The FIGMENT Story

FIGMENT is a forum for the creation and display of participatory and interactive art by emerging artists across disciplines. FIGMENT began in July 2007 as a free, one-day participatory arts event on Governors Island in New York Harbor with over 2,600 participants. Since then, FIGMENT has grown significantly each year—in number of projects, duration, participants, volunteers, fundraising capability, exhibitions, locations, overall level of commitment and participation, and public support.

At the time that FIGMENT began, Governors Island was a new public venue that had recently (2003) been turned over from the Federal Government to New York City, with a very specific set of restrictions: there could be no permanent housing on the island, no casinos for 50 years, and significant portions of the island had to be used for educational and cultural purposes. In short, Governors Island was a new piece of real estate in New York City that had to be used for the benefit of all New Yorkers.

A Critical Time for the Arts

2007 was a critical time for the arts in New York. It was the height of the economic boom, and the gradual gentrification of the city had caused rents to rise, driving artists deep into the outer boroughs, or out of the city altogether. At the same time, there was a growing cultural movement towards participatory art – art that is fully immersive, where the experience of the viewer or visitor is enhanced by directly interacting and engaging.

Community parades like the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade and the Coney Island Mermaid Parade were open to anyone to join in, dress up, and be a part of the creativity. And, through the efforts of not-for-profit arts organizations like Creative Time, the Public Art Fund, chashama, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, more conventional visual and performing arts were increasingly moving out of the galleries and theaters and into site-specific venues. Rachel Ward’s Terminal 5 exhibition in October 2004 reopened the breathtaking Saarinen Terminal at JFK airport and filled it with cutting edge site-specific artwork. The show was closed by the Port Authority the day after it opened.

In 2005, Christo and Jean-Claude installed The Gates along 23 miles of pathways in Central Park, energizing millions of volunteers, New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. The same year, Gregory Colbert’s photography exhibit Ashes and Snow began its tour around the world with an installation in the Nomadic Museum, a custom-built, sustainable traveling museum made from shipping containers and cardboard at Pier 54 with audio, video and a cathedral-like atmosphere. These works and others showed New Yorkers that art could be immersive, and that the experience of the viewer or visitor could be enhanced by the experience of interacting and engaging directly with art.

In this environment, a group of volunteers came together to create FIGMENT as a new kind of event for New York City. Inspired and influenced by the current arts environment in New York, as well as by Burning Man (an annual arts event in Nevada), the founders of FIGMENT sought to create a forum in New York in which everyone is welcome to participate and make art—regardless of training, credentials, funding, or even the medium in which they choose to work. The founders of FIGMENT were united in the belief that as people create collaborative artwork, express themselves, and work together to give a form to their dreams, a community would grow around the event and around Governors Island as it was developed.

While FIGMENT has quickly grown into a large-scale collaborative project involving the contributions of thousands of artists, organizers, volunteers, and enthusiastic participants, it important to note that the first FIGMENT event was developed and planned by a core leadership group of six: David Koren, Jim Glaser, Ryan Fix, Wylie Stecklow, Kevin Balktick, and Johan Kritzinger. FIGMENT has grown, in three short years, from this group of six sitting around a table into a volunteer organization of over 100 people on the planning team alone, with more than 200 additional volunteers helping at the events. More than just an event or an exhibition, FIGMENT has become a community of artists and organizers.

Where It All Started

David Koren was the Marketing Director for architecture firm Gensler’s New York office and Northeast Region when he first became interested in Governors Island through tracking the early steps in the development process for the island after the city gained control in 2003. Through Robert Balder, former Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) and Gensler Urban Planner, David met Barbara Romer, who had been building a coalition to create a New Globe Theatre on the island (based on Shakespeare’s Globe in London). Governors Island was a frequent topic of conversation in the architecture and construction industries, as the island struggled through a public process to create a framework for future development based on its restrictive deed. It was a compelling challenge: what would New York City do with a new piece of real estate that couldn’t be turned into a new residential neighborhood or an exclusive destination for the wealthy?

The island was first opened to the public on a very limited basis in 2004. In early 2005, the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC), the joint city-state agency established to run the island, released its Development Framework Report. A Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) to generate ideas for what path the development might take followed. As part of this process, GIPEC hosted public meetings for people intending to submit Expressions of Interest. David first went with Robert Balder (who, as a former leader at the NYC EDC, knew the island well) on a tour of the island on May 3, 2005. David was amazed by the huge potential, but more than this, the challenge of how to develop a place with so many constraints, and with such a high start-up cost to maintain historic buildings, rebuild infrastructure, and provide transportation.

The First Art on the Island

2005 was the first year that New York City arts organizations, including the Public Art Fund and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, began to host events and exhibitions on the island. On May 14, David and Sasha Koren went to the island to see Allison Smith’s one-day Muster exhibition, sponsored by the Public Art Fund. Over 100 artists camped on the island over a weekend, creating 50 campsite installations on the theme “What are you fighting for?” The public was invited to visit the encampment on Saturday, and over 1,500 people came to the island to see it. In The New York Times, the event was described as “Burning Man for lazy people.” David was immediately inspired by the island as a place for large-scale participatory art, and became convinced that the arts would be critical to the island’s development strategy, given the constraints placed on the island by the Federal deed.

David began to talk about the idea for the island as a place for the arts, starting with the network that he had built through his participation in the Burning Man art event in Nevada and the New York Burning Man community. He initially spoke with Leslie Bocskor (a participatory arts supporter, event creator, and connector) and then Amy Shapiro (the President of not-for-profit Circle Arts). Leslie brought David to meet with O. Alden James, Jr., the President of the National Arts Club on Gramercy Square, where Leslie was a member. Alden gave David and Leslie the idea that an arts festival on the island might be a good place to start to create momentum around the idea of arts on the island. Leslie also brought David to meet with Gerald Greenberg, who had submitted a proposal to the island under the RFEI to create “World Island” on Governors Island, an international destination devoted to peace and mutual understanding.

Thinking about the idea of an arts festival on the island, David started to look for a name, something that could anchor the concept of the festival. David was in the shower one morning in late 2005 when the name “FIGMENT” popped into his head. David remembered that Andy Warhol had once been asked what he would like on his tombstone, and he replied, “I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment’.” By naming the arts event FIGMENT, it could reference both the great history of art in New York, and also the ephemeral nature of the arts event that was starting to be developed.

Assembling the Team

With a name for the event, David began to develop a presentation that could help explain to people what FIGMENT was, and to inspire them to want to be a part of it. Amy Shapiro worked with David to plan a meeting in his apartment for key community arts organizers on April 17, 2006. The attendees included David and Sasha Koren, Amy Shapiro from Circle Arts, Kostume Kult arts collective founder Jim Glaser, event producer Abby Ehmann, Madagascar Institute founder Chris Hackett, NYC Burning Man Regional Contact Oscar Yong, event producer Elke Dehner, Sari Rubinstein from the Rubulad arts collective, and Kate Heim, who was a Columbia student who was very interested in participatory arts events. David showed his draft presentation and the group talked about the idea and possible next steps.

Key among the attendees at this meeting was Jim Glaser, a veteran events creator who had recently launched a non-profit organization to develop participatory arts events. Jim had actually started to talk about creating a Burning Man-style event on Governors Island in late 2004, and had introduced visiting Burning Man staff member $teven Ra$pa to City Councilman Alan J. Gerson’s Cultural Liaison Paul Nagle. Jim had also had some conversations with veteran event producers Chris Wangro and Aaron Leventhal of The Usual Suspects about an event on the island. Jim and Paul later met with Councilman Gerson about the idea, who indicated that he would support an artistic, community oriented event, but that some of the elements of Burning Man might not be appropriate for a public park in New York City.

As a follow-up to the initial meeting in David’s apartment, Amy and David planned a small art picnic on Governors Island in July 2006, in order to bring additional members of the arts community to the island and to start to grow momentum. Unfortunately, it rained, and the event was attended by just a small group of interested supporters, among them Jim Glaser.

In 2006, the not-for-profit organization that Jim Glaser had started, Costume Cultural Society, changed its named to Action Arts League with Leslie Bocskor as Board Chairman, and Jim as Executive Director.  In the fall of 2006, AAL board member Vic Sarjoo introduced Jim to Michelle Bouchard, the Vice President of Administration & Finance for GIPEC. Jim reached out to David, and the two of them met with Michelle on the island in November of 2006. They also met with Michelle Marquez, who was the Vice President for Community & Government Affairs. David and Jim toured the island and learned that GIPEC had a new President, Leslie Koch, who had been appointed by Mayor Bloomberg with a mandate to increase attendance and get development moving on the island. At the meeting the group discussed the new David Rockwell and Bruce Mau book Spectacle, which links and identifies similarities between large-scale participatory events are around the world. David and Jim expressed to the GIPEC representatives that they hoped to create an event like that for Governors Island.

Jim introduced David to Tom Smith, a not-for-profit policy expert who had helped to write the Action Arts League by-laws and whose father was a former ferry captain on Governors Island. Tom provided advice on how to navigate the public process to make an event like FIGMENT happen in New York. FIGMENT was able to receive a letter of support for one of its early grant applications from Councilman Gerson.

As David and Jim learned more about the island and the possibilities there, the vision for FIGMENT came into focus. David continued to do version after version of his FIGMENT presentation, drawing a clearer picture of what this event could be. David and Jim had a follow-up meeting with Michelle Marquez and Pnina Michelson, the Director of Special Events on the island, where they identified two distinct possibilities for how FIGMENT could work: either as a private event on the island (charging admission, but having to bear significant expenses) or as a public event (free and open to anyone during the island’s regular operating hours). Given the risks involved, and the fact that FIGMENT was starting without funding, the obvious course seemed to be the public option.

Creating a Footprint, but Leaving No Trace

David and Jim began to assemble a team that could really make FIGMENT happen. First, Pure Project founder Ryan Fix and Action Arts League Board Secretary and attorney Wyle Stecklow joined the team. At a meeting in March 2007, the four discussed whether to try to launch FIGMENT in 2007, or to hold off and create a bigger event in 2008. Wylie and Ryan were strong proponents of starting with an event in 2007. Wylie contended that by creating a “footprint” event in 2007, it would be easier to get permits in future years. The group agreed, and decided to proceed to try to make an event happen in 2007. Ryan committed the full resources of the Pure Project, an incubator for innovative, socially conscious projects, and the planning team began to meet in Pure Project’s offices on Mulberry Street.

As new GIPEC President Leslie Koch began to respond to her mandate to increase public attendance to the island and spur development, she started to make some changes at GIPEC in early 2007. Elizabeth Rapuano joined GIPEC as Director of Marketing and Public Relations in February, and Lynda Realmuto was hired as Director of Programming and Special events in April. New to the island, and tasked with bringing programs to the island to increase public use of the island, Lynda was very receptive to the idea of FIGMENT when she met with David, Jim, and Ryan shortly after she started in April.

At the next meeting of the planning team, David brought event producer Kevin Balktick, and Ryan brought artist and organizer Johan Kritzinger, and the group of six worked together to further tighten the concept for the event and to plan how the event work be organized and would work. As an experienced organizer and leader, David took on the role of Executive Producer for the event, working with Kevin to lead the production of the event. As the Executive Director of Action Arts League and a talented connector and evangelist, Jim stepped into an advisory and recruiting role. Ryan and Johan and their team of Pure Project interns worked together on publicizing the event and recruiting artists to participate. As an activist attorney, Wylie became the General Counsel for the event, working on legal, insurance, and permitting issues.

The proposed date for the event was set for Sunday, July 8 (actually David’s birthday) and the organizers told Lynda to expect “between 200 and 500 people.” Through all of their networks, the group put the word out far and wide, sent out press releases, enlisted additional volunteers, and sent out a call for art. When arts collective Disorient signed on to the project, the group started to see things fall into place. Dorothy Trojanowski offered to bring her “Rubber Horses” sculptures, which had been created for Burning Man, to FIGMENT. All in all, over 60 arts projects committed to coming, coordinated by Pure Project interns and led by Curatorial Director Johan Kritzinger.

The event was promoted to the New York Burning Man community, and through Flavorpill, Reality Sandwich, and other online publications. David’s wife Sasha Koren, an interactive creative director, quickly developed a logo and website. New York Times reporter Melena Ryzik wrote about the project in the Friday Weekend Section, with a picture of the Rubber Horses being installed. The group ordered 36 orange T-shirts for FIGMENT volunteers, and got the word out through email lists and flyers.

Everyone was amazed with the turnout, as over 2,600 people streamed into the Nolan Park section of the Island on a Sunday, setting an attendance record for the most people on the island since it had re-opened to the public. The organizers and the island were completely unprepared for this response, as thousands of people lined up to wait for ferries outside the Battery Maritime Building in Manhattan. It is estimated that another 2,000 people were turned away, unable to fit on the regular ferries. Perhaps most incredibly, the organizers and volunteers were able to break down and get everybody and all the projects off the island by the 5pm ferry. The island staff was amazed with FIGMENT’s ability to leave no trace of its existence.

Amy Zimmer from New York Metro came out to cover the event, and wrote a great piece that appeared in the Monday edition of the paper titled, “Arts Festival Awakens Sleepy Governors Island.”

(The FIGMENT 2007 website, with artists, projects, maps, and press, is available at http://www.figmentnyc.org/2007/index.html.)

FIGMENT Gets Serious

Over the next few months, FIGMENT was defined and established as an official project of Action Arts League, with a charter that binds the event to follow ten principles modeled after the Burning Man event: Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Radical Self-Reliance, Radical Self-Expression, Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, Leaving No Trace, Participation, and Immediacy (although the principles have been re-arranged and edited to make them relevant for an urban event that is open to the public). David Koren was established as the Executive Producer of the event.

The original team who made the 2007 event happen was reformed as the FIGMENT Advisory Committee, adding the leader of the Disorient collective, The Eye, as well as a few other key community leaders. Key organizers of each year’s FIGMENT event are added to the Advisory Committee to maintain a strong connection between the event’s vision and principles and day-to-day operations. The group continues to meet on a quarterly basis to refine the vision for the event and set the parameters by which the event will continue to grow. In particular, this group discusses commerce and decommodification extensively; any aspect of the event or its planning that involves commerce, including selling or corporate representation, is debated heatedly, as the event strives to enable full participation from everyone, and the organizers believe that commerce or advertising has a direct impact on the level of participation and investment of participants.

After the success of the 2007 event, FIGMENT developed a closer relationship with Governors Island, and was invited back for 2008, with the added invitation to propose additional arts projects for the island. The team decided to expand to create a three-day event over a weekend, and considered longer-term interactive art installations.

In a conversation with David, Leslie Koch expressed a new idea for the island that she had been working on: “Do you know anyone who might be able to create a mini-golf course on the island?” David did some research, made some calls, and started to work with Eli Kent on the idea of an artist-designed 9-hole mini-golf course, called “The City of Dreams Mini-Golf Course.” They applied for a grant to the Black Rock Arts Foundation, and put out a call for art in early 2008.

At the same, Johan Kritzinger began to work on the idea for the Emergence project, a season-long exhibition of interactive art and performance in a building on Governors Island. Johan recruited Joyce Manolo, Audrey Boguchwal, and Elke Dehner to help curate the project. Johan and David also submitted Emergence for a grant from Black Rock Arts Foundation, and were very pleased to receive the grant. Emergence ultimately involved over 30 artists and groups of artists from around the world. It opened in Building 14 on May 31, 2008 (the day the island opened), and ran for 9 weeks, closing on July 26.

As Minigolf and Emergence were progressing, the FIGMENT event itself was growing and acquiring momentum, with a planning team of about 40 volunteers working on promotion, fundraising, coordinating artists, and production issues. In addition to the two Black Rock Arts Foundation Grants, FIGMENT received the Manhattan Community Arts Fund Grant, administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council from funds provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

FIGMENT 2008 planned to take over the whole north end of the island. Over 200 arts projects were proposed and mapped. Press began to take notice, with another weekend article in The New York Times, as well as pieces in Time Out New York, Gothamist, the New York Post, and the Village Voice.

Despite some intermittent rain (heavy at times), over 10,000 people came out over the three-day event (June 27-29, 2008), setting new records for attendance on the island for each of the three days, and for the weekend as a whole. Over 100 volunteers helped to plan and run the event.

In addition, FIGMENT planned its first night-time fundraising party for the Saturday of FIGMENT, called Fortification. Fortification was planned by Kevin Balktick and Wylie Stecklow, and took place in Castle Clinton in Battery Park on Saturday, June 28, immediately after FIGMENT.

The City of Dreams Mini-Golf Course was an instant hit and was played by thousands of children and adults throughout the rest of the season. Given that the island had over 125,000 visitors in 2008, we estimate that over 10,000 people played the City of Dreams Mini-Golf Course.

(The FIGMENT 2008 website, with artists, projects, maps, and press, is available at http://figmentnyc.org/2008/.)

Growing in the Face of Uncertainty

As the group looked toward FIGMENT 2009, a lot of uncertainty surrounded the future of Governors Island: New York State budget cuts in the face of recession might force the island to close. But the team continued to expand its vision for FIGMENT. The City of Dreams would now include an interactive sculpture garden as well as a mini-golf course, and the mini-golf course itself would double in size to 18 holes.

Fundraising and team-building began in earnest, as Kevin Balktick and David Koren worked on alternate location strategies: what if Governors Island could not open for the 2009 season? They met with officials from a number of other public agencies related to parkland in New York, trying to come up with an acceptable Plan B, but none of the options could compare to the island. Thankfully, when the state budget was released in April, the island was included in the budget and saved for 2009

In 2009, FIGMENT focused on its branding efforts, under the direction and guidance of Brand Advocate Sasha Koren. Sheri Koetting, Marc Levitt, and Ellen Johnston of MSLK created a new logo, overall look, and print materials for FIGMENT 2009, and Archer Hutchinson created a new website.

Grant applications and inquiry letters yielded six grants for FIGMENT and its projects in 2009. In addition, the team held its first art-preview fundraising event, Groundbreaking, under the leadership of Mara Sorkin and Peggy Yuen, as well as a night-time fundraising party, Overboard, held in the ferry slip of the Battery Maritime Building, and organized by Kevin Balktick.

One of the most significant achievements in the preparations for FIGMENT 2009 was securing the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Commission from the Greenwall Foundation for four proposed sculptures for the City of Dreams: The Temple of Truth (by Jen Upchurch, Chris Niederer, and Douglas Hart), HiveMind (by Deborah Yoon), Rhythm & Rest (by the Animus Collective) and Discarded (by Benjamin Jones and Anna Hecker). These four large pieces formed the core of the City of Dreams sculpture program.

FIGMENT 2009 showed a dramatic increase in participation from artists and volunteers. Over 400 projects were submitted, reviewed and coordinated by a curatorial team of nearly 30 volunteers, led by Curatorial Directors Audrey Boguchwal and Rae Klein. The entire planning team consisted of 90 people, with over 200 additional volunteers helping out throughout the process or at the event.

FIGMENT 2009, on June 12-14, brought 13,331 participants to the island, setting a new record for the biggest weekend on the island. In addition, the City of Dreams has received a significant amount of attention for both the season-long sculpture exhibition and the expanded mini-golf course.  Over the course of the 2009 season, over 275,000 people visited the island, and at least 30,000 of these visited the City of Dreams to enjoy the sculpture and play minigolf.  Press outlets featuring the City of Dreams include The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, The Wall Street Journal, and NY1.

(The FIGMENT 2009 website, with artists, projects, maps, and press, is available at http://figmentnyc.org/2009/.)

Onward and Upward

Plans are well underway for FIGMENT 2010, scheduled for June 11-13, 2010. We can expect the event to grow again, in terms of level of participation, amount of art, number of volunteers, and the scale of the season-long programs in the City of Dreams. We look forward to updating our history… as we continue to make history.

Last updated 1/20/2010