FIGMENT

I'm not sure why, but part of me gets really annoyed at the name of this festival, but hey - it's free and artsy, so I may just have to go check it out. This weekend Governor's Island will play host to this summer's FIGMENT Festival. FIGMENT is an arts festival which aims to break down the traditional ideas of art (no white cube galleries here), and has lots of different mini-events associated with it, like performances, music, games, etc.

From the festival:

"As a free, public, non-profit event, we aim to advance social and personal transformation through creativity. FIGMENT is uninterrupted by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. Selling or advertising goods or services is not permitted. Neither our artists nor our planners and staff are paid – everything that you see at FIGMENT is born from a simple desire to share imagination with each other and the public.

In these challenging economic times, it is important that artists devise new ways to create, share, think, and dream about what is possible. FIGMENT is an alternative to many of the shortcomings of the commercial art world— exclusive, expensive, impersonal, untouchable and often simply boring."

The festival runs from June 12-14 - get there by taking the Governor's Island Ferry, located next to the Staten Island Ferry.