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Trust for Gov­er­nors Island & The New York Cli­mate Exchange Announce Cli­mate Week on Gov­er­nors Island

Aug 21, 2024 10:51 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and The New York Cli­mate Exchange announced today a sched­ule of more than 35 Cli­mate Week activ­i­ties tak­ing place on Gov­er­nors Island. Fea­tured cli­mate-focused pro­grams include guid­ed sus­tain­abil­i­ty tours, film screen­ings, tech show­cas­es, writ­ing and sto­ry­telling work­shops, and more. Events announced today high­light Gov­er­nors Island’s trans­for­ma­tion as a grow­ing resource for research and inno­va­tion in equi­table cli­mate solu­tions for New York City and the world.

“Our admin­is­tra­tion is set­ting the pace in the fight against cli­mate change, acti­vat­ing $725 mil­lion in pub­lic invest­ments to sup­port the Har­bor Cli­mate Col­lab­o­ra­tive, build­ing out our work­force to host 400,000 green jobs by 2040, and launch­ing the Cli­mate Exchange on Gov­er­nors Island in the mid­dle of New York Har­bor,” said Deputy May­or for Hous­ing, Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment and Work­force Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“I am excit­ed to see this robust week of pro­gram­ming from the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and the New York Cli­mate Exchange to pre­view the inno­v­a­tive resources, events, and cur­ricu­lum that will be brought to the island through this once-in-a-gen­er­a­tion partnership.”

“Each year, Cli­mate Week NYC offers a remark­able oppor­tu­ni­ty to wit­ness first­hand how New York City is lead­ing the fight against cli­mate change and build­ing a stronger, more equi­table, and more resilient city,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Our cal­en­dar of events — Gov­er­nors Island’s biggest Cli­mate Week offer­ing to date — high­lights pro­gram­ming from the Trust, the Exchange, and the vibrant com­mu­ni­ty of cli­mate-focused ten­ants and part­ners here on the Island, shin­ing a light on this extra­or­di­nary space’s evo­lu­tion as a hub for urban cli­mate solutions.” 

“Cli­mate Week NYC attracts a glob­al audi­ence, and I’m excit­ed that this year we’re cre­at­ing a new ​“go-to” loca­tion and cli­mate week expe­ri­ence,” said Stephen Ham­mer, CEO of The New York Cli­mate Exchange. ​“Vis­i­tors can par­tic­i­pate in dis­cus­sions about the lat­est cli­mate pol­i­cy and finance dis­cus­sions, meet dozens of cli­mate tech entre­pre­neurs, and learn how inno­va­tors are try­ing to engage the pub­lic on cli­mate issues through an arts and cul­ture lens. Our pro­gram­ming will offer a sense of what we’ll do on a much big­ger scale once our full Gov­er­nors Island cam­pus is oper­a­tional in 2028.” 

In April 2023, May­or Eric Adams and the Trust announced The Exchange as the anchor research and edu­ca­tion­al part­ner for Gov­er­nors Island’s cli­mate ini­tia­tives. The Exchange, a new, 

non­prof­it ini­tia­tive estab­lished by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and a con­sor­tium of uni­ver­si­ties, busi­ness­es, and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, will cre­ate a state-of-the-art, $700-mil­lion cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island. This facil­i­ty will be ded­i­cat­ed to edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram­ming, research, cli­mate tech incu­ba­tion, and pol­i­cy work aimed at advanc­ing cli­mate action in New York City and else­where around the world. The full cam­pus is sched­uled to open to the pub­lic in 2028, but Exchange pro­gram­ming has already launched on Gov­er­nors Island and around the city.

Cli­mate Week NYC 2024 events on Gov­er­nors Island are orga­nized by the Trust, the Island’s com­mu­ni­ty of part­ners and ten­ants, and The Exchange and its core part­ners. Events will take place across Gov­er­nors Island, includ­ing at a new com­mu­ni­ty con­ven­ing space inside the for­mer Our Lady Star of the Sea — a decon­se­crat­ed for­mer mil­i­tary chapel locat­ed in the Island’s His­toric Dis­trict that fea­tures Church, Shantell Martin’s pop­u­lar pub­lic art­work com­mis­sioned through Gov­er­nors Island Arts, on its façade. This his­toric build­ing has recent­ly under­gone upgrades to cre­ate an acces­si­ble indoor space for com­mu­ni­ty events on Gov­er­nors Island.

A full sched­ule of events and pre­sent­ing orga­ni­za­tions can be found below and online at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​c​l​i​m​a​t​e​-week, with more to be announced in the com­ing weeks. 

Cli­mate Week NYC on Gov­er­nors Island Schedule:

ONGO­ING: Oth­er of Pearl, Jen­ny Kendler Gov­er­nors Island Arts and NRDC (Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Coun­cil) Open Wednes­day-Sun­day through Octo­ber 31 in Fort Jay — Pub­lic art instal­la­tion that tells the sto­ry of the extrac­tive his­to­ries that form the ori­gin sto­ries of the cli­mate and envi­ron­men­tal cri­sis, while con­sid­er­ing the oys­ter and whale as cen­tral play­ers in an eco­log­i­cal entan­gle­ment between human and non­hu­man beings, water­ways, and flows of cap­i­tal. Through sev­en del­i­cate works, the artist con­fronts con­tem­po­rary envi­ron­men­tal issues — cli­mate change, ocean noise, chem­i­cal pol­lu­tion, bio­di­ver­si­ty loss, and sea lev­el rise — while point­ing towards the cul­tur­al struc­tures that have allowed these cat­a­stro­phes to occur.

ONGO­ING: Sari Carel: A More Per­fect Cir­cle, KODA Open Fri­day-Sun­day through Octo­ber 31 in Colonels Row Build­ing 407B — Artist and activist Sari Carel presents a series of ceram­ic sculp­tures inspired by the sin­gle-use cof­fee cup, uncov­er­ing a sense of pow­er­less­ness and con­flict about a choice at the cen­ter of a dai­ly rou­tine. This pub­lic art instal­la­tion explores what hap­pens to this item when tossed into the trash can, and why we take it for granted.

ONGO­ING: [SUN] Flower Waves, Har­vest­works Open Fri­day-Sun­day through Octo­ber 31 in Nolan Park Build­ing 10A — This dig­i­tal media instal­la­tion by Vic­to­ria Ves­na in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Wal­ter Gekel­man explores the har­mo­nious inter­ac­tion between sun­flow­ers and Alfvén waves, demon­strat­ing how art and sci­ence con­verge to reveal deep­er understandings.

Sep­tem­ber 21, 1 – 4PM: Play is Pow­er: Design Your Own Cli­mate Game, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — In this series of con­sec­u­tive, hour-long work­shops, par­tic­i­pants will be guid­ed step-by-step through the process of design­ing their very own Cli­mate Game: a table­top, role-play­ing, or out­door game that explores a cli­mate issue of their choosing. 

Sep­tem­ber 21, 10AM-12PM & 2 – 4PM: Melt­ing Metrop­o­lis & Com­mu­ni­ty Spon­sor Lab Walk, Well­come Trust & The New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 22, 1 – 3PM: Earth, Wind, and Water demon­stra­tion, Earth Mat­ter NY Urban Farm — Dis­cov­er the role organ­ic mat­ter plays in water reten­tion, ero­sion con­trol, and car­bon sequestration.

Sep­tem­ber 22, 1 – 4PM: Day of Action / Engage­ment, NYU & New York Cli­mate Exchange 

Sep­tem­ber 22, 2 – 2:30PM: Cli­mate Week Seed Col­lect­ing, The Bee Con­ser­van­cy Urban Farm — Col­lect seeds with the Bee Con­ser­van­cy at their Bee Sanc­tu­ary on Gov­er­nors Island’s Urban Farm — par­tic­i­pants will get seed col­lect­ing tips, learn about seed strat­i­fi­ca­tion and ger­mi­na­tion, and hear how cli­mate and its changes impact the bee and plant species on Gov­er­nors Island and beyond.

Sep­tem­ber 22 – 25, 5 – 7PM: Cli­mate Week Walk­ing Tours, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project Nolan Park Build­ing 16 — Join a Cli­mate Week walk­ing tour to explore Bil­lion Oys­ter Project’s vibrant efforts in restor­ing New York Har­bor’s oys­ter reefs and their impact on com­bat­ing cli­mate change.

Sep­tem­ber 23, 9 – 11AM: New Rec­om­men­da­tions for Cli­mate Actions in Cities from ARC3.3, Urban Cli­mate Change Research Net­work & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 23, 12 – 3PM: Extreme Heat Sur­vival Through a Pub­lic Health Lens: Intro­duc­ing Project HEAT­WAVE (Part1), NYU & The New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 23, 3 – 4:30PM: Ready Set Act! An Eth­i­cal Frame­work for a Rapid­ly Chang­ing Cli­mate Com­mu­ni­ty, Amer­i­can Geo­phys­i­cal Union & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 23, 5 – 7PM: Urban@UW’s Research to Action Col­lab­o­ra­to­ry, Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton & The New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 24, 10AM-1PM: Solu­tions to the Ener­gy Tran­si­tion Chal­lenges in the NYC Region, Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 24, 10AM-2PM: Adaptation(s) 2.0 Guid­ed Tours, Pratt Insti­tute Cen­ter for Cli­mate Adap­ta­tion Nolan Park Build­ing 14 — Guid­ed tour of exhi­bi­tions that spot­light dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives on cli­mate adap­ta­tion and strate­gies in arch­i­pel­a­gos — com­mu­ni­ties at the great­est risk and in need of find­ing liv­able solu­tions for future cli­mate change. 

Sep­tem­ber 24, 3 – 5:30PM: Charg­ing Ahead: Glob­al Strate­gies for Bus Elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, Crux Alliance & The New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 24, 4 – 6PM: IA Island(ing) Adap­ta­tions Dis­cus­sion, Pratt Insti­tute Cen­ter for Cli­mate Adap­ta­tion Admiral’s House — Pan­el dis­cus­sion bring­ing togeth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tion from high lev­el gov­ern­ment offi­cials, inno­v­a­tive design­ers, finan­cial lead­ers, and pol­i­cy mak­ers. Par­tic­i­pants will share their per­spec­tives and engage one anoth­er and the audi­ence in dis­cus­sion through a mod­er­at­ed dis­cus­sion and a Q&A.

Sep­tem­ber 24, 4 – 6PM: Adaptation(s) 2.0, Pratt Insti­tute Cen­ter for Cli­mate Adap­ta­tion & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only) — Join for a guid­ed exhi­bi­tion tour and pan­el discussion.

Sep­tem­ber 25, 9AM-6PM: NYCE Cli­mate Tech Show­case, The New York Cli­mate Exchange 

Sep­tem­ber 26, 10 – 11:30 AM: Imag­in­ing Cli­mate Resilient and Thriv­ing Com­mu­ni­ties through Youth Edu­ca­tion Pro­grams, Geor­gia Tech & New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 26, Liv­ing Build­ings are Resilient Build­ings: Cli­mate Mit­i­ga­tion AND Adap­ta­tion, Geor­gia Tech & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 26, 6:30 – 8:30PM: Film Screen­ing and Pan­el: ​“Get­ting Out­side the Cli­mate Bub­ble,” Well­come Trust & The New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 27, 1 – 3PM: Healthy Choic­es, Healthy Plan­et: Cli­mate Aware­ness in Health Edu­ca­tion, Pace Uni­ver­si­ty & New York Cli­mate Exchange (by invi­ta­tion only)

Sep­tem­ber 27, 11AM-1PM: Sus­tain­able Sto­ry­telling: On and Off Cam­era, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and the ​“Micro-Plas­ti­na­tion” film crew Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Learn what makes an impact­ful sto­ry that inspires change both on and off cam­era. This pan­el will include a mix­er with oth­er media-mak­ers and a pre­view of an upcom­ing short film: ​“Micro-Plas­ti­na­tion.”

Sep­tem­ber 27, 1 – 4PM: Sus­tain­able Sto­ries: Cli­mate, Food, and Cul­ture through Diverse Voic­es, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and The Uproot Project Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — A keynote on the inter­sec­tion of diver­si­ty, cul­ture, and food as cli­mate solu­tions, fol­lowed by a pan­el dis­cus­sion and work­shop offer­ing sto­ry­telling tech­niques for envi­ron­men­tal jour­nal­ism and insights into high­light­ing these cru­cial intersections.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 10AM-5PM: Imag­i­nary Acoustic Visions of Cas­tle Williams, Har­vest­works & New York Cli­mate Exchange

Sep­tem­ber 28 & 29, 11AM-1PM: Cli­mate Fic­tion Work­shop with Author Susan Kaye Quinn, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and the NYC Cli­mate Writ­ers Col­lec­tive Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Write a sto­ry to build a bet­ter world! This event, orga­nized by the NYC Cli­mate Writ­ers Col­lec­tive, will spark cre­ativ­i­ty in every­one — no mat­ter their pre­vi­ous writ­ing experience.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 11AM-5PM: Flower Plas­ma by Vic­to­ria Ves­na in col­lab­o­ra­tion with plas­ma physi­cist Wal­ter Gekel­man and bio­med­ical engi­neer Haley Marks, Har­vest­works Nolan Park Build­ing 10A — Spe­cial instal­la­tion fea­tur­ing sound and images from UCLA’s Large Plas­ma Device, solar wind data from NASA’s Park­er Solar Probe, and nat­ur­al record­ings — offer­ing an immer­sive med­i­ta­tion on solar ener­gy and the cycle of cre­ation and destruction.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 1 – 3PM: Cli­mate Café at the Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — An uplift­ing after­noon of refresh­ments, med­i­ta­tion, and a mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tion on cli­mate emo­tions. Par­tic­i­pants can enjoy cof­fee and snacks with oth­ers in the cli­mate com­mu­ni­ty as they share their feel­ings and get to know oth­ers in the movement.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 2 – 2:30PM: Gar­den­ing for Cli­mate Change, GrowNYC Urban Farm —  This guid­ed tour will focus on how cli­mate change will impact gar­den­ing, what GrowNYC’s Teach­ing Gar­den on Gov­er­nors Island does to mit­i­gate its impact on cli­mate change, and how gar­dens can adapt to a chang­ing climate.

Sep­tem­ber 28, 2 – 3:30PM: Cli­mate Week Pol­li­na­tor Walk, The Bee Con­ser­van­cy Urban Farm — Learn about New York City’s pol­li­na­tors (and the habi­tats that sup­port them) and explore nature through a pollinator’s lens with an expe­ri­enced guide from the Bee Conservancy. 

Sep­tem­ber 28, 2 – 3:30PM: Gov­er­nors Island Bird Tour, NYC Bird Alliance and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Colonels Row Build­ing 405B — Whether you’re an expert bird­er or a begin­ner, this guid­ed tour — led by an NYC Bird Alliance edu­ca­tor along with the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s arborist — will help you dis­cov­er all of the birdlife the Island has to offer, and how the Island’s trees pro­vide vital habitat. 

Sep­tem­ber 28, 2:30 – 3PM: Imag­ined Futures: Grief & Seeds, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and Holes in the Wall Col­lec­tive Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Vis­it the Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um for three embod­ied activ­i­ties to learn about alter­na­tive time scales — bear­ing wit­ness to our fear and our col­lec­tive respon­si­bil­i­ty to where we go from here. 

Sep­tem­ber 28, 3 – 5PM: The Chase (EP) Release Par­ty: A Cli­mate Week Jam, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um and Cre­dle Enter­tain­ment Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Cel­e­brate the close of Cli­mate Week with the release of CREDLE’s 5^th stu­dio project, The Chase (EP), an Afropop, R&B, and House genre-focused music project.

Sep­tem­ber 29, 3 – 5PM: Grief & Seeds: Hon­or­ing the Past, Cre­at­ing the Future, Cli­mate Imag­i­nar­i­um, Holes in the Wall Col­lec­tive, Amer­i­can Indi­an Com­mu­ni­ty House Colonels Row Build­ing 406A — Close out Cli­mate Week with inten­tion at this gath­er­ing to hon­or place and pos­si­bil­i­ty. Fea­tur­ing elder and activist Jk Canepa, youth orga­niz­er Anna Tso­mo with youth from 6^th St. Com­mu­ni­ty Cli­mate Action group, a pop­up seed gath­er­ing with Next Epoch Seed Library, and a clos­ing rit­u­al led by Noelle Ghous­sai­ni of Sacred Space. 

Sep­tem­ber 28, 3 – 6PM: Remem­ber Ida: A 3^rd Anniver­sary Pod­cast Lis­ten­ing Ses­sion and Reflec­tion Cir­cle, Queens Mem­o­ry Project & New York Cli­mate Exchange

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.
• 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.”

Orga­nized by the Cli­mate Group, Cli­mate Week NYC runs Sep­tem­ber 22 – 29, 2024, and is the largest annu­al cli­mate event of its kind. 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; cli­mate pilot­ing and edu­ca­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties; a col­lec­tion of pub­lic art com­mis­sions engag­ing direct­ly with cli­mate issues; and a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of edu­ca­tion­al, non­prof­it, and com­mer­cial ten­ants — includ­ing Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, Beam Cen­ter, Wind Sup­port NYC, the soon-to-open But­ter­milk Labs, and The New York Cli­mate Exchange — Gov­er­nors Island is at the fore­front of research­ing and demon­strat­ing cli­mate solu­tions built for cities. 

The Trust’s Gov­er­nors Island Cli­mate pro­grams are made pos­si­ble with the gen­er­ous sup­port of Ama­zon, Con Edi­son, Deutsche Bank, the Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, LISC, and the New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.

About the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is the non­prof­it cor­po­ra­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York that is respon­si­ble for the rede­vel­op­ment and oper­a­tion of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust’s mis­sion is to real­ize the full poten­tial of Gov­er­nors Island for the inspi­ra­tion and enjoy­ment of all New York­ers, demon­strat­ing a bold vision for pub­lic space. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org.

About The New York Cli­mate Exchange

The New York Cli­mate Exchange (The Exchange) is a new not-for-prof­it cli­mate solu­tions cen­ter designed to build com­mu­ni­ty, fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion, advance cli­mate knowl­edge, and empow­er mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties through cross-dis­ci­pli­nary net­work­ing, impact­ful pro­gram­ming, and cut­ting-edge facil­i­ties. While The Exchange will have a phys­i­cal pres­ence on Gov­er­nors Island, its spir­it and influ­ence will extend beyond the Island into New York City and across the coun­try and world. Our diverse coali­tion of part­ners — com­mit­ted and pre­pared to col­lec­tive­ly dis­rupt the sta­tus quo — incor­po­rates local and glob­al per­spec­tives on cli­mate change from acad­e­mia, the pri­vate sec­tor, and com­mu­ni­ty-lev­el orga­ni­za­tions. As the first of its kind, The Exchange will unlock inte­grat­ed and scal­able approach­es to sus­tain­abil­i­ty, ulti­mate­ly serv­ing as a glob­al mod­el for sus­tain­able pos­i­tive change.