Blog

Gov­er­nors Island Arts to Launch Three-Day ​‘House Fest,’ Cel­e­brat­ing Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence on Gov­er­nors Island

Jul 19, 2022 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.