This spring, as the city considers who will become our next mayor and we come face to face with our own future, NYC Department of City Planning (DCP), Culture Push (CP), and Works on Water (WoW), have come together, with the support of the Mayor's Office for Cultural Affairs to consider how we will collectively tend to the edges of our vulnerable coastal archipelago.
We are once again welcoming a cohort of artists to our residency on Governors Island. Here artists are developing their work that responds to the contemporary state of the water and water’s edge.
This spring, as the city considers who will become our next mayor and we come face to face with our own future, NYC Department of City Planning (DCP), Culture Push (CP), and Works on Water (WoW), have come together, with the support of the Mayor's Office for Cultural Affairs to consider how we will collectively tend to the edges of our vulnerable coastal archipelago.
WALKING THE EDGE - THE PROMPTS
Walking the Edge launched the Works on Water Triennial 20/21. Artists produced weekly prompts (activity suggestions or questions) that invited city residents to explore their water’s edges and engage in imagining changes for those edges - virtually or on solo walks. Responses from the public will help us think boldly and imaginatively about the future of the waterfront and share ideas that will inform the city’s next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. Walking the Edge was initially envisioned as a participatory non-stop relay walk of all 520 miles of New York City shoreline, but due to COVID-19, the physical event has been postponed to 2021.
Walking the Edge uses walking to encounter, reflect upon, and see places anew. This project defines “walking” as moving through space with attention and intention, and embraces all forms of mobility. Walking is a creative act, and WtE is an opportunity for New Yorkers of all abilities and ages, in every borough, to experience and express their waterfront.
Walking the Edge is a collaboration between arts organizations Culture Push and Works on Water with the NYC Department of City Planning. The project is funded by the Mayor’s Grant for Cultural Impact from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. WtE is a key outreach component of the next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan and kicks off Works on Water’s 2020 Triennial Art Exhibition dedicated to art that is made on, in, and with the water.
Climate change creates new risks and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities in communities already facing water challenges. Join us as we explore collective action and consider the following questions:
How do we cope with the cultural and economic losses from climate change?
How do we talk about loss that can’t be quantified?
Do we build more structural defenses or do we adapt our communities to the “new normal”?
Who makes these decisions?
WHO ARE WE and WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
We are a group of artists, scientists, community organizers, planners, and engineers who are creating a space for collaboration and action. The climate crisis facing our communities demands that we find new ways of working together.
WHAT’S OUR GOAL?
To collaborate and to spark action! We want to ground the adaptation conversation in culture, people and communities; to focus our efforts on tangible outcomes; and to learn how to be allies in this global struggle.
US-Netherlands Water Management Network
The US-Netherlands Water Management Network is an informal network of water management researchers, students, and professionals that have conducted research and studied in the Netherlands through a NAF-Fulbright Flood Management Research Fellowship.
DecadesOut
DecadesOut’s mission is to raise public awareness of the cultural impact between science and the arts as they impact policy and social change through developing and producing projects in the disciplines of theatre, film, visual arts, and digital media. Its most recent project, Head for Highland, is a feature length documentary about community action, creation and collaboration between science and art against the real and increasing threats of climate change.
Works on Water
Works on Water (WoW) is dedicated to supporting artists working on, in, and with bodies of water in response to the changing climate, increasing urban density, and public awareness of ecological concerns. WoW hosts a residency program on Governors Island and produces a triennial in order to help define the emerging field of Water Art. WoW’s intergenerational community of artists/curators/researchers/activists expand civic practices and increase public engagement with water by making rigorous, inclusive, site-specific artwork. The next triennial will take place in bodies of water around New York City’s waterways in September 2020.
Imagine Water Works
We’re reimagining the future through art, science, and human connection. Since 2012 we’ve helped lead the changes in how New Orleans thinks about living with water, working in an intersection of reducing risk from flooding, pollution, and natural hazards. We knew that the best solutions were multidisciplinary, and so we integrated science, history, identity, and art into our work.
