The “Designs for Living” exhibit by Empire Historic Arts features couture fashions and antique wallpapers.

The West Harlem Art Fund has taken over Building 17 in Nolan Park with an exhibition entitled "Loosely Coupled"The New New features homemade creations in their shop in Nolan Park.

The New York Poetry Festival is this Saturday and Sunday from noon - 5pm

There will be over 30 reading series and 100 poets on the Island! For the poetry schedule, click here. There will also be food, wine, and beer vendors on site to keep you happy all afternoon.

For those of you who prefer your poetry at night, there will be a Pre-Fest Party and Fundraiser at the Bowery Poetry Club on Thursday, July 21^st, 8pm-2am. Tickets to this event are $10 and help support the free festival. Listen to poetry and dance the night away to live jazz with Shawn Randall and tracks from DJ Eliel Lucero.

Whether you’re an avid poetry lover or don’t know the difference between a sonnet and a haiku, come enjoy the day in the middle of the New York harbor.

Visitors love FIGMENT's artist designed miniature golf course.

FIGMENT, now in its fifth year on Governors Island, returns this weekend with a wide range of participatory arts projects taking place all over the Island.

This year, Figment participants will enjoy favorites from years past as well as surprising new projects like Plastic Fantastic, a 16-foot geodesic dome made from over 6,000 post-consumer water bottles; The Anywhere Organ, a giant, mobile, electronic pipe organ built out of recycled parts from discarded church organs; and Seeing Inside, a puppet theater hidden inside a dress – all in addition to scores of spontaneous performances, art and activities for all ages.

In addition to this weekend’s activities, Figment has three long term exhibitions, including the very popular miniature golf course (with a theme of “Bugs”), an interactive sculpture garden, and the Burple Bup Pavilion.

So come out to the Island anytime today-Sunday to participate, experiment and explore!

Mark di Suvero's "Mahatma" is sited at Picnic Point on the Island (© Edward Marritz).

The Storm King Art Center today announced a major exhibition of Mark di Suvero’s work that will open on Governors Island on May 27.

The exhibition, Mark di Suvero at Governors Island: Presented by Storm King Art Center comprises roughly a dozen works that will be sited around the Island.

The artist and his team are hard at work installing a sculpture at Picnic Point

The exhibit is curated by Storm King Director and Curator David Collens and is the largest outdoor presentation of di Suvero’s sculpture to be shown in New York City since the 1970s. With loans from public and private collections—including a number of sculptures from Storm King’s own celebrated installation of the artist’s work—as well as several new works that have never been on public view, it is a centerpiece of the Island’s 2011 season.

The exhibition is free and is open every day that the Island is open to the public. A full list of the 2011 schedule for the Island will be posted in the next week and opening day is just three weeks from today!

An artist at work in the LMCC Art Center at Governors Island. You can come visit the artist studios today and tomorrow.

On Thursday and Friday, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council will open the doors to its Art Center on Governors Island to the public. The artists that are hard at work here each day are at the culmination of their residencies. Since August, sixteen individual artists and two collaborative groups have been working in studios, developing new projects in a wide range of media. Come see the exciting work they have created!

The studios will be open today from 2:30 – 6 PM and tomorrow from 10 AM – 2 PM.

In addition to seeing the tremendous work of the visual artists here, you can also attend open rehearsals of the Faye Driscoll Dance Group. These rehearsals will be held at 2:30 on Thursday and 1:30 on Friday.

For a ferry schedule and information about how you can come out to the Island and see these incredible works, click here.

View of the Battery Maratime Building in Lower Manhattan from Barry Road on Governors Island. Photo Credit: Erika Clark Photography

I just stumbled on this amazing image by a photographer named Erika Clark. I love the symmetry of the London plane trees and the two slips of the Battery Maritime Building and the trick of the eye that erases the 800 yards of water between them. I must have traveled down this road  that runs behind the yellow houses of Nolan Park more than 100 times just this summer and never noticed this view. Sometimes, it just takes a slight shift of perspective to see a familiar place in a whole new way.

DCA's Percent for Art Program invites artists to be considered for a commission of a permanent work of art within this first phase of park construction on Governors Island. The first phase focuses on the northern part of the Island, shown here.

Over the past few years, the arts have really come alive on Governors Island. There is a new opportunity for artists that we wanted to let everyone know about.

In conjunction with The Trust for Governors Island, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) Percent for Art Program is seeking submissions of qualifications by artists who wish to be considered for the commission of a permanent work of art within this first phase of park construction on Governors Island.

The Governors Island Park and Public Space Master Plan, which is being designed by the West 8 team, is currently in the schematic design phase and construction on the first phase of the plan begins in 2012. Public art will be essential to the visitor experience and the very character of these new park and public spaces.

To learn more about how artists can submit their qualifications for consideration, click here.

A sculpture by a member of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition was one of many pieces of art visitors could discover here this public access season (photo by Erika Clark)

It seems that many New Yorkers are discovering the arts and culture on Governors Island.

In the past week, Governors Island has been named Best New Theater District by the Village Voice and Best Place to Experience a High Concentration of “Artsy Buzz” by the New York Press. 

They must have been some of the 443,000 visitors who came out to the Island this public access season to see performances at the Lincoln Center Festival or a show at Water Taxi Beach. If you were one of these visitors you would have seen that the arts were everywhere. The Island hosted FIGMENT‘s artist designed miniature golf course and sculpture garden, outdoor and indoor art exhibits by a wide range of organizations and performances and concerts for a diverse array of audiences.

The "Temple of Wonder" by Jen Upchurch, Douglas Hart and Bryan Cates was a part of FIGMENT's interactive sculpture garden. Here, some of our visitors get "hands on" with the art (photo from NYC Loves NYC, Noel Y.C.)

We are looking forward to seeing what the 2011 season will bring!

The work of more than 100 independent artists will be featured on the Governors Island Art Fair, opening this Saturday.

Every Saturday and Sunday this September, visitors to Governors Island can see musical acts, performance artists and interactive creative programs, in addition to the paintings, photographs, sculpture, video, and sound and object installation pieces that are displayed in the Third Annual Governors Island Art Fair. 

The Fair is presented by the 4 Heads, whose work has been presented on the Island in previous years. The art of more than 100 independent artists will be featured and displayed in Building 12, which was formerly used as military housing. Each artist is given his or her own room in which to present their work. 

The public is invited to view the fair every Saturday and Sunday in September from 11 AM to 6 PM. Admission is free. The Fair kicks off this Saturday with an opening party, beginning at 11 AM.

 Johnson’s 90 foot mural in Pershing Hall depicts American military history.  A close look at these detailed murals reveals many notable national characters, some with particular connections to Governors Island:  

The familiar profile of founding father, George Washington

General Lee’s surrender to General Grant at Appomattox in the American Civil War

This gentleman is General Pershing, Commander of the AEF (American Expeditionary Forces) in WWI and namesake of the building that contains this mural.

A medical officer attends a wounded fellow officer in WWII. The officer, Frank R. McCoy, later became commander of Governors Island

Molly Pitcher is depicted here, representing women who fought in the American War for Independence.

A host of less well- known figures can also be found and a heap of symbolism:

This rakish figure represents the "carpetbaggers"-post Civil War northerners who moved to the south in the reconstruction era.

The plaque for this mural reads “the tragic dissolution of the South is the young woman clinging to a crumbled column”

This rose is noted as “symbolic of the romantic stories of the Mexican War”

Pershing Hall will be open to the public August 7-8 for the African Film Festival. Check out this excellent event and take a look at the fantastic murals while you are there.