Beam Camp City

Welcome to a camp like no other, happening this summer on Governors Island.

Beam Camp City is our summer day camp experience that brings our commitment to collaboration, youth empowerment, and big-as-all-outdoors projects to Governors Island.

Centered on a belief that NYC children and youth deserve summers of play, creation, and celebration, Beam Camp City is free to the NYC youth who join us from NYC public schools and community-based organizations.

Guided by NYC high schoolers and young adults from Beam Center’s Youth Employment programs, campers collaborate to build the summer’s big project. Selected from our international Open Call, big projects are designed by talented designers, architects, and artists and provide campers with the opportunity to walk around inside the mind of creative big thinkers.

Two project fellows working together to cut wood with with a jigsaw. One is holding the saw and the other is holding a vacuum hose.

Who Comes to Camp?

Beam Camp City welcomes a variety of audiences to the Island each summer. Groups include:

  • Campers from Beam partner schools and related community-based organizations, grades 3 - 12

  • Weekend Visitors: Public; Families; and Youth Ages 6+

  • Youth Staff: 50+ Youth, 4 days a week 

  • Beam Project Experts: Team of Beam artists, educators, and fabricators

  • Beam Project GI Artist and Designer

  • Resident Artists: NYC-based artists working in a variety of mediums, part of our Artist in Residence program

Beam Camp City project leader holding a bin while smiling at the camera

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Beam Camp city Project 2023

seeAsaw is an interactive and immersive structure of 6 seesaws, connected by a spectacular draping hammock made from rescued fishing nets, which moves in wave-like motions that are reminiscent of the sea. seeAsaw was designed by Andre Kong Studio in collaboration with Ruben Correia and Ghost Diving USA. Andre Kong Studio is an emerging London-based design and architecture practice led by Andre Sampaio Kong. The artists designed seeAsaw  to raise awareness of the challenges posed by ocean pollution and to pave the way forward by reusing ‘ghost nets’ that pose threats to marine ecosystems.

Check out our blog post to learn more about seeAsaw!

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Beam Staff working on seeAsaw.png
Two Beam City apprentices holding a piece of blue fabric with a face painted on it
Three Beam Camp members posing and smiling at the camera. Two are wearing masks and one is holding a walkie talkie.
Beam Camp staff member helping a young camper hang a piece of painted fabric on a clothesline to dry
Group of Beam Camp staff members on a lawn posing for the camera. Several are holding up peace signs with their fingers.
Four Beam Camp staff members making peace signs with their fingers as they take a selfie together.
Beam Camp staff member laying on the ground across a large fabric quilt
Beam Camper stamping fabric on a table as someone holds it in place with their hand
Two Beam Camp staff members shaking hands
Beam Campers drawing on a painted cardboard tube
Beam Camper sewing fabric together with a sewing machine
Beam Camp staff member smiling while standing in front of a project table
Beam Camp staff member helping a student with a fabric project
Young Beam Camper sitting crosslegged on the grass and holding a marker with a worksheet in front of him
  • Bronx high school teacher holding a small sculpture while smiling outside at Beam Camp

    —David Choi, Humanities teacher at Bronx International High School

    Beam fosters relations between youth in a fun, creative, and low stakes environments that not only pushes them to collaborate but also to teach and learn from one another. Students get to interact with other students from around the city and get to meet people with both similar and unique backgrounds and experiences from themselves. This helps them to broaden their horizons and build friendships they might not usually have the chance to make. Also, students are more proactive when it comes to participating or trying something out - they are less afraid to fail at something new, make mistakes, and end up learning more from an experience.