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Power has been restored after an unexpected outage on Friday, July 26. Governors Island is open as usual, with ferries running from Manhattan and Brooklyn all weekend. Click here for more information.

Power has been restored after an unexpected outage on Friday, July 26. Governors Island is open as usual, with ferries running from Manhattan and Brooklyn all weekend. Click here for more information.

Blog

Explore Nolan Park

Jul 14, 2014 2:58 pm

There are tons of fun and free activ­i­ties for the whole fam­i­ly on Gov­er­nors Island this sum­mer – espe­cial­ly in Nolan Park.

[cap­tion id=“attachment_7739” align=“aligncenter” width=“468”] Take a look at the his­toric 19th cen­tu­ry offi­cers’ homes in Nolan Park, all paint­ed yel­low. Image cour­tesy of The Trust.[/caption]

The park is a rem­nant of the 19th cen­tu­ry, lined by charm­ing yel­low hous­es that were once home to mil­i­tary offi­cers. These homes now serve anoth­er pur­pose – every sum­mer arts and cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions turn the Nolan Park hous­es into exhibits, shops, and activ­i­ty spaces.

Stop by build­ing 4A and you’ll be sur­round­ed by the mas­ter­ful pho­tog­ra­phy of Robert Capa; head over to build­ing 18 to expe­ri­ence NYC dur­ing the Civ­il War; and if you find your­self in build­ing 10B, you’ll be privy to an array of one-of-a-kind, hand-made crafts by Brook­lyn ARTery. A full list­ing of sum­mer pro­grams in Nolan Park can be found at the end of this post!

[cap­tion id=“attachment_7741” align=“aligncenter” width=“468”]capa_kodachrome 023 Vis­it the ​“Capa in Col­or” exhib­it to see what every­one’s look­ing at! Image cour­tesy of ICP.[/caption]

Nolan Park is also a won­der­ful spot to relax in the shade of an elm tree, set up a pic­nic, or enjoy a walk along criss­cross­ing brick path­ways. The south end of the park is espe­cial­ly scenic – there you can find the Chapel of Saint Cor­nelius, anoth­er exhi­bi­tion cen­ter that hous­es some of the most spec­tac­u­lar per­for­mances on Gov­er­nors Island!

[cap­tion id=“attachment_7740” align=“aligncenter” width=“361”]GSA13 St. Cor­nelius Chapel in Nolan Park. Image cour­tesy of The Trust.[/caption]

What to do in Nolan Park:

- Enjoy the Park! While there are many excit­ing events offered in the hous­es of Nolan Park, the Park itself is a tran­quil area full of cen­tu­ry-old trees that offer great shade. Make time for a pic­nic, relax on a bench to do some peo­ple watch­ing, or just go for a leisure­ly stroll.

[cap­tion id=“attachment_7747” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”]Take a walk through Nolan Park and be surrounded by the charms of 19th century New York. Take a walk through Nolan Park and be sur­round­ed by the charms of 19th cen­tu­ry New York. Image cour­tesy of The Trust.[/caption]

- Capa in Col­or and a pre­view of Sebas­tiao Sal­ga­do: Gen­e­sis (Pre­sent­ed by the Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter of Pho­tog­ra­phy). Thurs­days through Sun­days from 11:30AM — 5:30PM. House 4A. View a cap­ti­vat­ing selec­tion of col­or pho­tographs by Robert Capa and pre­view the upcom­ing ICP exhi­bi­tion ​“Sebastião Sal­ga­do: Genesis.”

- Par­al­lax (Pre­sent­ed by the Holo­cen­ter). Week­ends from 12PM — 6PM. House 4B. See puz­zling and tan­ta­liz­ing works of holo­graph­ic artistry plus glass­es-free 3‑D photography. 

- Sur­prise House. August 16th — Sep­tem­ber 14th. House 6B. Embrace the uncer­tain & engi­neer the unex­pect­ed — play, con­nect, and explore the unknown in this mys­te­ri­ous house designed by Sur­prise Industries. 

- Envi­sion the Dream — Art­work by Seniors. Sep­tem­ber 5th — 21st from 10AM — 6PM. House 10A.  Eleven senior artists exhib­it work in group and solo exhi­bi­tions. Because the art world tends to focus on new and upcom­ing artists or estab­lished artists, often mid-career senior artists find them­selves over­looked by the main­stream media. This exhi­bi­tion will draw atten­tion and recog­ni­tion to a diverse group of tal­ent­ed senior artists work­ing in both tra­di­tion­al and non-tra­di­tion­al styles. 

[cap­tion id=“attachment_7751” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”]See captivating artwork such as this at the "Envision the Dream" exhibit. Image courtesy of New Century Artists, Inc. See cap­ti­vat­ing art­work such as this at the ​“Envi­sion the Dream” exhib­it. Image cour­tesy of New Cen­tu­ry Artists, Inc.[/caption]

- Brook­lyn ARTery. Week­ends from 10AM-5PM. Work­shop on Sat­ur­days from 2PM — 4PM. House 10B. Stop by for beau­ti­ful hand­bags, jew­el­ry, arti­sanal food, house­wares, scarves, beau­ty prod­ucts and more! Also fea­tur­ing The ARTery Gallery — a rotat­ing exhib­it of pro­fes­sion­al artists.

- Free Art Island Out­post (Pre­sent­ed by the Chil­dren’s Muse­um of the Arts). Week­ends from 10AM — 5PM. Hous­es 11 & 14. Col­lab­o­rate with oth­er vis­i­tors on a vari­ety of themed art work­shops includ­ing paint­ing, sound design, sculp­ture, ani­ma­tion, pod­cast­ing, and more!

- Bet­ter than Jam. Fri­days & Mon­days from 11AM — 5PM. Week­ends from 10AM — 6PM. House 16. The Brook­lyn shop of all local­ly hand­made prod­ucts will be tak­ing the fer­ry ride over, and bring­ing with it the cre­ations of New York City’s most tal­ent­ed design­ers, artists and crafters. With the help of the Etsy New York Street Team, the shop will also host fam­i­ly-friend­ly demon­stra­tions and work­shops on Sat­ur­days from 2PM — 4PM to show and teach vis­i­tors some of their skills

 — Road­side Attrac­tion (Pre­sent­ed by Third Rail Projects). Open Stu­dios: 8⁄2, 8⁄22, 9⁄13, from 1PM — 5PM; 9⁄16, 9⁄17, from 10AM-12PM; Work­shops: 7⁄23, 8⁄2, from 1PM — 5PM; Invit­ed Show­ing: 9⁄18 through 9⁄21, from 12PM — 6PM. House 17. Third Rail Projects will host open out­door rehearsals, open stu­dios, pub­lic work­shops, and per­for­mances through­out the sum­mer based on a mobile, site-spe­cif­ic dance/​theater work for 6 per­form­ers and a 1970’s Cole­man pop-up camper [cap­tion id=“attachment_7750” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”]Don't miss the whimsical and energetic performances of "Roadside Attraction." Image courtesy of Third Rail Projects. Don’t miss the whim­si­cal and ener­getic per­for­mances of ​“Road­side Attrac­tion.” Image cour­tesy of Third Rail Projects.[/caption]

- The Civ­il War & NYC (Pre­sent­ed by the New York His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety). Week­ends from 10AM — 6:30PM. House 18.  The exhi­bi­tion por­trays the com­plex­i­ties that arose in our city dur­ing the peri­od of the Amer­i­can Civ­il War. Using pho­tographs, news­pa­pers, and works of art, Stu­dent His­to­ri­an Teen Lead­ers have curat­ed a nuanced view of the Civ­il War show­ing mul­ti­ple per­spec­tives and many surprises. 

- Trans­FOR­Ma­tion (Pre­sent­ed by the Sculp­tor’s Guild). Fri­days through Sun­days from 11AM — 5PM. House 19.  This exhi­bi­tion encom­pass­es six sep­a­rate­ly themed shows as well as out­door work. 

- Tat­tered & Torn: Part 2 (Pre­sent­ed by Empire His­toric Arts Dis­trict). Week­ends from 11AM — 6PM. House 20A.  The exhib­it fea­tures less-than-pris­tine cos­tumes from muse­um col­lec­tions. Although the con­di­tion of the gar­ments is too poor for them to be dis­played in muse­ums, the Empire His­toric Arts Fund believes they remain a resource for those inter­est­ed in 19th cen­tu­ry fash­ion design. 

[cap­tion id=“attachment_7748” align=“aligncenter” width=“300”]Just one of the many captivating outfits from the "Tattered & Torn" exhibit. Just one of the many cap­ti­vat­ing out­fits from the ​“Tat­tered & Torn” exhib­it. Image Cour­tesy of Art Observer.[/caption]

- Mu-Math: Mobile Math Unit to Pro­mote Math­e­mat­i­cal Think­ing (Pre­sent­ed by Liv­ing Bet­ter Through Math­e­mat­ics). Week­ends 11AM — 5PM. House 20B. Fea­tur­ing a dozen dif­fer­ent math­e­mat­ics inves­ti­ga­tions rang­ing from alge­bra to topol­o­gy, the exhib­it is appro­pri­ate for the math curi­ous begin­ning with age 7 and end­ing with those who con­sid­er them­selves ​“age­less.”

For a detailed list­ing on all the exhibits both in Nolan Park and through­out the Island this sum­mer, vis­it http://​www​.gov​is​land​.com/​h​t​m​l​/​v​i​s​i​t​/​c​a​l​e​n​d​a​r​.​shtml!

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