Governors Island Arts Unveils Spring and Summer Arts Season

Governors Island Arts has revealed a schedule of free programming and exhibitions for the Island's Spring and Summer arts season, including a new performance series titled Interventions, and 28 New York City-based non-profit cultural organizations who will present programs spanning visual arts, performance, environmental education and more. Governors Island Arts and NRDC will also co-present Other of Pearl, a new series of public artworks by artist and environmental activist Jenny Kendler opening on June 14.

“The burgeoning arts and culture scene that has grown on Governors Island during the past few years has become the home to some of the most anticipated exhibitions and performances not only in New York City but across the world, and this year is no exception,” said Lauren Haynes, Head Curator and Vice President for Arts and Culture at Governors Island Arts. “We encourage art lovers from all walks of life to visit Governors Island this season and take in the many varied programs and exhibits on offer from our numerous cultural partners.”

INAUGURAL SUMMER PERFORMANCE SERIES: INTERVENTIONS

Governors Island Arts will present Interventions, a site-responsive, multidisciplinary free annual performance series that presents local, national, and International Artists and invites audiences to experience work made and adapted for the outdoors. Presented between June and September, Interventions will present performances in dance, sound art, and theater that include: an invited open rehearsal by Dance Heginbotham of their newest work, You Look Like a Fun Guy on Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8 and a performance by interdisciplinary artist Rena Anakwe on Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 20.

Additional performances as part of Interventions will be announced throughout the summer. Interventions is curated by Trust for Governors Island Associate Curator and Producer Juan Pablo Siles.

ORGANIZATIONS IN RESIDENCE

Each year, over two dozen arts, culture, educational, and environmental non-profits utilize space inside the historic houses of Nolan Park and Colonels Row to present a robust calendar of free public programs, host artist residencies, and engage visitors in special activities for all ages throughout the summer months. Organizations in Residence will open for the season with a special celebration on Friday, May 17 and will be open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through the end of October.

Programming highlights from the 2024 Organizations in Residence include:

American Indian Community House Manhattan

American Indian Community House is a community-based organization with a mission to improve and promote the well-being of the American Indian Community and to increase the visibility of American Indian cultures in an urban setting. Their space on Governors Island is used to present exhibitions, performances, and other cultural and educational programs, as well as to host artists in residence. 

AnkhLave Arts Alliance Manhattan*

AnkhLave Arts Alliance is a NYC-based non-profit dedicated to advancing BIPOC artists in the contemporary art realm. Through annual programming including the AnkhLave Garden Project Fellowship, Curator in Residence, and Public Artist in Residence, they provide platforms for artistic expression and exchange. On Governors Island, they will present artist residencies, open studios, and outdoor sculptural installations.

ArtCrawl Harlem Manhattan

ArtCrawl Harlem's Boundaries & Connections program will provide space for artists to explore, innovate, and create under the theme “Games People Play.” The program will feature 12 resident artists, three poets in residence, and a photography exhibit.

BronxArtSpace The Bronx

BronxArtSpace will hold artist residencies and indoor and outdoor installations featuring a range of Bronx based artists. From May – October, join BronxArtSpace in 410A Colonels Row Fridays through Sundays to meet their artists and learn more about their artistic practice.

Bronx Council on the Arts The Bronx*

Bronx Council on the Arts will present Longwood @ Governors Island, a residency program that will serve a cohort of five Bronx artists, providing them with free studio space, exposure through open studios, and other opportunities. Bronx Council on the Arts will also present several performances and other programs throughout the season.

Billion Oyster Project Manhattan

Based on Governors Island, Billion Oyster Project is restoring oyster populations to New York Harbor in collaboration with NYC communities and through public education initiatives, in turn improving water quality, fostering new marine habitats, and creating greater coastal resilience. Each weekend this season, Billion Oyster Project's house will hold an oyster display, inviting visitors to learn more about ecosystems and these engineers, their importance to New York Harbor, and how everyone can get involved.

caribBEING Brooklyn

I AM CaribBEING brings their unique and inspired upcycled solar-powered mobile art + cultural + market space reflecting the cultural heritage of NYC's Caribbean Diaspora to Colonels Row on Governors Island for the second year in a row. This year's program will open with participatory teacher project “Teachers In Focus” followed by a site-specific graffiti intervention by Guadeloupean graffiti collective 4KG, residency in partnership with Calabar Gallery and monthly Caribbean-themed picnics featuring Little Caribbean artisans and small businesses.

Climate Imaginarium Manhattan*

The Climate Imaginarium is a new consortium of climate organizations debuting their center for the arts on Governors Island. Their space will serve as a community center for climate and culture, with galleries and spaces for exhibitions, performances, film screenings, and events that respond to the climate crisis with visions for hope and justice.

DuYe Moves Brooklyn*

DuYe Moves will present a variety of free dance and movement classes alongside art workshops outdoors on Governors Island. Featured classes include traditional African, Samba and yoga with live drumming, Hula, Afro Dance, Qigong and Tai Chi. They will also hold intimate outdoor performances from emerging choreographers.

Escaping Time: Art from U.S. Prisons Manhattan

Escaping Time will exhibit art created in prisons across the United States, highlighting the creativity and talent that exists in places of confinement while also informing visitors about the myriad issues that exist within the carceral system. The exhibition, opening in the fall, includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, and quilts made with traditional materials, as well as pieces made with improvised materials. Their season will also feature several art workshops.

Filmshop Manhattan*

The Filmshop House will host film screenings, filmmaker Q&As, and hands-on workshops on the craft of filmmaking led by members of our community. Filmshop is celebrating its 15th    anniversary, and the house will also highlight a retrospective exhibition honoring their evolution over the years.

Flux Factory Queens

Flux Factory returns to Governors Island with Flux Island 2024. A collective of alumni from Flux Factory's residency program will produce monthly “Flux Saturday” salons open to the public, as well as three group exhibitions taking place in the spring, summer, and fall, respectively.

Fountain House Gallery Manhatta

Fountain House Gallery and Studio will present a community-powered, site-specific installation co-led by Fountain House members and staff. They will host collaborative Open Studio Art Making with members of the public and artists to help contribute to this installation. All artists are members of Fountain House, founded in New York City in 1948 with the belief that people living with mental illness can be active participants in their own and each other's recovery.

Harvestworks Manhattan

Harvestworks will present their Art and Technology Program on Governors Island, including a group show studying human perception, workshops, and other programs from LiveCode NYC, and more.

KODA Brooklyn

KODA House will present a season that spotlights the theme of Mental Health, featuring several resident artists. KODA will also present the 5th Annual Professional Development for Artists Symposium, exploring the future of artist residencies and ways to better support artists.

The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) Brooklyn

Committed to giving wings to artists by bringing dynamic, contemporary art to a broad audience, MoCADA continues its legacy on Governors Island with a highly anticipated exhibition along with special art installations, workshops, film screenings, and other gatherings. Their 2024 season will include a multimedia group exhibition with works made by artists exploring the Black Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender-Nonconforming (TGNC) experience; an experimental immersive archive inspired by Temescal ceremonial practices; and much more.

New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) Manhattan

NADA will present their annual collaborative NADA House program, where more than two dozen art galleries and spaces from around the country present pieces from a large cohort of artists, in the fall.

New York Arts Program Manhattan*

For the 2024 season, the New York Arts Program will invite artists to participate in a network of performances titled Fourteen Porches that will foster collaboration, explore the way the Island's structures can break out of their traditional domains and connect to each other both literally and metaphorically. They will also present an incubator program for artists during the summer months.

New York Latin American Art Triennial Manhattan

NYLAAT moves to Nolan Park in 2024 and will host an artist and curator in residence program. This year's program will kick off with “Body and Identity” Printmakers and Writers from the Dominican Republic, one of seven exhibitions each curated by their curators in residence.

NYC Audubon Manhattan

NYC Audubon's seasonal environmental center on Governors Island will engage visitors in wildlife conservation and urban biodiversity through weekly bird outings, an artist-in-residence program, conservation workshops, and a display of bird-friendly glass options.

Pratt Institute Center for Climate Adaptation Brooklyn

Adaptations 2.0, Pratt Institute's 2024 season, will feature projects by leading artists, architects and students working on climate adaptation and with a focus on archipelagos around the world—including New York City. Events will occur monthly and with varying frequency with expanded events and walking tours during NYC Climate Week in September 2024.

Red Hook Initiative and Red Hook Art Project Brooklyn*

Red Hook Art Project (RHAP) and Red Hook Initiative's “Art Saves Lives” summer program will offer diverse classes covering media, computer building, game design, audio production, digital art, portfolio preparation, sketching, ceramics, and more. Led by passionate instructors and volunteers, the program encourages students to explore their artistic abilities freely and think creatively.

Residency Unlimited (RU) Brooklyn

RU will present a group show featuring artists from Australia, Turkey, Hungary, Japan, Croatia and Switzerland, along with multiple open studio events, curated exhibitions, and performances along with workshops led by local BIPOC artists participating in the Voices of Multiplicity (VoM) Environmental Justice Artist Residency Program, tackling issues related to air, land, and water pollution.

Staten Island Urban Center Staten Island

Staten Island Urban Center will present We Are a Waterfront: Water Into Land, a multi-media, environmental justice exhibition born out of the work of the organization's activists and independent filmmakers of Lost Horizon Films. The exhibition centers on select scenes from the films, currently in production, accompanied by visual art that shares neighborhood storytelling from various Staten Island artists and activists.

Swale Brooklyn

Swale's 2024 season focuses on art and climate, with a series of exhibitions each month from several different artists. Throughout the season, Swale House promotes community engagement with free soil workshops and Public Food stewardship meetings, advocating for environmental stewardship.

Taiwanese American Arts Council Queens

Island Sunrise, Taiwanese American Arts Council's 2024 program on Governors Island, will compare commonalities between different islands—including Taiwan and its various island territories—and Governors Island, featuring exhibitions from a broad range of artists.

West Harlem Art Fund Manhattan

The West Harlem Art Fund will present a fiber art show with performances in the spring that delves deep in American landscape, history, and water. During the summer, the organization will once again bring back their artist residency program with multiple workshops for the public to engage and their concert series with experimental and fusion jazz. They will end the season with an Afro-futurism show in partnership with several artists across the city.

*Organizations with an asterisk represent first time Organizations in Residence participants.

In celebration of this diverse community of cultural organizations, Governors Island Arts will present the popular THIRD Saturdays, a special program held on the third Saturday of each month through October, and the annual House Fest from August 16-19. These free events will include a lineup of performances and workshops, with more to be announced in the coming months. Programs announced today include:

THIRD Saturday: May 18, 2024

·       Fogo Azul: New York City-based all-women, trans, and non-binary Brazilian Samba Reggae drum line, Fogo Azul, will offer an Open Rehearsal and workshop in Nolan Park. 11am, Nolan Park

·       Rueda de Oro: Rueda de Oro is a NYC based musical initiative; a non-physical space of gathering around the Afro-Indigenous traditional rhythms, drums, and dances from the Caribbean region of Colombia. The collective will hold a Rueda on Governors Island to continue their monthly gatherings and learn, teach, and practice a rich catalog of traditional music. 12pm, Colonels Row

·       The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation: Founded in New York City in 1980 to extend the dream, dance, and indomitable spirit of the mother of modern dance, Isadora Duncan, the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation will offer a free open class in Nolan Park led by company member Emily D'Angelo. 1pm, Nolan Park

·       Film Screening – In a Violent Nature, co-presented with Rooftop Films: Don't miss the New York premiere of this ambient slasher film directed by Chris Nash that follows Johnny, a vengeful undead brute, as he methodically slaughters a group of campers in the wilderness after they remove a pendant from his resting grounds. Live Q&A to follow. 6pm, Nolan Park

House Fest:  August 16-19, 2024

·       Afternoon Performance with Miriam Elhajli, Zoh Amba, and Eliana Glass: Eliana Colachis Glass is a singer, pianist, and visual artist born in Australia and raised in Seattle. She is a graduate of the jazz program at The New School where she studied with such mentors as Andrew Cyrille, Ben Street, Kris Davis, and Jay Clayton. Zoh Amba is a composer, saxophonist, and flutist from Tennessee. Her music blends avant-garde, noise, and devotional hymns. Her powerfully unique avant-garde music is full of folk melodies, mesmerizing refrains, and repeated incantations. Miriam Elhajli is a Venezuelan Moroccan American composer and vocalist whose work is influenced strongly by the folkloric musics of South and North America, modern jazz, and contemporary classical music. August 17, 3pm, Outlook Hill

·       Afternoon Performance with Elia Fola: Eli Fola is a Nigerian American multi-disciplinary sound artist, saxophonist, DJ, and producer. He is the creator and pioneer of the live hybrid set “Yoruba Tech Soul”, an innovative fusion of AfroHouse, techno, jazz, and classical music. He is often regarded as a saxophone genius and branded with the visual art world due to his powerful imagery that highlights Afrohouse and spirituality in a modern context. August 18, 3pm, Outlook Hill

·       Dance is Life: Abdiel Jacobsen and Natasha Diggs bring their social dance party to Governors Island during House Fest. Created as a public community service to provide the vital force that dance and music ignites within humans, this event unites people of all walks of life through communal healing and celebration. Inspired by the legacy of Hustle being danced in Central Park for over 50 years, Dance Is Life revitalizes cultural historical spaces and incites interpersonal connections, expressions, and play among multi-generational communities around the globe. August 19, 7:30pm, Liggett Archway

PUBLIC ART

The 2024 season features a new work co-presented by Governors Island Arts and NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) titled Other of Pearl, a site-specific public art exhibition by  Jenny Kendler telling the story of our planet's changing climate. Located in the historic Fort Jay on Governors Island, Other of Pearl considers the oyster and whale as central players in the ecological and economic entanglement between human and nonhuman beings. The artist confronts contemporary environmental issues—ocean noise, chemical pollution,  climate change and sea level rise—while pointing to the extractive histories that form the origin  stories of our climate crisis. Other of Pearl opens to the public on Friday, June 14 and will remain on view every Wednesday through Sunday through the end of October.

Additional works commissioned through Governors Island Arts can be found throughout the Island's park and historic district and are on view daily, including Duke Riley's Not for Nutten, Rachel Whiteread's Cabin, Mark Dion's The Field Station of the Melancholy Marine Biologist, Shantell Martin's Church, Sam Van Aken's The Open Orchard, Sheila Berger's Bird MMXXIII, and Mark Handforth's Yankee Hanger.

YEAR-ROUND TENANTS

Governors Island is also home to a growing community of educational and cultural tenants who will present free cultural programs throughout the spring and summer. Highlights include:

Beam Center

Beam Center will present The Otherworlds Fair, a brand-new youth-led cultural festival, on August 17, 2024. 70 NYC high school students will work in collaboration with Beam Center throughout the summer to design and produce performances, art projects, and workshops that express the world they envision building for themselves. At the August event, the youth-producers will invite the public to learn and engage in these experiences through the cultural lenses of fashion, food, design, music, and storytelling.

Institute for Public Architecture

The Institute for Public Architecture (IPA), which runs the only overnight residency program on Governors Island, is hosting an exhibition of work by IPA Spring Fellows, open on weekends 12–4pm through May 26 in the Block House at 9 Nolan Park. On June 1st, six Summer Fellows from disciplines including architecture, ecology, communications design, sculpture, industrial design, and urban design will arrive for an eleven-week residency. Throughout the summer, the IPA will host a series of events – free and open to the public – including open studios, workshops, and screenings of The Story of the BQE, a documentary about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and its impact on people who live in its midst.

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC)'s Arts Center at Governors Island

LMCC will present monthly events and programs at the Arts Center at Governors Island, including open studios and a participatory Party as Practice celebration on May 18; the annual River to River Festival June 7-23; exhibitions curated by LMCC curatorial fellows Kiara Cristina Ventura and Meghan Karnik, and more public programs to be announced.

This summer, Bloomberg Connects—a free app focused on arts and culture from Bloomberg Philanthropies—will include an extensive guide for the public art on view, new interviews with artists, and features on other key aspects of the Governors Island experience. The guide will provide information for visitors onsite and is accessible from anywhere in the world.

Governors Island Arts presents its programming with the visionary support of the Ford Foundation, as well the Mellon Foundation, the Charina Endowment Fund, Donald R. Mullen Family Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Gottesman Fund, Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Gover­nor and the New York State Legislature.