and The Freshkills Park Alliance
Photo: Jo Cavallo
This picture tells you so much about Freshkills Park – it’s big, it’s beautiful, and its future is wide open. We are literally paving the way as we head into 2019. Construction is in full swing on North Park and South Park design is on schedule. In this past year, as we made progress on building the Park, we also found new ways to meet the public and share the opportunities of the Park outside of the site itself. We refurbished the house on Richmond Avenue into the Freshkills Park Studio + Gallery, with space for art exhibits and education workshops. Three exhibits have already been mounted there with more to come. The multimedia dioramas that compose “Windows onto Freshkills Park” found homes in Staten Island NYPL branch libraries. A collaboration with the Architectural League of New York led to an exhibition of Capturing Change photographs that was first mounted in Manhattan and will travel to other spaces in New York City. We organized and sponsored the well-attended regional “Reclaimed Lands” conference that welcomed scientists, teachers, artists, and students to three days of tours and discussions.
Our onsite education and tour programs, art program, scientific research projects, and appearances at community events let thousands of people experience the Park, in direct and indirect ways. This is all part of our mission – to make the Park real to the public, to demonstrate that it is truly an asset already. We are grateful to everyone who has had the adventure of being at the Park, kids who have been part of school field trips, cyclists who have used the Greenway, teams that have used the Owl Hollow fields, and visitors to exhibits and workshops. This report shares information about this year’s activities and I hope you enjoy reading it. Your enthusiasm is the real building block for this great public place. Thank you!
Eloise Hirsh Freshkills Park Administrator and Alliance President