OtherWorlds Fair 2025
In 2025, youth were guided through the theme of What’s Under the Surface.
Youth explored the deeper meaning of themselves, their surroundings and many other facades of this theme as they prepared to share their creations with the public. They collaborated with youth from 8 other partner organizations to create the final showcases and workshops for the festival!
Section Styles split-sticky-text-right
Food Biolab 2025
“What’s Under the Surface”
The perspective for the Food Group in 2025 was inspired by creating a better system and use for food waste, their own familial heritage, and “The Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago at the Brooklyn Museum.
Youth used these elements to create their own “Conceptual Table Setting” project that paid homage to their heritage, personalities and creativity.
This cohort created recipes, table cloths, ceramics, and sculptures to bring their vision of What’s Under the Surface to life. Youth used turmeric dye and recycled fabrics to create tablecloths, beaded hand-rolled pasta ornaments for a chandelier, built a 10” foot metal tree-like sculptural centerpiece, took polaroid photos and made ceramic place settings inspired by each participant's own background.
Section Styles split-sticky-text-left large-headers light-header-three
Music & Performance 2025
Youth in the Music & Performance group were interested in exploring New York City’s underground dance and music scenes from the late 80s to early 2000s.
With a lot of research dedicated to music production, sampling, mixing and choreography, youth on this team collaborated to create a flash mob dance battle, choreograph new work inspired by their research, engage the crowd in dance lessons and DJ the festival.
Section Styles split-sticky-text-right
Fashion & Textiles 2025
Using a variety of fabrics, shibori dye methods, embroidery, beadwork, pearls, hand-made patterns and their own creativity, youth in the Fashion & Textiles group spent six weeks creating their own garments inspired by what lies at the bottom of the ocean, from rope swimsuits to full indigo dyed caftans.
Youth debuted their collection in a fashion show at the festival with music accompaniment from their peers in the Music & Performance cohort.
Section Styles split-sticky-text-left large-headers light-header-three
Storytelling & Narrative Media 2025
The Storytelling team took the theme of “What’s Under the Surface” and applied it to the host location of OtherWorlds Fair–Governors Island.
In two youth produced featurettes, this group took to exploring the meaning of this year’s theme and the historical Governors Island from two uniquely different angles.
Check out both short films below!
“Friends”: A horror film exploring the unseen places of Governors Island, and poking at what might lay under the surface of its peace and quiet, within and beyond its historical houses.
“Between Real & Imagined”: A documentary featuring youth and Beam Center staff on what ‘Other Worlds’ means to them, and how they access their own personal otherworld.
Section Styles split-sticky-text-right
Design & Fabrication 2025
The Design & Fabrication team used large scale paper mache, metal, clay and foam fabrication to tell the story of a giant, otherworldly post-apocalyptic tree within which four distinct natural biomes formed.
The lone surviving tree contained jungle, desert, mountains and sea, with new life forming from what lay ‘beneath the surface’ of each corner.
Section Styles split-sticky-text-left large-headers light-header-three
Workshop 2025
For its inaugural year, the Workshop team worked in small cohorts to develop four distinct hands-on experiences for the public to engage with, each cohort being led by a youth lead.
The workshops included:
Brain Box, a jack-in-the-box like creation with a customizable sound element, hand-made puppet and simple machine mechanism for opening and closing
A miniature UV lightbox ‘camera’ that captured and revealed private thoughts and doodles
Monotype portraits inside custom marbled wooden frames
A stop-motion animation station, where visitors could customize characters and animate simple feelings, actions or ideas
See OtherWorlds Fair projects from other years: