Help Install The Encampament - Telling Roosevelt Island Stories

Today's NY Sun has an article on preparations for The Encampment, a participatory public art project to be held on October 5-7 at Roosevelt Island's Southpoint Park as part of the Open House New York weekend. The article illustrates Encampment creator Thom Sokoloski's task helping participants:

designing installations that would tell visitors about the island's complicated, and often grim, history.

For example:

A woman named Amanda was further along in conceiving her installation, about a doctor at the lunatic asylum, who was, according to an article in Harper's, the object of affection of two of his female patients. The patients, known as Fanny and Moonshine, expressed their love by leaving the doctor bouquets made of grasses, strips of paper, or rags. Amanda was planning to hang these around the tent, possibly with cards in them telling the women's stories. Mr. Sokoloski nodded. "I like the idea of what those bouquets signify, because it's very primitive and primal, communicating through objects," he said.

And:

For some of the participants in the project, the island's history as a destination for the city's outcast and forgotten probably doesn't seem so far away. A group of patients from Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital & Nursing Facility — which offers long-term care for people with spinal cord injuries or HIV/AIDS, as well as medical care for undocumented immigrants or homeless people — are designing 20 tents.

One patient chose a story about a young man with tuberculosis who jumped to his death off the south point of the island, Ms. McCowan said. When she asked him why he chose that story, he said it reminded him of his own friends who had committed suicide. Another young man with a spinal cord injury decided to use his installation to tell his own story. "He said, ‘I'm still here,'" Mr. Sokoloski recalled.

If you are interested in volunteering to help set up The Encampment installation below are some of the ways you can assist.

Set-up and Strike of the tents:
Friday, October 5th: 8am to 2pm - 9 people
Monday, October 8th: 8am - 2pm - 8 people

For the 3 nights of presentations:
We have 2 shifts per night (6:30pm - 10pm / 10pm - 1:30am) - total of 16 people each night
Roles are as follows: Site supervision, roadway guidance and front of house

If interested please contact Thom Sokoloski.