Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Announces 2017 Spring/Summer Season of Events

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy (Conservancy) and Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) are proud to announce the full lineup of events and activities for 2017's spring and summer season. Visitors will be able to enjoy a variety of free cultural, educational, and recreational events, as well as expanded opportunities to volunteer and support this world-class waterfront park.

The expansive five-month season of programming begins on April 8 with the 19th Eileen C. Dugan Memorial 5K. The 3.1-mile run honors Eileen Dugan - a New York State Assemblywoman who represented the local 52nd AD from 1980 to 1996 - whose leadership and advocacy were instrumental in the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park. New to this year's spring lineup is Big and Little Skills Academy's Spring Fling (BALSA) which kicks off on April 10. BBP will partner with BALSA to bring a series of basketball clinics and youth tournaments to Pier 2 over spring break. BALSA will return for regular weekly clinics starting May 2. Long-time audience favorites such as Books Beneath the Bridge, Jazzmobile, and All The Park's A Stage will all return to the Park.

Also returning are a number of free outdoor fitness classes such as Zumba, Pilates, Broadway Dance, Hip Hop Dance Aerobics, and Sunrise Yoga, taught by Dodge YMCA instructors. New fitness classes like Body Combat and Bond Fitness promise to stretch the skills of seasoned participants.

Movies With A View, the popular film series on the Brooklyn waterfront, returns for its 18th year. A new weekly preshow party with music, Brooklyn food vendors, and a beer garden will kick off every Thursday night screening. The theme for this year's 8-week-long film series is "Resistance," and it will highlight issues of race, gender, protest, and triumph. Movies to be featured include classics like Casablanca, cult hits such as Office Space and 9 to 5, and modern favorites like Selma and The Lego Movie. The final screening of the series on August 24 will be put up for a public vote, and will round out the summer season.

BBP will host events that engage visitors across a wide spectrum of interests. The Community Room at 99 Plymouth will feature a number of exciting installations over the coming season. In April, BBP will welcome Twenty-Five Hours by artist Jesse Chun, which will reinterpret historical facts and scientific data about the East River tides into text-based drawings, and works on paper. The talented young artists of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation Summer Session will also return to 99 Plymouth this summer. On May 3, the Public Art Fund will bring Anish Kapoor's Descension to Pier 1's Bridge View Lawn. This massive continuously spiraling funnel of water descends into the ground, harnessing one of the most evanescent of materials and inviting us to experience the sheer perceptual wonder of an ordinary material in an extraordinary way. In partnership with United Photo Industries and Photo District News, The Fence will return to Brooklyn Bridge Park in June for its sixth consecutive year. The installation presents the work of talented photographers from all around the world.

Additional events will be available through BBP's cultural partners located at the northern end of the park. St. Ann's Warehouse will wrap up their current season with productions of 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips and Arlington at the Tobacco Warehouse. At Spark by Brooklyn Children's Museum, drop-in play and free open hours will continue throughout the summer. Later this spring, in a preview of their upcoming space at Empire Stores, the Brooklyn Historical Society will debut Shifting Perspectives, a photo exhibit of Brooklyn's waterfront, from the early 20th century to today.

In addition to its program offerings, BBP will add over four acres of new parkland with the opening of the Pier 5 uplands this summer. This latest addition will include sloping and terraced lawns, a grove with a flexible seating area, and a sound-attenuating berm to reduce traffic noise. Set into the hillside will be a new boathouse that includes public restrooms.

The Conservancy's Environmental Education Center will offer free open hours to the public four days a week, in which visitors can learn about the Park's ecology, history, and sustainable design. In addition to open hours, it will host individualized Discovery Sessions, and a variety of school programs that serve over 11,000 students each year.

Other family-friendly programs this year include public seining, Wednesday Night Tours, a Hindu Lamp Ceremony, and Summer Reading Storytime. Every Thursday and Saturday, families can enjoy public kayaking sessions on the East River with Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse; and every Sunday, kayak polo games will be held for even more fun on the water.

Throughout the summer, the volunteer Green Team will offer nature enthusiasts an opportunity to learn about gardening and enjoy the outdoors every Saturday, and regular Coastal Cleanups will allow visitors to help keep the Park's shorelines clean and beautiful.

"From public seining sessions, to Movies With A View, our programs all take advantage of the park's spectacular waterfront location in order to give our visitors new and unique experiences, year after year," said Nancy Webster, Executive Director of the Conservancy "With over 600 cultural, recreational, and educational programs this summer, we strive to have something for everyone."

"With brand new parkland opening at the Pier 5 uplands and a great lineup of programs, this summer at BBP is bound to be our best yet," said David Lowin, Brooklyn Bridge Park Interim President. "We look forward to welcoming visitors back for another exciting season on the waterfront."

In 2016, Brooklyn Bridge Park saw an average of 330,000 visitors a week during the summer.

brooklynbridgepark.org

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