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High­light­ing Our Part­ners Who Ele­vate Black Artists and Voices

Feb 26, 2021 2:12 pm

Gov­er­nors Island strives to be a cul­tur­al des­ti­na­tion for all New York­ers, bring­ing togeth­er part­ners, artists and voic­es that reflect the rich diver­si­ty of the City itself. Since the Island opened to the pub­lic, Black voic­es have led and con­tributed to the Island’s rich arts and cul­tur­al pro­grams. In hon­or of Black His­to­ry Month, we’re high­light­ing some of our arts and cul­ture part­ner orga­ni­za­tions that make it their mis­sion to ele­vate the work and voic­es of Black artists and cul­tur­al practitioners. 

African Film Fes­ti­val, Inc.

African Film Fes­ti­val, Inc. seeks to increase under­stand­ing and appre­ci­a­tion of African cul­tures through the medi­um of film. AFF hosts a vari­ety of pro­grams across New York and the globe to increase vis­i­bil­i­ty and recog­ni­tion for African artists. Every year since 2008, AFF has host­ed their Fam­i­ly Day Cel­e­bra­tion fes­ti­val here (pic­tured above and in the head­er image), typ­i­cal­ly on Colonels Row, though the 13^th annu­al install­ment was held in Nolan Park in 2020 in social­ly dis­tanced form. Vis­i­tors have enjoyed film screen­ings, sto­ry­telling per­for­mances, dance and Dou­ble Dutch lessons, arts and crafts work­shops, and deli­cious food and bev­er­ages from across the African diaspora. 

See AFF’s upcom­ing pro­grams online, includ­ing vir­tu­al screen­ings and more from this year’s cur­rent­ly ongo­ing 28^th Annu­al New York African Film Festival. 

Art­Crawl Harlem

Art­Crawl Harlem sup­ports and pro­motes Harlem’s arts com­mu­ni­ty and his­to­ry through dynam­ic arts and cul­ture pro­grams as well as edu­ca­tion­al ini­tia­tives, pri­mar­i­ly spot­light­ing emerg­ing Harlem artists, gal­leries and cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions. ACH joined the Gov­er­nors Island Res­i­den­cy Ini­tia­tive in 2020, pro­vid­ing stu­dio space to three artists as part of their res­i­den­cy pro­gram, Bound­aries and Con­nec­tions: The Oth­er Side of Us, cel­e­brat­ing the 100^th anniver­sary of the Harlem Renais­sance, offer­ing vir­tu­al and lim­it­ed in-per­son stu­dio tours and artist talks to visitors. 

Learn more about Art­Crawl Harlem.

Art Force 5

Art Force 5, a pro­gram for kids and teens found­ed at Alfred Uni­ver­si­ty, pro­motes cre­ativ­i­ty over con­flict through art work­shops and com­mu­ni­ty-based art. Art Force 5 high­lights diverse his­to­ries through their arts pro­grams, like Drawn to Diver­si­ty, which exam­ines the his­to­ry of equal­i­ty and civ­il rights move­ments through com­ic books, and the Women’s Empow­er­ment Draft, which intro­duces notable women from through­out his­to­ry in the style of a pro-sports draft. In their pro­grams on Gov­er­nors Island, Art Force 5 has invit­ed young vis­i­tors to imag­ine them­selves as super­heroes through craft­ing projects, to learn about the Harlem Renais­sance by cre­at­ing tiles that became part of a pub­lic art­work mark­ing its 100^th anniver­sary, and more. 

Read about Art Force 5’s work and learn about their upcom­ing 2021 Women’s Empow­er­ment Draft this March. 

BronxArt­Space

BronxArt­Space is a non­prof­it gallery pro­mot­ing the inno­v­a­tive work of under­rep­re­sent­ed and emerg­ing Bronx-based artists. Hav­ing planned an exhi­bi­tion address­ing envi­ron­men­tal issues on Gov­er­nors Island last year, BronxArt­Space piv­ot­ed their Colonels Row space to join the Gov­er­nors Island Res­i­den­cy Ini­tia­tive. Their artists in res­i­dence used the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue their prac­tices and par­tic­i­pate in cross-orga­ni­za­tion pro­grams, like the live-streamed artist talk series Hey Neighbor. 

Check out BronxArtSpace’s web­site to see exhi­bi­tions from the past ten years. 

Escap­ing Time

Escap­ing Time show­cas­es and sells art by cur­rent­ly and for­mer­ly incar­cer­at­ed indi­vid­u­als to shed light on the human­i­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty that exists behind prison walls. In doing so, Escap­ing Time also seeks to bring atten­tion to the epi­dem­ic of unjust incar­cer­a­tion of Black peo­ple and peo­ple of col­or in the Unit­ed States. Their exhi­bi­tions aim to impart a more nuanced view of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and the need for soci­ety to invest in pro­grams to bet­ter pre­pare pris­on­ers to suc­cess­ful­ly reen­ter soci­ety. On Gov­er­nors Island, Escap­ing Time has pre­sent­ed exhi­bi­tions of paint­ings, ceram­ics, sculp­tures, and pub­lic art installations. 

Learn more about Escap­ing Time and see works cur­rent­ly for sale. 

MoCA­DA

The Muse­um of African Dias­po­ran Arts presents exhi­bi­tions, com­mu­ni­ty pro­grams and edu­ca­tion­al ini­tia­tives cen­tered in social jus­tice to engage audi­ences in dia­logues on sub­jects relat­ing to the African Dias­po­ra. In 2019, MoCA­DA invit­ed sev­en cre­ators to par­tic­i­pate in a new­ly expand­ed res­i­den­cy pro­gram in Nolan Park on Gov­er­nors Island. Vis­i­tors were invit­ed to exhi­bi­tions of these cre­ators’ work as well as a wide vari­ety of pub­lic pro­grams, includ­ing read­ings, screen­ings, dance par­ties and PRO­GRAMS by the Free Black Women’s Library, a mobile trad­ing library that cel­e­brates the voic­es of Black women in literature. 

Head to MoCADA’s web­site and explore MoCA­DA Dig­i­tal, a wealth of vir­tu­al pro­grams includ­ing videos, pod­casts, music, writ­ing and more. 

West Harlem Art Fund

West Harlem Art Fund presents arts and cul­ture pro­gram­ming that empha­sizes con­tem­po­rary art’s rela­tion­ship to his­to­ry and her­itage, often cen­ter­ing the African dias­po­ra and its con­nec­tions to com­mu­ni­ties and cul­tures across the globe. On Gov­er­nors Island, WHAF has pre­sent­ed exhi­bi­tions of works by Black artists, host­ed work­shops for artists, engaged vis­i­tors in dis­cus­sions and stu­dio vis­its, and more. In 2020, WHAF’s Visu­al Muze artist res­i­den­cy pro­gram joined the Gov­er­nors Island Res­i­den­cy Ini­tia­tive, offer­ing stu­dio space in Nolan Park to 10 artists and groups who spent the sea­son pro­duc­ing new works, build­ing com­mu­ni­ty with each oth­er and neigh­bor­ing orga­ni­za­tions, and build­ing and plant­i­ng a gar­den in front of the house. 

Learn more about West Harlem Art Fund and see vir­tu­al gal­leries and select­ed videos on their website.