Thank you to everyone who attended the first ever Floyd Bennett Field! Public Arts Festival

The first-ever Floyd Bennett Field! Public Arts Festival, a free family-friendly weekend-long event, featured two evenings of site-specific digital video art works projection-mapped onto the 11,000-square-foot façade of historic Hangars 3 & 4 as a celebration of the park’s rich history and vibrant future. The main event, on Saturday 4/20, included live music, all-ages activities, a local makers market, food trucks, and more!

The Festival coincided with the conclusion of Gateway National Recreation Area’s 50th anniversary year as a destination for millions of New Yorkers and visitors to enjoy a National Park experience in the urban environment and the anticipated rehabilitation and reactivation of these significant structures. More information about artists represented and additional activities can be found below.

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Derrick Adams

Derrick Adams (b. 1970, Baltimore, MD) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. His work celebrates and expands the dialogue around contemporary Black life and culture through scenes of normalcy and perseverance. He has developed an iconography of joy, leisure, and the pursuit of happiness within a practice that encompasses paintings, sculptures, collages, performances, videos, and public projects. Adams has held numerous teaching positions and is currently a tenured assistant professor in the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts at CUNY Brooklyn College.

peter burr

Peter Burr is an artist from Brooklyn, NY. His practice often engages with tools of the video game industry in the form of immersive cinematic artworks. These pieces have been presented internationally by various institutions including Documenta 14, Athens; MoMA PS1, New York; and The Barbican Centre, London. His practice has been recognized through grants and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Creative Capital Grant, and a Sundance New Frontier Fellowship.

Music for main projection mapping by John Also Bennett. Live projections accompanied Eric Timothy Carlson, Kerim Safa, Lovid, MSHR, Yoshi Sodeoka, and a sound piece by Martha Hviid.

Eto Otitigbe

Eto Otitigbe is a polymedia artist whose interdisciplinary practice includes sculpture, performance, installation, and public art and is interested in recovering buried narratives and giving form to the unseen. His public art intersects history, community, and biophilic design by using parametric modeling and generative design to transform historical and cultural references into biomorphic forms and patterns that reference nature. He is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture in the Art Department at Brooklyn College.

Ryan Hartley Smith

Ryan Hartley Smith is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and Associate Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He is the recipient of a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, an Illustration Research Fellowship from the Norman Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, and a Media Arts Fellowship from BRIC. In addition to print work, Smith creates animated projection designs for theater and dance productions. These works have been presented at Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Miami New World Symphony.

students from brooklyn college

Matt Bruinooge - Donghwi Han - Hanlin Liang - Dakota Ray - Phoenix Yang

Students from fashion institute of technology

Alessandro Echevarria - Christina Lee - Ti Xu

Wild Yaks

Sesame Flyers Steel Pan Ensemble

BatalÁ

What is projection mapping?

Projection mapping is a projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into display surfaces for video projection. The objects may be complex industrial landscapes, such as buildings, small indoor objects, or theatrical stages.

For this Festival, artists will create original digital artwork that highlights the architectural features on the face of historic Hangars 3 and 4 in Floyd Bennett Field.

Makers Market with Rockaway Makers Market

Community partners

food trucks

Silent Disco by quiet events

Ranger-Led Activities

Tours of Ryan Visitor Center Tunnel and Tower

all-ages Activities

Lawn Games

TOurs of HANGAR B HIstoric aircraft

The Floyd Bennett Field! Public Arts Festival is presented by Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, with major support provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Ford Foundation.

Additional Festival support was generously provided by New York State Council on the Arts, 7G Group, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, ConEdison, and NYC Ferry (operated by Hornblower).

The Rockaway Times is the official media sponsor. ATD Audio Visual is the technical partner. Additional technical support was provided through the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation.

Organized in partnership with the National Park Service at Gateway National Recreation Area.

The Festival is one of several JBRPC public engagement and stewardship initiatives that receive funding support through the offices of NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council Member Joann Ariola, Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, NY Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato, Assemblymember Jaime R. Williams, and NY Senator Roxanne Persaud.