Climate Week on Governors Island
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The largest annual climate event of its kind features a unique waterfront campus environment, climate piloting and education opportunities, public art engaging directly with climate issues, and a community of educational, nonprofit, and commercial tenants that includes the Billion Oyster Project, the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, Beam Center, Wind Support NYC, the soon-to-open Buttermilk Labs, and The New York Climate Exchange.
Climate Week NYC on Governors Island Schedule:
ONGOING: Other of Pearl, Jenny Kendler Governors Island Arts and NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) Open Wednesday-Sunday through October 31 in Fort Jay — Public art installation that tells the story of the extractive histories that form the origin stories of the climate and environmental crisis, while considering the oyster and whale as central players in an ecological entanglement between human and nonhuman beings, waterways, and flows of capital.
ONGOING: Sari Carel: A More Perfect Circle, KODA Open Friday-Sunday through October 31 in Colonels Row Building 407B — Artist and activist Sari Carel presents a series of ceramic sculptures inspired by the single-use coffee cup, uncovering a sense of powerlessness and conflict about a choice at the center of a daily routine. This public art installation explores what happens to this item when tossed into the trash can, and why we take it for granted.
ONGOING: [SUN] Flower Waves, Harvestworks Open Friday-Sunday through October 31 in Nolan Park Building 10A — This digital media installation by Victoria Vesna in collaboration with Walter Gekelman explores the harmonious interaction between sunflowers and Alfvén waves, demonstrating how art and science converge to reveal deeper understandings.
September 21, 1 – 4pm: Play is Power: Design Your Own Climate Game, Climate Imaginarium Colonels Row Building 406A — In this series of consecutive, hour-long workshops, participants are guided step-by-step through the process of designing their very own Climate Game: a tabletop, role-playing, or outdoor game that explores a climate issue of their choosing.
September 21, 10am-12pm & 2 – 4pm: Melting Metropolis & Community Sponsor Lab Walk.
September 22, 1 – 3PM: Earth, Wind, and Water demonstration, Earth Matter NY Urban Farm — Discover the role organic matter plays in water retention, erosion control, and carbon sequestration.
September 22, 1 – 4PM: Day of Action / Engagement, NYU & New York Climate Exchange
September 22, 2 – 2:30pm: Climate Week Seed Collecting, The Bee Conservancy Urban Farm — Collect seeds with the Bee Conservancy at their Bee Sanctuary on Governors Island’s Urban Farm — participants get seed collecting tips, learn about seed stratification and germination, and hear how climate and its changes impact the bee and plant species on Governors Island and beyond.
September 22 – 25, 5 – 7pm: Climate Week Walking Tours, Billion Oyster Project Nolan Park Building 16 — Join a Climate Week walking tour to explore Billion Oyster Project’s vibrant efforts in restoring New York Harbor’s oyster reefs and their impact on combating climate change.
September 24, 10am-2pm: Adaptation(s) 2.0 Guided Tours, Pratt Institute Center for Climate Adaptation Nolan Park Building 14 — Guided tour of exhibitions that spotlight different perspectives on climate adaptation and strategies in archipelagos — communities at the greatest risk and in need of finding livable solutions for future climate change.
September 24, 3 – 5:30pm: Charging Ahead: Global Strategies for Bus Electrification, Crux Alliance & The New York Climate Exchange
September 24, 4 – 6pm: IA Island(ing) Adaptations Discussion, Pratt Institute Center for Climate Adaptation Admiral’s House — Panel discussion bringing together representation from high level government officials, innovative designers, financial leaders, and policy makers. Participants share their perspectives and engage one another and the audience in discussion through a moderated discussion and a Q&A.
September 25, 9am-6pm: NYCE Climate Tech Showcase, The New York Climate Exchange
September 26, 10 – 11:30am: Imagining Climate Resilient and Thriving Communities through Youth Education Programs, Georgia Tech & New York Climate Exchange
September 26, 6:30 – 8:30pm: Film Screening and Panel: “Getting Outside the Climate Bubble,” Wellcome Trust & The New York Climate Exchange
September 27, 1 – 3pm: Healthy Choices, Healthy Planet: Climate Awareness in Health Education, Pace University & New York Climate Exchange (by invitation only)
September 27, 1 – 5pm: The Time is Now: Scaling Climate Education for Sustainable Cities, The Trust for Governors Island, UNESCO, and GrowNYC
September 27, 11am-1pm: Sustainable Storytelling: On and Off Camera, Climate Imaginarium and the “Micro-Plastination” film crew Colonels Row Building 406A — Learn what makes an impactful story that inspires change both on and off camera. This panel includes a mixer with other media-makers and a preview of an upcoming short film: “Micro-Plastination.”
September 27, 1 – 4pm: Sustainable Stories: Climate, Food, and Culture through Diverse Voices, Climate Imaginarium and The Uproot Project Colonels Row Building 406A — A keynote on the intersection of diversity, culture, and food as climate solutions, followed by a panel discussion and workshop offering storytelling techniques for environmental journalism and insights into highlighting these crucial intersections.
September 28, 10am-5pm: Imaginary Acoustic Visions of Castle Williams, Harvestworks & New York Climate Exchange
September 28 & 29, 11am-1pm: Climate Fiction Workshop with Author Susan Kaye Quinn, Climate Imaginarium and the NYC Climate Writers Collective Colonels Row Building 406A — Write a story to build a better world! This event, organized by the NYC Climate Writers Collective, will spark creativity in everyone — no matter their previous writing experience.
September 28, 11am-5pm: Flower Plasma by Victoria Vesna in collaboration with plasma physicist Walter Gekelman and biomedical engineer Haley Marks, Harvestworks Nolan Park Building 10A — Special installation featuring sound and images from UCLA’s Large Plasma Device, solar wind data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, and natural recordings — offering an immersive meditation on solar energy and the cycle of creation and destruction.
September 28, 1 – 3pm: Climate Café at the Climate Imaginarium, Climate Imaginarium Colonels Row Building 406A — An uplifting afternoon of refreshments, meditation, and a meaningful conversation on climate emotions. Participants can enjoy coffee and snacks with others in the climate community as they share their feelings and get to know others in the movement.
September 28, 2 – 2:30PM: Gardening for Climate Change, GrowNYC Urban Farm - This guided tour will focus on how climate change will impact gardening, what GrowNYC’s Teaching Garden on Governors Island does to mitigate its impact on climate change, and how gardens can adapt to a changing climate.
September 28, 2 – 3:30pm: Governors Island Bird Tour, NYC Bird Alliance and the Trust for Governors Island Colonels Row Building 405B — Whether you’re an expert birder or a beginner, this guided tour — led by an NYC Bird Alliance educator along with the Trust for Governors Island’s arborist — will help you discover all of the birdlife the Island has to offer, and how the Island’s trees provide vital habitat.
September 28, 2 – 3:30pm: Climate Week Pollinator Walk, The Bee Conservancy Urban Farm — Learn about New York City’s pollinators (and the habitats that support them) and explore nature through a pollinator’s lens with an experienced guide from the Bee Conservancy.
September 28, 3 – 6pm: Remember Ida: A 3rd Anniversary Podcast Listening Session and Reflection Circle, Queens Memory Project & New York Climate Exchange
September 28, 2:30 – 3pm: Imagined Futures: Grief & Seeds, Climate Imaginarium and Holes in the Wall Collective Colonels Row Building 406A — Visit the Climate Imaginarium for three embodied activities to learn about alternative time scales — bearing witness to our fear and our collective responsibility to where we go from here.
September 28, 3 – 5pm: The Chase (EP) Release Party: A Climate Week Jam, Climate Imaginarium and Credle Entertainment Colonels Row Building 406A — Celebrate the close of Climate Week with the release of CREDLE’s 5th studio project, The Chase (EP), an Afropop, R&B, and House genre-focused music project.
September 29, 3 – 5pm: Grief & Seeds: Honoring the Past, Creating the Future, Climate Imaginarium, Holes in the Wall Collective, American Indian Community House Colonels Row Building 406A — Close out Climate Week with intention at this gathering to honor place and possibility. Featuring elder and activist Jk Canepa, youth organizer Anna Tsomo with youth from 6th St. Community Climate Action group, a popup seed gathering with Next Epoch Seed Library, and a closing ritual led by Noelle Ghoussaini of Sacred Space.
On View Daily: Governors Island Arts Public Artworks
Governors Island Arts, the arts and cultural program presented by the Trust, boasts a diverse collection of public art pieces, several of which engage directly with issues of climate and the environment:
- Sam Van Aken’s The Open Orchard, located in The Hills within the Island’s award-winning park, takes the form of a vast public orchard of hybrid fruit trees, each containing multiple heirloom varieties that were once found in abundance in the New York City area but have largely disappeared due to climate change and the industrialization of agriculture.
- Mark Dion’s The Field Station of the Melancholy Marine Biologist, located inside Building 105 across from Fort Jay, transforms a historic former arsenal building into an abandoned research outpost that invites visitors to peer inside and imagine the life of a solitary researcher faced with the realities of a future marred by climate change.
- Duke Riley’s Not for Nutten, located in the Battery Maritime Building ferry terminal at 10 South Street in Manhattan, is a large-scale mural depicting vignettes from the Island’s history contained within modern-day single-use plastic containers found floating in oceans worldwide in a play on the traditional “ship in a bottle.”