THE YARD IS OPEN!
Our 2025 season will wrap up on November 16th. You still have time to join us before we hibernate.
Photo by Tova Friedman
10 years of play!
It was Memorial Day Weekend in 2016 when The Yard opened on Governors Island. We are currently in our 10th season!
People said we’d never be able to open an adventure playground in NYC, and yet here we are: still playing, welcoming 11,000 children and young people each year.
We’re excited to celebrate this milestone with you. Stay tuned for more details about our upcoming campaign to support 10 years of play.
Isn’t Scott Teplin’s illustration perfectly playful?
Art by Scott Teplin
Our playworkers
When you visit The Yard, you’ll see a few playful adults mixed in with the young people. These are trained Playworkers whose specific quality of attention helps create a safe, supportive, and uninterrupted experience for up to 50 young people at a time on our site. They are identifiable by their “I (hammer) play:groundNYC” shirts, and we think they are wonderful.
Playworkers are always muddy!
our history
play:groundNYC is a nonprofit dedicated to transforming New York City through play. The organization was founded by artists, researchers, and advocates for children’s rights who wanted to create the conditions for adventure play in NYC. This type of play has tremendous benefits for young people’s lives, and their future outcomes. We began with a series of pop-ups in city parks; in 2016, play:groundNYC was invited by The Trust for Governors Island to open The Yard, a publicly-accessible adventure playground. We have welcomed more than 60,000 children and young people to The Yard for free open weekends, after-school activities, field trips and summer camp.
