Blog

LMCC opens the Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island this September

Mar 25, 2019 10:05 am

Today, the Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil announced the open­ing of the Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island, which will bring over 40,000 square feet of new arts space to Sois­sons Land­ing as the first per­ma­nent arts facil­i­ty on Gov­er­nors Island. We’re thrilled for LMCC, who have been active on the Island since becom­ing one of our first ten­ants in 2009, to com­plete this beau­ti­ful space and move into their new per­ma­nent home!

LMCC’s Arts Cen­ter will pro­vide ample stu­dio space for artists in its res­i­den­cy pro­grams to devel­op their work, as well as pub­lic space for exhi­bi­tions, events, and pro­grams that will engage vis­i­tors and cre­ators alike. Res­i­dent artists will begin using the space year-round when it opens this Sep­tem­ber and it will be open to vis­i­tors dur­ing the pub­lic access sea­son from then until Octo­ber 31, reopen­ing to the pub­lic again for the 2020 season.

The first sea­son of pro­gram­ming will focus on themes relat­ed to ecol­o­gy, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, resilience, his­to­ry, and social jus­tice and will include site-spe­cif­ic exhi­bi­tions by artists Yto Bar­ra­da, Michael Wang, and oth­ers. Barrada’s project, Tang­i­er, incor­po­rates sculp­ture, col­lage, tex­tiles, video and oth­er media to explore the chang­ing rela­tion­ships between cities (like New York, Tang­i­er, Mor­ro­co and Tang­i­er, Vir­ginia) and their water­fronts, which once sus­tained them but now threat­en them with ris­ing sea lev­els. Wang’s project, Extinct in New York, cre­ates a life sup­port sys­tem in a series of minia­ture green­hous­es that sus­tain species of plants once native to New York City but that can no longer be found here in the wild. Dur­ing the pub­lic sea­son, Open Stu­dios Week­ends will allow vis­i­tors a glimpse inside the work­ing stu­dios of these artists and oth­ers; a total of 19 artists-in-res­i­dence have been announced for 2019, with more to be announced in June.

Build­ing 110, home of LMCC’s Arts Cen­ter, was orig­i­nal­ly built by the U.S. Army in the 1870s as an ord­nance ware­house and lat­er con­vert­ed into mil­i­tary offices. LMCC part­nered with the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island on the ren­o­va­tion effort, with new inte­ri­ors designed by PEI Cobb Freed & Part­ners and Adam­son Asso­ciate Archi­tects and engi­neered by Buro­Hap­pold Engi­neer­ing. This ren­o­va­tion beau­ti­ful­ly pre­serves and reveals the building’s orig­i­nal inte­ri­or struc­tures while trans­form­ing the space into a world-class arts com­plex. Vis­i­tors can see it for them­selves while perus­ing exhi­bi­tions, attend­ing pub­lic pro­grams, or stop­ping by the café lat­er this year. The new Arts Cen­ter is an excit­ing step in the Island’s trans­for­ma­tion into a year-round des­ti­na­tion.

Pho­to by Zachary Tyler New­ton, cour­tesy LMCC.