For most folks, Labor Day marks the end of summer. But we still have nearly a month of this season, with the weather rapidly improving. Here are a few ideas for celebrating art, nature and culture in a park or garden

Saturday, August 31, 11:59pm: Last Chance for Marco Palli’s Our Gates

Bring your own music and dance the night away at Our Gates—sculptor Marco Palli’s monument to diversity and inclusion in Riverside Park North at 145th Street. You can watch a video of the evolution of this magnificent work—from model to monument—here. And read about the August 4th celebration here 

Palli created Our Gates in the 2023 Works in Public Program at Art Students League, a professional development program founded in 2010 in partnership with NYC Parks and Riverside Park Conservancy to guide ASL artists through the process of creating large-scale sculpture for outdoor public spaces. Photos by Marco Palli

Palli, a Venezuela-born artist living in New York City, said of his work and process: “In my studio, I work serially, experimenting with materials that lead my process accordingly. Generally, I recognize with all the objects I make very specific things about my identity, finding relationships that become obvious pertaining to some qualities that I notice in my work…. Our Gates epitomizes my process together with my individual and collective identity. I seek to encounter genuine opportunities with open doors moving forward.” 

“Marlon Salazar (right) sang an old folk song from Ecuador, where he was born,” said Marco. “It goes, ‘How painful it is to separate after loving each other madly. You have been deceiving me for a long time with false promises that are worthless.’ It is a love song, but if you think about the love from a person to their home country... it is Spot On the whole concept of the monument.” 

Note: This part of the park is very busy after dark, with picnickers and joggers. But you would need to bring your own lights. And, I'd like to bet that Our Gates will still be in place for your Labor Day picnic. 

Riverside Park North, Hudson River at 145^th Street, New York, NY 

Thursday, August 29, 5pm: Governors Island Nature Walk

Take the ferry over to this green oasis for a special guided tour to discover and connect with the wildlife that calls this place home. Led by the Gov­er­nors Island Nature program along with insect ecologist Amy Berkov, these Thursday evening tours will take participants through Governors Island’s diverse natural areas. You’ll get to learn about these resilient, built landscapes directy from the people who know them best, and get the chance to participate in various community science projects. 

Click here to download iNaturalist app in advance so you can log all the wildlife you spot during your visit. Free and open to the public, these Nature Walks depart from the archway at Liggett Terrace. Register here. Reserve your noon ferry ticket here and proceed directly to Liggett Terrace. More about Governors Island nature programs here. Governors Island is open every day. Info 

Thursday, August 29: Last Chance for Resonance at Artist Gardner NYC

The Annual Art Exhibition “Resonance” has been extended. Participating artists:
Cecilia Andre  @cecilia_andre_art Sherwin Banfield @sherwintheartist Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación @carloswilfredoart Seema Pandya  @seemalisapandya Niceli Portugal  @niceliportugal Natsuki Takauji  @natsukitakauji Yiyi Wei  @prunt_machine and Evan Voelbel @luminiferous_aether_

This program was made possible through the support of the City Parks Foundation and Partnerships for Parks through the NYC Green Fund. Left: A Cardiac Tree by Natsuki Takauji

The West 132nd Street Community Garden, 108-114 W 132nd Street, New York, NY Info

 New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden

The NYCSG is based on Ming Dynasty gardens (1368-1644 AD). All the architectural components of the NYCSG were fabricated in Suzhou, China, including roof and floor tiles, columns and beams, doors and windows, bridges and paving materials. A team of 40 Chinese artists and craftsmen spent a year in China creating the Garden's components and another six months in Staten Island as craftsmen-in-residence at Snug Harbor to complete the construction. The Chinese Scholar's Garden at Snug Harbor, an 83-acre park, is one of only two authentic scholar's gardens in the United States.

The Scholar’s Garden features magnificent rocks resembling mountains that inspired the poetry and paintings of Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist monks, as well as other scholars. Visitors can explore eight pavilions, a bamboo forest path, waterfalls, a Koi pond, Chinese calligraphy, and a variety of Ghongshi scholar’s rocks including a 15-foot formation that towers over the central courtyard. 

Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanic Garden, 1000 Richmond Terrace Staten Island, NY The gardens are open on Labor Day, 11am-7pm. Info

Continuing at Brooklyn Botanic Garden: A Plant Pollinator Love Story

A new program series at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden seeks to shed light on the connections between plants and pollinators, underlying the latter's essentiality and calling on New Yorkers to protect them. 

"Natural Attractions: a Plant-Pollinator Love Story" features a series of programs and exhibit, most on view now through October 20, that are free with general admission. 

“Pollinators and plants are the ultimate coupling, and our human world—the things we eat, the clothes we wear, and more—thrives on their partnership,” says Adrian Benepe, President and CEO of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Benepe's focus, and the botanic garden's programming, are clearly necessary: according to a 2022 study, up to 38% of the local native insect pollinator population is at risk of elimination from New York's ecosystem. Some estimates suggest that percentage could actually be as high as 60%.

Among the activations is a new pollinator lounge that was built specifically for the insects: 42 wood-carved "hotels" catering to native pollinators in New York are accessible by the general public.  An interactive exhibit focusing on the relationship between the insects and the vegetation around them is also part of the program alongside a kid-friendly show featuring a larger-than-life American-painted lady butterfly. 

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, multiple entrances, Brooklyn, NY Info Tours and Events

 
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