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The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Announces Cli­mate Week Sched­ule of Free Events and Pub­lic Programs

Sep 14, 2023 10:29 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today a line­up of Cli­mate Week activ­i­ties tak­ing place on Gov­er­nors Island, fea­tur­ing guid­ed walk­ing tours, cli­mate art exhi­bi­tions, an inside look into the future of the New York Cli­mate Exchange, a show­case exhi­bi­tion from Oba­ma Foun­da­tion alum­ni, and in-field sci­en­tif­ic demos. Cli­mate Week NYC, which takes place from Sep­tem­ber 17 through Sep­tem­ber 23, 2023, high­lights the excit­ing growth Gov­er­nors Island has made as a resource for cli­mate inno­va­tion, work­ing to imple­ment equi­table cli­mate solu­tions in New York City and around the world. 

“Cli­mate Week is always an impor­tant time for Gov­er­nors Island, and our com­mit­ment to devel­op­ing solu­tions to the cli­mate change — the defin­ing issue of our time — remains as stead­fast as ever,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We encour­age New York­ers and vis­i­tors alike to join us for Cli­mate Week, pre­view our future as the hub for cli­mate solu­tions, engage direct­ly with the incred­i­ble work already hap­pen­ing on the Island, and think more about ways we can reverse course and mit­i­gate the impact of cli­mate change in our city and around the world.” 

With a unique water­front cam­pus envi­ron­ment, an award-win­n­ing park engi­neered for cli­mate change, a diverse and engaged audi­ence of near­ly one mil­lion vis­i­tors every year, a col­lec­tion of pub­lic art com­mis­sions engag­ing direct­ly with cli­mate issues, and a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of edu­ca­tion­al, non-prof­it, and com­mer­cial ten­ants — includ­ing Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, Wind Sup­port NYC, and the soon-to-open But­ter­milk Labs, a new mul­ti-ten­ant hub for coastal cli­mate solu­tions — Gov­er­nors Island is quick­ly grow­ing as a hub for cli­mate edu­ca­tion, train­ing, and research. 

In April 2023, fol­low­ing a two-year com­pet­i­tive process, May­or Eric Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced the selec­tion of a new anchor insti­tu­tion for the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island. The New York Cli­mate Exchange, led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty, will be a first-of-its-kind, cross-sec­tor non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to cli­mate research, solu­tion devel­op­ment, edu­ca­tion, work­force train­ing, and pub­lic pro­grams on Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust also recent­ly announced the launch of the Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab, a new plat­form for research, part­ner­ships, and pro­grams to ampli­fy cli­mate action that includes an annu­al cli­mate solu­tions chal­lenge open to non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, entre­pre­neurs, and start-ups; the launch of cli­mate field trip pro­grams; and an inter­im com­mu­ni­ty con­ven­ing space on the Island. 

Cli­mate Week NYC on Gov­er­nors Island Schedule:

Sep­tem­ber 17 and Sep­tem­ber 23: ​“Meet the New York Cli­mate Exchange” Info Ses­sions and Tours Liggett Ter­race

Vis­i­tors will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn about the Exchange’s mis­sion, vision, antic­i­pat­ed pro­gram­ming, and phys­i­cal design — even before con­struc­tion offi­cial­ly begins in 2025. Hear how The Exchange will bring peo­ple from across the world togeth­er to tack­le the cli­mate cri­sis. Free, no reg­is­tra­tion required. 

Sep­tem­ber 17 – 21 and Sep­tem­ber 24: Bil­lion Oys­ter Project — Guid­ed Walk­ing Tours and Exhibits Nolan Park Build­ing 16

Beyond soft­en­ing the blow of pow­er­ful waves that threat­en our water­front, oys­ters main­tain a healthy ecosys­tem by fil­ter­ing the water around them, and their reefs fos­ter bio­di­ver­si­ty. Oys­ters also offer a social solu­tion to cli­mate change. In these free tours, led by alum­ni of the New York Har­bor School locat­ed on Gov­er­nors Island, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project will pro­vide hands-on oppor­tu­ni­ties for vis­i­tors to acknowl­edge the real­i­ties of cli­mate change and active­ly adapt to them. Free, pre-reg­is­tra­tion required. Click here.

Bil­lion Oys­ter Project is also one of the Gov­er­nors Island Arts Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence, pre­sent­ing free exhibits and activ­i­ties week­ends from May through Octo­ber in the Island’s his­toric hous­es. They will be open dai­ly Sep­tem­ber 17 – 24 in Nolan Park Build­ing 16. Cur­rent exhibits include Aqua­cul­tur­al Adap­ta­tion, fea­tur­ing works that reflect on humanity’s sig­nif­i­cant impact on the plan­et and high­lights the debate around the term ​“cli­mate change,” which obscures the dis­pro­por­tion­ate envi­ron­men­tal dam­age caused by West­ern civ­i­liza­tions, and Shoals, two oys­ter-inspired out­door sculp­tures by Swedish artist Lin­néa Gad. Free, no reg­is­tra­tion required. 

Sep­tem­ber 18 – 22: From indi­vid­ual to col­lec­tive cli­mate jus­tice lead­er­ship: A show­case fea­tur­ing glob­al cli­mate lead­ers from the Oba­ma Lead­er­ship Net­work Build­ing 403

The Oba­ma Lead­er­ship Network’s Cli­mate Com­mu­ni­ty of Prac­tice will be show­cas­ing diverse work from Oba­ma Foun­da­tion alum­ni work­ing in cli­mate. Projects show­cased are focused on con­nect­ing indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive efforts to min­i­mize the harms of cli­mate change, includ­ing on the most mar­gin­al­ized groups. Free, no reg­is­tra­tion required. 

Sep­tem­ber 19: Vycarb — Open House and In-Field Demo Pier 101

Wit­ness pio­neer­ing car­bon diox­ide mit­i­ga­tion with Vycar­b’s first-of-its-kind pilot. Vycarb, a Brook­lyn-based com­pa­ny and mem­ber of the Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab Cli­mate Solu­tions Pilot­ing Pro­gram, will be onsite to demon­strate car­bon removal from the East Riv­er in real-time. Free, pre-reg­is­tra­tion required. Click here.

Sep­tem­ber 22: Gov­er­nors Island Nature Walk Depart­ing from Liggett Terrace

Led by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s hor­ti­cul­ture team along with CCNY Insect Ecol­o­gy Pro­fes­sor Amy Berkov, this tour will take par­tic­i­pants on a jour­ney through the young urban for­est of Ham­mock Grove and the immer­sive spaces at Out­look Hill and Dis­cov­ery Hill. Par­tic­i­pants will learn about these resilient, built land­scapes direct­ly from the peo­ple who know them best, and get the chance to par­tic­i­pate in dif­fer­ent com­mu­ni­ty sci­ence projects. Free, pre-reg­is­tra­tion required. Click here.

Sep­tem­ber 22: Pratt Insti­tute — Island(ing) Adap­ta­tions and Exhib­it Tours Admiral’s House and Nolan Park Build­ing 14

Pratt Insti­tute, along­side part­ners Pace Uni­ver­si­ty and Sin­ga­pore Uni­ver­si­ty of Design and Tech­nol­o­gy, will bring togeth­er cross cut­ting rep­re­sen­ta­tion from high lev­el gov­ern­ment offi­cials to inno­v­a­tive design­ers, finan­cial lead­ers and pol­i­cy mak­ers dis­cussing how land scarce, water scarce, island-based habi­tats could inform future urban devel­op­ment. Free, pre-reg­is­tra­tion required. Click here.

Pratt Insti­tute is also one of the Gov­er­nors Island Arts Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence, pre­sent­ing free exhibits and activ­i­ties week­ends from May through Octo­ber in the Island’s his­toric hous­es. They will be open for free guid­ed exhib­it tours on Sep­tem­ber 19 and Sep­tem­ber 22 in Nolan Park Build­ing 14. Cur­rent exhibits include SO-IL: Ground­ing Adap­ta­tions, which explores adapt­ing build­ings to have ground-like capac­i­ties; BIG: Adap­tive Arch­i­pel­ago, which explores adapt­ing var­i­ous exist­ing and arti­fi­cial arch­i­pel­a­gos to our planet’s chang­ing cli­mate; Con­den­sa­tions: Liv­ing With Water, which exam­ines scal­able, nature-based solu­tions using inte­gra­tive Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence-based design meth­ods; and Archipel­og­ics 2.0, which fea­tures work focused on build­ing adap­ta­tion in Nolan Park on Gov­er­nors Island and urban adap­ta­tion in Red Hook. 

Sep­tem­ber 23: GrowNYC — Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Pledges and Vir­tu­al Gar­den­ing Work­shop Gov­er­nors Island Urban Farm

The GrowNYC Teach­ing Gar­den, locat­ed with­in the Gov­er­nors Island Urban Farm, aims to engage, excite, and edu­cate its vis­i­tors in all aspects of urban farm­ing. On Sep­tem­ber 23, vis­i­tors will be able to make a sus­tain­abil­i­ty pledge in the Teach­ing Gar­den in the Urban Farm, where vis­i­tors can write down their own sus­tain­abil­i­ty pledge on a card that will be dis­played at the Teach­ing Gar­den. Free, no reg­is­tra­tion required. 

GrowNYC is also host­ing a vir­tu­al work­shop that is free for all to join on Sep­tem­ber 18, where par­tic­i­pants will explore how cli­mate change affects grow­ing zones, pests, extreme weath­er events, and more, while dis­cussing solu­tions and ways to intro­duce these com­plex top­ics to your gar­den com­mu­ni­ties. This vir­tu­al work­shop is great for school gar­den­ers, com­mu­ni­ty gar­den­ers, and any­one inter­est­ed in agri­cul­ture and cli­mate change! Free, pre-reg­is­tra­tion required. Click here.

On View Dai­ly: Gov­er­nors Island Arts Pub­lic Artworks

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust, boasts a diverse col­lec­tion of pub­lic art pieces, sev­er­al of which engage direct­ly with issues of cli­mate and the envi­ron­ment: Sam Van Aken’s The Open Orchard, locat­ed in The Hills with­in the Island’s award-win­ning park, takes the form of a vast pub­lic orchard of hybrid fruit trees, each con­tain­ing mul­ti­ple heir­loom vari­eties that were once found in abun­dance in the New York City area but have large­ly dis­ap­peared due to cli­mate change and the indus­tri­al­iza­tion of agri­cul­ture; Mark Dion’s The Field Sta­tion of the Melan­choly Marine Biol­o­gist, locat­ed inside Build­ing 105 across from Fort Jay, trans­forms a his­toric for­mer arse­nal build­ing into an aban­doned research out­post that invites vis­i­tors to peer inside and imag­ine the life of a soli­tary researcher faced with the real­i­ties of a future marred by cli­mate change; and Duke Riley’s Not for Nut­ten, locat­ed in the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing fer­ry ter­mi­nal at 10 South Street in Man­hat­tan, is a large-scale mur­al depict­ing vignettes from the Island’s his­to­ry con­tained with­in mod­ern-day sin­gle-use plas­tic con­tain­ers found float­ing in oceans world­wide in a play on the tra­di­tion­al ​“ship in a bottle.”