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Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Seeks Pro­pos­als for Year-Round Arts, Edu­ca­tion­al and Cul­tur­al Tenants

Mar 11, 2020 1:27 pm

March 11, 2020. New York, NY. The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today issued a Request for Pro­pos­als (RFP) designed to strength­en Gov­er­nors Island’s arts and cul­ture offer­ings and trans­form the Island into a year-round cul­tur­al des­ti­na­tion. The RFP invites artis­tic, cul­tur­al, envi­ron­men­tal and edu­ca­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions to sub­mit pro­pos­als for use of two build­ings in Nolan Park, a col­lec­tion of 20 for­mer mil­i­tary offi­cer homes on a long-term basis. The RFP is part of the Trust’s broad­er efforts to breathe new life into sev­er­al build­ings with­in the Island’s His­toric Dis­trict with year-round ten­ants in the areas of arts and cul­ture, com­mer­cial activ­i­ty, and hos­pi­tal­i­ty and ameni­ties to sup­port both expand­ed access and increas­ing visitorship. 

“Arts and edu­ca­tion have been cen­tral to Gov­er­nors Island’s remark­able trans­for­ma­tion over the past decade, and its his­to­ry, archi­tec­ture and ecol­o­gy make it an inspir­ing place for learn­ing and cre­ativ­i­ty,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We’re thrilled to grow our com­mu­ni­ty of year-round ten­ants by offer­ing long-term spaces to arts and edu­ca­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions in Nolan Park, an incred­i­bly unique cam­pus set­ting for both cre­at­ing and expe­ri­enc­ing cul­tur­al programming” 

The build­ings offered through the RFP are locat­ed with­in Nolan Park, a col­lec­tion of 20 19^th cen­tu­ry homes five min­utes from dai­ly fer­ry ser­vice from Low­er Man­hat­tan and part of the Gov­er­nors Island His­toric Dis­trict. 20 Nolan, a 1902 con­struc­tion orig­i­nal­ly built as a sin­gle-fam­i­ly home, will be gut-ren­o­vat­ed by the Trust and con­vert­ed into two pre-built suites, each approx­i­mate­ly 2,600 SF and will be move-in ready by 2022. Each suite will be offered to cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions with ground-floor space for exhi­bi­tions and pub­lic pro­grams, with addi­tion­al upstairs space for offices, artist stu­dios and class­room space. 9 Nolan, a 8,500 SF build­ing built in1839 build­ing that has been used as res­i­dences, a hos­pi­tal and the head­quar­ters for the Mil­i­tary Divi­sion of the Atlantic, is avail­able for imme­di­ate occu­pan­cy and offered as-is. The build­ing con­tains 13 dor­mi­to­ry-style stu­dios with com­mu­nal kitchens and facil­i­ties which can be con­vert­ed into stu­dio spaces for an artist res­i­den­cy pro­gram, or offices for cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions. This RFP is the first offer­ing of these unique spaces for year-round, long-term cul­tur­al use. Two addi­tion­al RFPs for build­ings with­in the His­toric Dis­trict will be released in the com­ing months. 

Over time, the Trust intends to trans­form Nolan Park into a mul­ti-ten­ant cul­tur­al cam­pus. This RFP seeks to pro­vide long-term homes for orga­ni­za­tions in the arts and cul­ture space, giv­ing Gov­er­nor Island a year-round pres­ence in the field, as well as envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions look­ing to take advan­tage of the Island’s New York Har­bor loca­tion. The Trust will under­take nec­es­sary restora­tion of the build­ings in order to make the RFP acces­si­ble to a broad range of organizations. 

Respons­es to the RFP are due May 29, 2020. To view the RFP, click here.

Over the past decade, Gov­er­nors Island has grown as a live­ly cen­ter for arts, cul­ture, envi­ron­men­tal research and recre­ation. Nolan Park has played a key role in this trans­for­ma­tion as a sea­son­al hub for free cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming dur­ing the Island’s pub­lic sea­son. In 2019, 30 orga­ni­za­tions span­ning the visu­al arts, per­for­mance, cul­ture, envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence and edu­ca­tion pre­sent­ed exhibits, work­shops, per­for­mances and talks, and host­ed artists-in-res­i­dence in the his­toric hous­es of Nolan Park and Colonels Row. The Trust intends expand this suc­cess­ful sea­son­al pro­gram­ming mod­el into year-round ten­an­cies for cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions across NYC and beyond. 

Gov­er­nors Island has under­gone a tremen­dous trans­for­ma­tion in recent years, includ­ing a $400 mil­lion invest­ment in Island-wide infra­struc­ture and the cre­ation of a resilient 43-acre park. Suc­cess­ful respon­dents to this RFP will join the diverse ros­ter of Gov­er­nors Island ten­ants, includ­ing the Urban Assem­bly NY Har­bor School, a pub­lic high school with over 500 stu­dents that offers career and tech­ni­cal edu­ca­tion in marine and envi­ron­men­tal careers; the Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil Arts Cen­ter, an artist res­i­dence pro­gram that func­tions as a pub­lic gallery space dur­ing the sea­son and com­plet­ed a 40,000 square foot ren­o­va­tion last Sep­tem­ber; and QC Terme, a des­ti­na­tion day spa that is cur­rent­ly under construction. 

In 2020, Gov­er­nors Island will be open every day from May 1 through Octo­ber 31. The Island is open from 10 AM to 6 PM on week­days and from 10 AM to 7 PM on week­ends, Memo­r­i­al Day, July 4 and Labor Day. 

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 trans­form Gov­er­nors Island into a vibrant resource for New York City, mak­ing this island at the cen­ter of New York Har­bor a des­ti­na­tion with extra­or­di­nary pub­lic open space, as well as edu­ca­tion­al, not-for-prof­it and com­mer­cial facilities.