House Fest
- see all dates
Governors Island hosts a weekend-long creative celebration that features free dance and music performances, outdoor installations, interactive workshops, open studios, panel discussions, and more.
Register online in advance for activities.
Schedule:
Portal House
On view August 5 – 7
Colonels Row Building 408A
A group show featuring eight emerging and mid-career artists in residence at 4heads whose work reflects a spectrum of artistic genre and media, from painting and drawing to sculpture and sound.
Eliza Evans hosts All the Way to Hell
August 5 – 7, 12 – 4pm
Nolan Park Building 11
All the Way to Hell is giving away mineral rights to as many people as possible to help disrupt fracking on a small property in Oklahoma. More than 7,000 people have joined this new form of environmental resistance. Through mass participation, All the Way to Hell creates an opportunity to turn the privilege and power of mineral ownership against itself to resist fossil fuel extraction while expressing radical care for people and environments that may be geographically and generationally distant.
The Carpet Series, Pigeonwing Dance
Friday, August 5, at 5pm & Saturday, August 6, at 2pm
Colonels Row, Governors Island
A pop-up performance that is rich in detail, complexity and virtuosity, all taking place on and around a 5×8 Persian carpet.
Moon, Sydnie L. Mosley Dance
Friday, August 5, at 6pm & Sunday, August 7, at 3pm
This 7‑minute structured improvisation engages the audience to dance with performers. The choreography embodies trust and partnership and builds an overall sense of community in the performance space.
Emotional Baggage Cart in progress
Saturday, August 6, at 11am
Colonels Row Building 406B
Spend time with Theda Sandiford’s Emotional Baggage Carts – vessels for unresolved emotional baggage related to racial trauma. Each recovered shopping cart is woven with fabric, paracord, yarn, tulle, ribbon, fishing nets, pom poms, pony beads, zip ties, LED lights and more.
WRITE NYC: Street Lab
Saturday, August 6, at 12pm
Nolan Park
Street Lab’s public writing room comes to Governors Island for one day only. The porch of Nolan Park Building 6 is stocked with supplies, typewriters, and other tools and materials for writing on the fly.
National Academy of Design Summer Residency Housewarming
Saturday, August 6, 12 – 6pm
Nolan Park Building 7B
National Academy of Design’s summer residency kicks off with a public housewarming. Meet the artists in residence, explore studio spaces, and enjoy light refreshments. Artists in residence include Hugo Bastidas NA, Jim Osman NA, Ed Smith NA, Elizabeth Demaray, Dianne Smith, and Michael Kelly Williams.
Picnic with Red Flower Collective
Saturday, August 6, at 1pm
Colonels Row Building 404A
Red Flower Collective prepares a tasting menu picnic, free and open to the public.
NADA House Closing Reception
Saturday, August 6, at 2pm
Colonels Row Building 403
New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA)’s 2022 edition of NADA House on Governors Island closes on August 7 – join a closing reception to celebrate the season.
Dance Party NYC
Saturday, August 6, at 3pm
Nolan Park, Governors Island
Part of The New York Public Library’s summer program, Dance Party NYC is a joyous citywide festival that takes place at more than 80 venues across the city – including in Nolan Park on Governors Island, with performances from Brooklyn United Marching Band and Brass Queens, tunes from DJ Aguapanela Mami and DJ Yung Mayne, food trucks, and a beer garden from Threes Brewing.
Trans Justice Funding Project Benefit
Saturday, August 6, at 4pm
Colonels Row Building 404A
Flux FActory hosts a benefit for Trans Justice Funding Project featuring music sets by Erica Dawn Lyle (Bikini Kill, Art in America), Gavilán Rayna Russom (LCD Soundsystem), Erica Freas, Sulynn Hago, Amelia Jackie, Kate Slauter.
Triangle Arts Open Studios
Saturday, August 6, at 5pm
Colonels Row Building 405A
An event featuring in progress from Triangle Arts artists in residence, including pieces by Slinko, Sally Lelong, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Ariel Kleinberg, and Eric Ramos Guerrero.
Porch Life, Urban Bush Women
Saturday, August 6, at 6pm
Nolan Park Building 7A
A work-in-progress section of Haint Blu, an ensemble dance-theater work from Urban Bush Women that is seeped in memory and magic. Known as the color that Southern families paint their front porches to ward off bad spirits, Haint Blu uses performance as a center and source of healing, taking us through movement into stillness and rest: remembering, reclaiming, releasing, and restoring.
APOCALITZIN, dance to the people
Saturday, August 6, at 7pm & Sunday, August 7, at 2pm
Colonels Row
An epic dance theater piece set in a landscape of environmental crisis following the adventures of its eponymous heroine, a futuristic hybrid of human and plastic, descended from the Mexica (Mēxihcah) people. The piece tells a story of possibility and transformation, celebrating and exploring the people and values that can help to cease and repair the damage societies inflict on nature and those living at the margins of capitalism.
Electropixel 12 – Nature and Cities
Saturday, August 6, at 7pm
Nolan Park Building 10A
An outdoor performance of sound art and live cinema that includes the sounds of nature and listening in different cities around the globe. Featuring performances by Ben Owen, Solar Return, Jenny Pickett, Julien Ottavi and the Horspiel Machine.
NARS Satellite Open Studios
Saturday, August 6, & Sunday, August 7, 1 – 5pm
Nolan Park Building 5B
Featuring work by Tielin Ding, Mary Evangeline Guadalupe Rubi, and Jessica Duby (Curatorial Fellow).
Changemaker Station
Sunday, August 7, 2:30 – 4:30 PM
Nolan Park Building 18
An interactive hub for civic climate action, where visitors can learn how to raise their voices and take tangible actions in their communities.
With the Sea: Climate Art, Science, and Human Connections to Sea Level Rise
Sunday, August 7, 1pm
LMCC’s Arts Center
A panel discussion and live Q&A that explores sea level rise, our embodied relationships with water, climate justice, and advocacy in NYC. Moderated by Anais Reyes, Senior Exhibitions Associate at the Climate Museum.
Silver Fleece, William Hooker
Sunday, August 7, 3pm
Nolan Park Building 10A
A suite for the “outdoors” – composed of six parts which features original composition and improvisation. Featuring William Hooker, drums/composer, On Kaa Davis, guitar, Hans Tammen, guitar, Jair Rohm Wells, bass, David Soldier, violin, and Kevin Ramsey, electronics.
VITRUVIAN (excerpts), Jerron Herman
Sunday, August 7, at 4:30pm
Nolan Park
A solo performance from Jerron Herman.