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The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Announces 2023 Fall Sea­son for Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Sep 7, 2023 3:03 pm

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today announced a sched­ule of free pro­gram­ming and exhi­bi­tions for Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ fall sea­son, includ­ing free per­for­mances by Modesto ​“Flako” Jimenez and Indige­nous Enter­prise, along with new exhi­bi­tions from the New Art Deal­ers Alliance (NADA), Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons, and oth­er NYC-based non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions. In addi­tion, The Trust announced the exten­sion of Charles Gaines’s mon­u­men­tal art­work Mov­ing Chains, which will be open to the pub­lic through October.

“Gov­er­nors Island is burst­ing with activ­i­ty 365 days a year — and the fall is no excep­tion. The new arts pro­gram­ming announced today fur­ther cements the Island as one of our city’s most dynam­ic, respon­sive des­ti­na­tions for the arts.” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We encour­age vis­i­tors to join us on the Island this fall to expe­ri­ence our excit­ing ros­ter of free arts and cul­tur­al offer­ings — along with some of the best fall foliage in New York City!”

“We can­not wait to wel­come New York­ers from all five bor­oughs to expe­ri­ence Gov­er­nors Island Arts this fall,” said Mered­ith John­son, VP of Art and Cul­ture at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We are ener­gized by this new slate of per­for­mances and pub­lic pro­grams and are grate­ful to our immense group of part­ners work­ing along­side us here on the Island.”

FALL PER­FOR­MANCES

Curat­ed by Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er Juan Pablo Siles, Gov­er­nors Island Arts will present two week­ends of free per­for­mances in Sep­tem­ber and Octo­ber: ¡Harken! by Modesto ​“Flako” Jimenez, which guides vis­i­tors through the inter­twined his­to­ries of Juan Rodriguez, the first non-indige­nous res­i­dent of Man­hat­tan, and dance per­for­mances from Indige­nous Enter­prise in hon­or of Indige­nous People’s Day.

¡Harken!

Sep­tem­ber 29-Octo­ber 1

Cre­at­ed and per­formed by Modesto ​“Flako” Jimenez, ¡Harken! is an immer­sive expe­ri­ence that guides vis­i­tors through the few pages of his­to­ry writ­ten about Juan Rodriguez. Also referred to as Jan Rodrigues, a black or mulat­to free man from Saint Domin­go (now the Domini­can Repub­lic), Rodrigues trad­ed fur for Thi­js Vol­ckenz Mos­sel, the com­man­der of the Jonge Tobias ship explor­ing North Amer­i­ca for Its eco­nom­ic poten­tial after the Hen­ry Hud­son explo­ration in 1609. Join us and take in Rodrigues’s and Gov­er­nors Island’s lay­ered his­to­ry brought togeth­er thought poet­ry, guid­ed expe­ri­ence, and sto­ry­telling, offer­ing a look into humanity’s inter­min­gling of races and eth­nic­i­ties and who gets to author those sto­ries. Click here for tickets.

Indige­nous Enterprise

Octo­ber 7 – 9

Indige­nous Enter­prise will present free dance per­for­mances in hon­or of Indige­nous People’s Day (Octo­ber 9). Indige­nous Enter­prise is a Native Amer­i­can col­lec­tive found­ed in 2015 and based in Phoenix, Ari­zona. The com­pa­ny was estab­lished with the goal of shar­ing the pos­i­tive aspects of indige­nous cul­ture through film, fash­ion, and dance. Since their found­ing, Indige­nous Enter­prise has become one of the most dynam­ic and excit­ing cul­tur­al com­pa­nies in the world. Their per­for­mances have cap­ti­vat­ed audi­ences at some of the most icon­ic venues and events, includ­ing the Super Bowl, Syd­ney Opera House, Joyce The­ater, and the 2020 Pres­i­den­tial Inau­gu­ra­tion. They have received crit­i­cal acclaim from pub­li­ca­tions such as the New York Times and Vogue Mag­a­zine for their cap­ti­vat­ing per­for­mances and stun­ning visu­al artistry. Through their work, Indige­nous Enter­prise is ded­i­cat­ed to pre­serv­ing and pro­mot­ing indige­nous cul­ture in a pos­i­tive and inspir­ing way. Click here for tickets.

ORGA­NI­ZA­TIONS IN RESIDENCE

Each year, two dozen arts, cul­ture, edu­ca­tion­al, and envi­ron­men­tal non­prof­its 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 are open every Fri­day, Sat­ur­day, and Sun­day from 11am to 5pm from May 5 through Octo­ber 29.

Orga­ni­za­tions join­ing the cur­rent group of non­prof­its in Nolan Park and Colonels Row for the fall sea­son include New Art Deal­ers Alliance and Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons, along with sev­er­al new exhi­bi­tions and events from many cur­rent Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence. See the full list of orga­ni­za­tions and events at www​.gov​is​land​.org/oir. New pro­gram­ming high­lights include:

New Art Deal­ers Alliance

Nolan Park Build­ing 18

• Sep­tem­ber 1‑October 1: NADA House, an annu­al col­lab­o­ra­tive exhi­bi­tion that brings togeth­er 26 art gal­leries and art spaces to present 26 artists, with par­tic­i­pants engag­ing the unique char­ac­ter of the 19^th cen­tu­ry for­mer mil­i­tary res­i­dence and exhibit­ing work in a diverse range of mediums.

Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Prisons

Nolan Park Build­ing 8B

• Sep­tem­ber 1‑October 29: Escap­ing Time: Art from U.S. Pris­ons exhibits and sells art­works cre­at­ed with­in prison walls nation­wide, work­ing to dis­rupt the stereo­type soci­ety imag­ines when think­ing about the incarcerated.

Bil­lion Oys­ter Project

Nolan Park Build­ing 16

• Sep­tem­ber 1‑October 29: Aqua­cul­tur­al Adap­tion, a com­pi­la­tion of work from third year Pratt Insti­tute Mas­ter of Archi­tec­ture can­di­dates that explore the link­ages across ecosys­tems, peo­ple, and ani­mals through the lens of an archi­tec­tur­al construct.
• Sep­tem­ber 3‑October 29: Shoals, an oys­ter-inspired sculp­tur­al exhib­it by Swedish artist Lin­néa Gad, curat­ed by Bian­ca Abdi-Bor­a­gi, Kather­ine Adams, and Anna Mikaela Ekstrand. Shoals is part of The Immi­grant Artist Bien­ni­al 2023, held across venues in New York and New Jer­sey from Sep­tem­ber 2023 to Jan­u­ary 2024.

New York Latin Amer­i­can Art Triennial

Colonels Row Build­ing 405B

• Sep­tem­ber 2 – 25: Volver a Regre­sar, a solo show by Pao­la Martínez Fiterre
• Sep­tem­ber 2 – 25: The denied Body: a refuge of trau­ma, a solo show by Nat­acha Voli­akovsky. Pre­sent­ed in part­ner­ship with Trans­bor­der Art in Colonels Row Build­ing 406A.

KODA

Colonels Row Build­ing 404B

• August 19-Sep­tem­ber 24: It’s a most pecu­liar sen­sa­tion; or that time Vir­ginia Woolf wore Black­face, a solo exhi­bi­tion by Toisha Tuck­er fea­tur­ing a Vir­ginia Woolf alter, video, works on paper, sculp­tures, and an immer­sive con­cep­tu­al installation
• Sep­tem­ber 29-Octo­ber 29: Solo exhi­bi­tion from artist Alex Mari.
• Octo­ber 6: Free film screen­ing at Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Council’s Arts Cen­ter at Gov­er­nors Island in part­ner­ship with Gotham Yard­bird Sanctuary

West Harlem Art Fund

Nolan Park Build­ing 10B

• Sep­tem­ber 9‑October 29: Undaunt­ed: We Are Still Here, hon­ors cul­tur­al move­ments that with­stood mis­un­der­stand­ings, eco­nom­ic upheaval, and con­tin­u­al strug­gle. The exhi­bi­tion will present a mashup of graf­fi­ti, prints, instal­la­tion, and por­traits; includ­ing a tat­too salon by Bad­der Ink and the Art Kar­tel. Curat­ed by Savona Bai­ley-McClain and fea­tur­ing works by Damali Abrams, Kraig Blue, Valerie Hal­li­er, Dianne Heb­bert, Bad­der Israel, Mark Gas­ton Pearce, Dianne Smith, Siyan Wong.

PUB­LIC ART COMMISSIONS

The Amer­i­can Man­i­fest Chap­ter Two: Mov­ing Chains, by Charles Gaines, has been extend­ed through the end of Octo­ber. Mov­ing Chains is open to the pub­lic Thurs­day through Sun­day and is pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts, Cre­ative Time, and Times Square Arts. Mov­ing Chains is a 110-foot-long kinet­ic sculp­ture — the artist’s first pub­lic art­work — that calls atten­tion to the eco­nom­ic, judi­cial, and polit­i­cal frame­works that con­tin­ue the lega­cy of slav­ery in the Unit­ed States today.

Sam Van Aken’s mon­u­men­tal The Open Orchard, on view in the Island’s award-win­ning, cli­mate-resilient park, wel­comes vis­i­tors year-round to expe­ri­ence the chang­ing sea­sons in this orchard com­prised of 102 fruit trees that acts as a liv­ing archive for antique and heir­loom vari­eties that were grown in and around New York City in the past 400 years but have most­ly dis­ap­peared due to cli­mate change and the indus­tri­al­iza­tion of agri­cul­ture. Addi­tion­al long-term pub­lic art instal­la­tions com­mis­sioned through Gov­er­nors Island Arts — includ­ing Rachel Whiteread’s Cab­in, Mark Handforth’s Yan­kee Hang­er, Duke Riley’s Not for Nut­ten, and Mark Dion’s The Field Sta­tion of the Melan­choly Marine Biol­o­gist—remain on view daily.

Gov­er­nors Island Arts was a key com­mit­ment in New York City May­or Eric Adams’ Blue­print for New York City’s Eco­nom­ic Recov­ery, with today’s announce­ment marks the sec­ond set of new initiatives.

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram 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.

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About Gov­er­nors Island Arts

Gov­er­nors Island Arts, the pub­lic arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram pre­sent­ed by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, cre­ates trans­for­ma­tive encoun­ters with art for all New York­ers, invit­ing artists and researchers to engage with the issues of our time in the con­text of the Island’s lay­ered his­to­ries, envi­ron­ments, and archi­tec­ture. Gov­er­nors Island Arts achieves this mis­sion through tem­po­rary and long-term pub­lic art com­mis­sions, an annu­al Orga­ni­za­tion in Res­i­dence pro­gram in the Island’s his­toric hous­es, and free pub­lic pro­grams and events in part­ner­ship with a wide range of cross-dis­ci­pli­nary NYC cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​g​iarts

About the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is the non­prof­it cor­po­ra­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York that is respon­si­ble for the rede­vel­op­ment and oper­a­tion of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust’s mis­sion is to real­ize the full poten­tial of Gov­er­nors Island for the inspi­ra­tion and enjoy­ment of all New York­ers, demon­strat­ing a bold vision for pub­lic space. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org