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Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil Announces Inau­gur­al Sea­son and Sep­tem­ber 2019 Open­ing of LMC­C’s Arts Cen­ter At Gov­er­nors Island

Aug 19, 2019 12:09 pm

Today Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC) announces that LMCC’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island will open to the pub­lic on Sep­tem­ber 19 with inau­gur­al sea­son pro­gram­ming that includes com­mis­sioned site-spe­cif­ic exhi­bi­tions by inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned artists Yto Bar­ra­da (with spe­cial guest artist Bet­ti­na) and Michael Wang, as well as the Take Care series, a fall pub­lic pro­gram that fur­thers ideas pre­sent­ed in the Arts Center’s inau­gur­al art instal­la­tions and reframes art cura­tion as a mind­ful prac­tice stem­ming from the con­cept of care. Artists and col­lec­tives fea­tured in the sea­son include Ola­fur Eliasson’s Lit­tle Sun Sun­light Graf­fi­ti, Tat­tfoo Tan, Anne Mouri­er, Jérôme Bel, Jesse Paris Smith and Path­way to Paris, House of Trees and The Floor, plus both Bar­ra­da and Wang. Sig­na­ture Open Stu­dios events will offer behind-the-scenes looks at the artis­tic process with the Center’s inau­gur­al Artists-in-Res­i­dence. See this page for details, with full sched­ule avail­able at LMCC​.net. All pro­grams and exhi­bi­tions are free and all are welcome.

Lili Chopra, LMCC’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Artis­tic Pro­grams, com­ment­ed, ​“We are thrilled to open LMCC’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island, shar­ing the work of artists whose local and glob­al sen­si­bil­i­ties speak to our present moment. Yto Bar­ra­da and Michael Wang exam­ine the com­plex pow­er dynam­ics of the nat­ur­al world. Their diver­gent approach­es share an intense sen­si­tiv­i­ty that embraces the root mean­ing of cura­tion — to care, to look after, to sup­port. Through these exhi­bi­tions and the Take Care series, along with the work being devel­oped by the inau­gur­al fam­i­ly of artists-in-res­i­dence, we invite the pub­lic into the Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island to reflect on the world we inhab­it. How can we bet­ter care for our­selves, those around us and the plan­et as a whole?”

LMCC’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Finance & Admin­is­tra­tion, Diego S. Segali­ni, remarked, ​“For over 45 years, LMCC has cham­pi­oned artists and their visions in trans­form­ing urban spaces. LMCC’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island is a gift to all New York­ers in a time of intense eco­nom­ic inequity and eco­log­i­cal cri­sis. The Arts Cen­ter will be a space of con­ver­sa­tion and thought. It reflects the mis­sion and val­ues of Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil to serve and con­nect artists and com­mu­ni­ties on a human and per­son­al scale, com­plete­ly aligned with Gov­er­nors Island’s com­mit­ment to the City, water and environment.”

Con­ceived as an incu­ba­tor for cre­ative explo­ration and a gath­er­ing space to engage in dia­logue, LMCC’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island is the first year-round, per­ma­nent home for artists and audi­ences on Gov­er­nors Island. Locat­ed with­in the Gov­er­nors Island His­toric Dis­trict, LMCC’s Arts Cen­ter fea­tures 40,000 square feet of space ded­i­cat­ed to pub­lic per­for­mances, exhi­bi­tions and artist res­i­den­cies, visu­al and per­form­ing arts stu­dios and a café. Work cre­at­ed and exhib­it­ed dur­ing the inau­gur­al sea­son inves­ti­gates issues of ecol­o­gy, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, geog­ra­phy and his­to­ry relat­ed to Gov­er­nors Island and New York City at large. Artists will be in res­i­dence year-round with pub­lic pro­gram­ming to take place dur­ing Gov­er­nors Island’s pub­lic sea­son, which runs May 1 through Octo­ber 31.

As a wel­com­ing hub for work­ing artists and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment, LMCC’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island will host a broad range of events — includ­ing Open Stu­dios, per­for­mances, exhi­bi­tions, talks, dis­cus­sions and work­shops — to con­vene artists and the pub­lic in an ongo­ing exchange of ideas and cre­ative prac­tice. Begin­ning Sep­tem­ber 19, the exhi­bi­tions are open to the pub­lic Thurs­days through Sun­days, 12 – 5 p.m. The Take Care series takes place every Sat­ur­day, 2 – 5 p.m.

Since 1973, Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC) has served tens of thou­sands of artists and arts groups in New York City with crit­i­cal finan­cial sup­port, train­ing, net­work­ing and long-term stu­dio res­i­den­cy pro­grams. As a cham­pi­on of inde­pen­dent artists and a vital cul­tur­al force in city arts, LMCC con­nects audi­ences with pub­lic pre­sen­ta­tions of artists’ work (includ­ing its flag­ship Riv­er To Riv­er Fes­ti­val), cre­at­ing innu­mer­able cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences and pro­grams across Man­hat­tan, free of charge and wel­come to all.