Blog

House Fest Returns to Gov­er­nors Island for Labor Day Week­end 2023

Aug 15, 2023 8:53 am

Gov­er­nors Island Arts announced today the sec­ond annu­al 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 Sep­tem­ber 1 through 3, 2023, Gov­er­nors Island Arts will bring togeth­er more than two dozen cul­tur­al part­ners for a week­end-long cre­ative cel­e­bra­tion in and around the his­toric for­mer mil­i­tary hous­es of Nolan Park and Colonels Row on the Island, fea­tur­ing free dance and music per­for­mances, out­door instal­la­tions, inter­ac­tive work­shops, open stu­dios, pan­el dis­cus­sions, and more.

“Gov­er­nors Island Arts ful­ly embod­ies the diverse cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty here in New York City, and we are thrilled to wel­come all New York­ers to expe­ri­ence it for them­selves at the sec­ond annu­al House Fest” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“With our acces­si­ble range of pub­lic art, cul­tur­al events, and res­i­den­cy pro­grams, Gov­er­nors Island has grown into one of New York City’s most excit­ing arts and cul­ture des­ti­na­tions. We look for­ward to wel­com­ing vis­i­tors to House Fest once again this Labor Day Weekend.”

“We are so excit­ed to cel­e­brate our largest and most diverse group of Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence yet at House Fest 2023,” said Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Fea­tur­ing orga­ni­za­tions and artists from every sin­gle bor­ough, this will be a true city­wide cel­e­bra­tion of all things cul­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts is priv­i­leged to work with the incred­i­ble com­mu­ni­ty of orga­ni­za­tions here on the Island, col­lab­o­rat­ing to help bring trans­for­ma­tive, acces­si­ble pro­gram­ming to Island vis­i­tors and all New Yorkers.”

House Fest will fea­ture free per­for­mances, curat­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts, along­side pub­lic pro­grams and acti­va­tions from the program’s two dozen sea­son­al Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence that include Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House, Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed, the West Harlem Art Fund, Stat­en Island Urban Cen­ter, Pratt Insti­tute, Swale, Trans­bor­der Art, The Low­er East­side Girls Club, the Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary African Dias­po­ran Art, and many more. The week­end will cul­mi­nate with a mas­sive Lawn Par­ty on Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 3, fea­tur­ing beats from DJ Mick­ey Pérez and food and drink avail­able from Gov­er­nors Island ven­dors Lit­tle Eva’s and Fauzia’s Heav­en­ly Delights. 

House Fest 2023 Sched­ule of Events

Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 1 

• Open­ing Day of The Process – an art and tech exhi­bi­tion, Har­vest­works
• Open­ing Day at NADA House, New Art Deal­ers Alliance 
• Toisha Tuck­er solo exhi­bi­tion, KODA
• Poet­ry per­for­mance with Aracelis Rivera, Foun­tain House Gallery 
• Art work­shop from Recy­cled Mate­ri­als with Chin-Chih Yang, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Council 
• Weav­ing Islands per­for­mance, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Council 
• Heal­ing in Motion per­for­mance, ArtsConnection 
• MVP Rara per­for­mance and pro­ces­sion, Gov­er­nors Island Arts
• Free Out­door Film: Set it Off, Gov­er­nors Island Arts and Film at Lin­coln Center 

Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 2 

• Open­ing Day of Masks with works by Gabriele Grones and Peteer Depelchin, Res­i­den­cy Unlimited 
• Poet­ry per­for­mance with Aracelis Rivera, Foun­tain House Gallery 
• Open Stu­dio (Natal­ie Col­lette Wood), BronxArtSpace
• Stat­en Island Music and Dance Live!, Stat­en Island Urban Center 
• Prison Art Work­shop, Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Prisons 
• The­atri­cal Games for Social Change work­shop, Foun­tain House Gallery
• The Roots of Sal­sa, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Council 
• Milk Kefir SCO­BY work­shop, Swale 
• Sene­galese Dance with Ous­mane, Cumbe
• Kom­pa Dance with Julio & Roben­son, Cumbe
• Soul Can­vas Vor­tex with Danie work­shop, Cumbe 
• Regen­er­a­tion, New York Latin Amer­i­can Art Triennial
• Artist Talk with Miguel Otero Fuentes, West Harlem Art Fund 
• Indi­an Clas­si­cal Dance Show­case, ArtsConnection 
• Oh, Cas­san­dra: An Inter­ac­tive Ode to Yoko Ono, Trans­bor­der Art 
• Flower Rit­u­al, Trans­bor­der Art 
• Sun­set Med­i­ta­tive Per­for­mance with C. Laven­der, Harvestworks 
• Watch Us! We can do it togeth­er, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Council 
• Polir­rit­mia | Sineste­sia, Har­vest­works
• IDEN­TI­TIES exhi­bi­tion tour, MoCADA 
• M’Dear: The Black Mater­nal Artist Talk, MoCADA 
• Polir­rit­mia | Sineste­sia, Gov­er­nors Island Arts in part­ner­ship with Harvestworks

Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 3 

• Open Stu­dio (Natal­ie Col­lette Wood), BronxArtSpace
• Prison Art Work­shop, Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Prisons 
• Dance per­for­mance with Coco Karol and Sxip Shirey, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Council 
• Weav­ing Islands per­for­mance, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Council 
• Poet­ry per­for­mance with Aracelis Rivera, Foun­tain House Gallery 
• Butoh Per­for­mance with Angela Rogers, Foun­tain House Gallery 
• Music per­for­mance with Eliana Glass, Gov­er­nors Island Arts
• Island Lumi­nar­ia: Flam­ing Crea­ture Crawl, Flux Factory 
• House Fest Lawn Par­ty with DJ Mick­ey Pérez, Gov­er­nors Island Arts

A full sched­ule of events and list of pre­sent­ing orga­ni­za­tions can be found at www.gov​is​land​.org/​h​o​u​s​e​-fest, with more events to be announced in the com­ing weeks. House Fest 2023 is pre­sent­ed with sup­port from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Enter­tain­ment, and with vol­un­teer sup­port from the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island. 

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.

The 2023 Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence are: Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House (AICH) Man­hat­tan, Art­Crawl Harlem Man­hat­tan, ArtsCon­nec­tion Man­hat­tan, BronxArt­Space The Bronx, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project Man­hat­tan, Cumbe: Cen­ter for African and Dias­po­ra Dance Brook­lyn, Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons Man­hat­tan, Flux Fac­to­ry Queens, KODA Brook­lyn, Foun­tain House Gallery Man­hat­tan, Har­vest­works Man­hat­tan, I am caribBE­ING Brook­lyn, The Low­er East­side Girls Club Man­hat­tan, The Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary African Dias­po­ran Arts (MoCA­DA) Brook­lyn, New Art Deal­ers Alliance (NADA) Man­hat­tan ​‚New York Latin Amer­i­can Art Tri­en­ni­al (NYLAAT) Man­hat­tan, NYC Audubon Man­hat­tan, NYU Gal­latin Wet­Lab Man­hat­tan, Pratt Insti­tute Brook­lyn, Project Bring It Home/​The Stars of Tomor­row Project, Inc. Man­hat­tan, Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed (RU) Brook­lyn, Stat­en Island Urban Cen­ter Stat­en Island, Swale Brook­lyn, Syra­cuse Uni­ver­si­ty Stu­dio Art M.F.A. Syra­cuse, NY, Tai­wanese Amer­i­can Arts Coun­cil Queens, Trans­bor­der Art Queens, and the West Harlem Art Fund Man­hat­tan.

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 is open to the pub­lic Sun­day through Thurs­day from 7am to 10pm and Fri­day through Sat­ur­day from 7am to 11pm. The South Island Park, includ­ing The Hills, Ham­mock Grove, Pic­nic Point, and the ball fields, is open until 6pm dai­ly. Trust for Gov­er­nors Island-oper­at­ed fer­ries run dai­ly between the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing at 10 South Street in Low­er Man­hat­tan and Sois­sons Land­ing on the Island. Trust-oper­at­ed fer­ries also serve two Brook­lyn loca­tions dur­ing the sum­mer months — Pier Six in Brook­lyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Basin in Red Hook. These routes run direct­ly to Yan­kee Pier on Gov­er­nors Island from each loca­tion every Sat­ur­day, Sun­day, and hol­i­day Mon­day from May 27 through Octo­ber 29. For sched­ules and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​ferry.

Vis­i­tors are encour­aged to reserve fer­ry tick­ets in advance of their trip on the Gov­er­nors Island web­site. Round-trip fer­ry tick­ets cost $4 for adults. Fer­ries oper­at­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island are always free for chil­dren 12 and under, old­er adults 65 and up, res­i­dents of NYCHA, IDNYC hold­ers, cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers, and Gov­er­nors Island mem­bers. Fer­ries before noon on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days are free for all. There is no sur­charge for bicy­cles or strollers on Trust-oper­at­ed fer­ries at any time.

NYC Fer­ry also serves Gov­er­nors Island week­days on the South Brook­lyn route and sum­mer week­ends via the sea­son­al Gov­er­nors Island shut­tle. For tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion and full sched­ules for NYC Fer­ry, vis­it www.ferry.nyc.