LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL TO RUN GOVERNORS ISLAND SPACE

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council has been selected to run an artists’ studio and exhibition space on Governors Island, in New York, that will include a year-round artist residency and weekend events, reports Robin Pogrebin in the New York Times_. The arts programming is expected to begin next spring in fourteen thousand square feet of space on the ground floor of a building on the island’s north shore. The selection of the council is the latest effort to transform the 172-acre island in New York Harbor into a destination that is an integral part of city life. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is perhaps best known for its work on rejuvenating the arts downtown after the terrorist attacks of 2001. But it also has extensive experience with studio programs, having brought artists into donated spaces around the city, beginning in 1997 with its World Views program at the World Trade Center. Speaking about the selection of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Leslie Koch, president of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, said, “We’re learning from other neighborhoods in New York, where artists come first.”