HISTORY—Another summer on Governors Island
Meanwhile, back in New York, the team was gearing up for its biggest year yet on Governors Island. FIGMENT was having increasing success with fundraising, both from granting organizations (FIGMENT received 12 grants in 2010, including receiving a grant for the first time from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs) and from its growing signature fundraising event, Groundbreaking, which was held in the Gershwin Hotel in April.
The FIGMENT New York City event was the largest ever, with 23,665 participants over the three days of June 11-13, 2010, who engaged with approximately 400 participatory arts projects. The FIGMENT minigolf course and sculpture garden, which opened on FIGMENT weekend, were again hugely successful, and were visited by an estimated 200,000 people over the summer season (Governors Island had 443,000 visitors in 2010). In order to promote FIGMENT’s branding and to make sure that the public knew that FIGMENT was responsible for the minigolf course and sculpture garden, these summer-long exhibits were renamed from the “City of Dreams Minigolf Course” and the “City of Dreams Sculpture Garden” to the “FIGMENT Minigolf Course” and the “FIGMENT Sculpture Garden.” The only project still bearing the name “City of Dreams” was the Pavilion Design Competition, co-sponsored by FIGMENT, ENYA, and SEAoNY.
(The FIGMENT 2010 website, with artists, projects, maps, and press, is available at http://figmentproject.org/2010/.)
Over the summer, Governors Island changed from joint city-state management to New York City management under the newly formed Trust for Governors Island, which replaced the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC). A new board was appointed for the new city agency, but island staff, including Leslie Koch and her team, remained in place.
