Sanitation Museum Pop-up at Floyd Bennett Field

The Sanitation Museum’s pop-up is being held at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field — New York’s first municipal airport and currently one of its largest open spaces. Floyd Bennett Field was largely built on filled land in Jamaica Bay, an urban estuary central to the history of waste and sanitation in New York City.

The pop-up celebrates this history through several themes. First, it tells the story of the bustling working-class community of Barren Island, which once produced useful products from an enormous volume of animal carcasses and other solid waste produced by the growing city. Second, it celebrates the ongoing contributions of the Department of Sanitation, whose training academy is located on the eastern edge of Floyd Bennett Field. Finally, it explores the past and future of sanitary landfills around Jamaica Bay — including landfills that have been transformed into celebrated public spaces like Shirley Chisholm State Park.

The Sanitation Museum’s pop-up encourages visitors to take a moment to admire archival and present-day images of sanitation in Jamaica Bay as they consider their place in the past, present, and future of waste in New York City.

Organizations

Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy

The Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy is a public-private partnership dedicated to improving the 10,000 acres of public parkland throughout Jamaica Bay and the Rockaway Peninsula — for local residents and visitors alike. With its partners at city, state, and federal park agencies, JBRPC works to expand public access, increase recreational opportunities, foster citizen stewardship, restore natural areas, and enhance cultural resources.

Past exhibits sponsored by JBRPC include Rockaway! Public Arts Festival, celebrating the reopening of the historic Fort Tilden. First organized by MoMA PS1 and the Rockaway Artists Alliance in 2014, in partnership with JBRPC, Rockaway! featured solo projects by Patti Smith, Janet Cardiff, and Adrian Villar Rojas. The free public art festival continued in 2016 with a site-specific outdoor installation by artist Katharina Grosse, reflecting the bold colors of sunset in the Rockaways. In 2018, Rockaway! continued with the installation of Narcissus Garden by Yayoi Kusama. JBRPC is excited to continue this tradition with the installation of the Sanitation Museum’s pop-up at Floyd Bennett Field in 2022.