Alma Gacanin, Glo­ri­ja Lizde, Veroni­ka Mol­nar, and Sha. 

Stat­en Island Urban Cen­ter Stat­en Island*

Nolan Park Build­ing 5B

Stat­en Island Urban Cen­ter will show­case Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice Art and Action, a pub­lic mul­ti­me­dia art expe­ri­ence that cen­ters on Stat­en Island’s water­front as a place in pur­suit of social change and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice. The exhib­it presents art, music, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for vis­i­tors to exam­ine the strug­gle, poten­tial, cre­ativ­i­ty, and beau­ty of water­front neigh­bor­hoods when com­mu­ni­ty voic­es are at the cen­ter, fight­ing for envi­ron­men­tal and social justice. 

Swale Brook­lyn

Nolan Park Build­ing 11

Swale, Urban Solis Insti­tute, and Crea­ture Con­serve are part­ner­ing to present Re-imag­in­ing Con­ser­va­tion: From the Ground Up, and exhi­bi­tion that includes works from 23 artists and 10 writ­ers from five dif­fer­ent coun­tries and focus­es on the role healthy soil plays in sup­port­ing a healthy ecosys­tem. The art­works includ­ed in this exhi­bi­tion present mul­ti­ple lens­es of view­ing rela­tion­ships with soils, and prompt view­ers to ask: What if peo­ple imag­ine human-ani­mal-soil inter­ac­tions in ways that sup­port health­i­er lives for all species?

Syra­cuse Uni­ver­si­ty Stu­dio Art M.F.A. Syra­cuse, NY

Colonels Row Build­ing 403

Syra­cuse will hold a grad­u­ate stu­dent artist res­i­den­cy, fea­tur­ing Jared leClaire, Declan Yert, and Markus Denil.

Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Coun­cil Queens*

Nolan Park Build­ing 7B

Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Coun­cil will present exhi­bi­tions, host artist res­i­den­cies, and hold sev­er­al out­door per­for­mances and pub­lic pro­grams dur­ing their res­i­den­cy on Gov­er­nors Island. Fea­tured artists will include Ming-Jer Kuo, Sarah Walko, Poyen Wang, Huan-yu Pan, Lulu Meng, Chenyi Wu, and Julia Hsia.

Trans­Bor­der Art Queens*

Colonels Row Build­ing 405A

Trans­bor­der Art will host 23 artists and five cura­tors, cre­at­ing works inspired by New York City’s nat­ur­al ecosys­tems. The res­i­den­cy’s mis­sion is a twofold learn­ing expe­ri­ence: engag­ing the pub­lic vis­it­ing the Island through enjoy­ment and par­tic­i­pa­tion in artist work­shops along with allow­ing the artists to inter­act with the com­mu­ni­ty and enrich their work. 

West Harlem Art Fund Man­hat­tan

Nolan Park Build­ing 10B

The West Harlem Art Fund will present quilt artists, work by an array of inter­na­tion­al stu­dents from City Col­lege, his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tives and pub­lic art that speaks to the heart and hon­ors Black alche­my, lega­cy, and folklore.

In addi­tion to those list­ed above, sev­er­al orga­ni­za­tions will pro­duce out­door works and oth­er events through­out the sum­mer. These include: 

NYU Gal­latin Wet­Lab Manhattan

Cumbe: Cen­ter for African and Dias­po­ra Dance Brook­lyn*

Out­side Colonels Row Build­ing 405

Cumbe will offer free dance and drum class­es on select Sat­ur­days and oth­er dates through­out the sea­son. Class­es include Con­golese, Sam­ba, Hait­ian, ASA Fit­ness, Hula, Moroc­can Chaabi, Afro-Fusion, and more, reflect­ing their vision to bring ashé — the West African prin­ci­ple rec­og­niz­ing the pow­er and author­i­ty of all liv­ing things to pro­duce pro­found change — into our every­day lives.

caribBE­ING Brook­lyn*

Colonels Row

caribBE­ING brings their unique and inspired solar-pow­ered mobile art + cul­tur­al + mar­ket space reflect­ing the cul­tur­al her­itage of Brooklyn’s Caribbean Dias­po­ra to Colonels Row on Gov­er­nors Island this sum­mer. Exhi­bi­tions include Life with Basquiat, a col­lec­tion of pho­tos by Alex­is Adler, the Works from Grena­da Art Res­i­den­cy (pre­sent­ed in part­ner­ship with Cal­abar Gallery), and Curren$ea, an artist res­i­den­cy pro­gram explor­ing the full scope of Caribbean cul­tur­al, geopo­lit­i­cal, and eco­nom­i­cal iden­ti­ty from the time of pre-col­o­niza­tion to the Transat­lantic Slave Trade to the present. 

* Denotes a first-time mem­ber of the Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence program

EVENTS & PROGRAMS

Free events and pro­grams will con­tin­ue to be announced through­out the sea­son, includ­ing the return of out­door films on the Parade Ground in part­ner­ship with Film at Lin­coln Cen­ter and Rooftop Films on June 9, July 7, August 11, 2023, with films to be announced, the sec­ond annu­al House Fest — a three-day cel­e­bra­tion of the Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence in Nolan Park and Colonels Row — in late sum­mer, and more.

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

Gov­er­nors Island Arts was a key com­mit­ment in New York City May­or Eric Adams’ Blue­print for New York City’s Eco­nom­ic Recov­ery, with today’s announce­ment marks the sec­ond set of new initiatives.