Inventgenuity Festival

Beam Cen­ter​’s annu­al Invent­ge­nu­ity Fes­ti­val is a cel­e­bra­tion of youth cre­ation through projects in tech­nol­o­gy, imag­i­na­tion and craft, where kids and their fam­i­lies will recom­bine and bring beau­ti­ful new life to reclaimed and nat­ur­al mate­ri­als in a series of hands-on work­shops inspired by Beam Center’s Sum­mer 2023 city­wide pro­grams.. This year’s fes­ti­val will also com­mem­o­rate the launch of Beam Camp City’s project, seeA­saw, locat­ed on the Parade Ground. seeA­saw is an inter­ac­tive and immer­sive struc­ture of 6 see­saws, con­nect­ed by a spec­tac­u­lar drap­ing ham­mock made from res­cued fish­ing nets.

Invent­ge­nu­ity fes­ti­val fea­tures a series of 45-minute work­shops cre­at­ed and led by Beam Cen­ter youth par­tic­i­pants and staff.

This year’s Fes­ti­val work­shops include:

Human/​Forest Alien Make­up
Trans­form your­self into a crea­ture out of sci­ence fic­tion: part for­est, part human! You’ll learn Spe­cial Effects make­up tech­niques and com­bine them with for­aged moss, branch­es, leaves and more. Inspired by the Beam Camp Ses­sion 2 Project, a movie about extra-ter­res­tri­al vis­i­tors to the New Hamp­shire woods.

Tex­tile DIY Sten­cil­ing
Reimag­ine dis­card­ed cloth­ing as glam­orous fash­ion or use­ful. Learn how to add embell­ish­ments to any and all of your fab­rics! Using paper, paint, cre­ativ­i­ty, and lil bit of heat you can add pops of col­or and shapes to every­thing- the pos­si­bil­i­ties are infi­nite! Fab­ric will be avail­able, but bring your own shirts, bags, etc to add to!

Ham­mer Time
Craft unique jew­el­ry pieces out of recy­cled vin­tage spoons and forks! You’ll learn met­al­work­ing and jew­el­ry-mak­ing meth­ods — ham­mer­ing, emboss­ing, cut­ting and sol­der­ing — to fash­ion pen­dants, key chains, bracelets and more.

Bop Bop
Cre­ate your own col­or­ful wood­en ping pong pad­dles. You’ll learn basic wood­work­ing and cus­tomize your pad­dle by stain­ing and print­ing on them using vibrant col­ors. Then it’s the first to 11 points!

Pet Rock Play­ground
Gov­er­nors Island has a mil­lion pet rocks just wait­ing to be adopt­ed! First you’ll find and dec­o­rate your own and then, with found objects and repur­posed mate­ri­als, will cre­ate a mod­u­lar play habi­tat for your new friend to enjoy.

Adapt­ed Ani­mal Masks
Invent hybrid ani­mals adapt­ed to unique envi­ron­ments and cre­ate wear­able masks using paper-mâché, repur­posed card­board and fab­ric. Add sim­ple LED cir­cuits to make them shine.

Addi­tion­al drop-in activ­i­ties will be host­ed by Beam Center’s Gov­er­nors Island neigh­bors play:groundnyc, a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to trans­form­ing the city through play. Per­for­mances will be pro­vid­ed by Big Apple Lead­er­ship Academy’s Junior Empire March­ing Elite Band and DJs from Build­ing Beat’s sum­mer DJ camp. Fes­ti­val activ­i­ties are free to all, but dona­tions are encouraged.