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Gov­er­nors Island Arts Announces Fall 2024 Season

Sep 5, 2024 12:37 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Orga­ni­za­tions in Residence

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

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

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

Pub­lic Art Commissions

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

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

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL PUB­LIC ART COMMISSIONS »

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

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