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If your next trip to Governors Island feels a little more artful than usual, that's by design.
Governors Island Arts has unveiled Spring Migration, a sprawling new mural by Los Angeles-based artist Anna Valdez that turns one side of the Harbor Charger ferry into a floating work of art. It's the first mural ever commissioned specifically for a Governors Island Ferry—and it's attached to a vessel that is already making history as New York City's first public hybrid-electric ferry.
Inspired by Governors Island's landscapes, wildlife and layered history, Spring Migration explores the idea of movement in all its forms. Birds soar across the colorful composition, including Baltimore orioles, orchard orioles, magnolia warblers and peregrine falcons. The species weren't chosen at random: some migrate through the region each year, while others, like the peregrine falcon, have become mascots of the area’s ecological resilience.
Valdez said the work was inspired by the island's long history as a place of arrival and departure. Before it became one of New York's favorite warm-weather escapes, Governors Island was used seasonally by the Lenape people, later settled by colonists and eventually served as a military installation. Like the birds featured in the mural, generations of people have passed through the island, leaving their mark before moving on.
To make the piece, Valdez layered oversized birds against digitally manipulated photographs of Governors Island's greenery and botanical details, making a kaleidoscope of greens and yellows that can be appreciated both from afar and up close. One bird's wing stretches more than 20 feet across the vessel.
The artist also leaned into the unique role of a ferry itself. Rather than treating the boat as a simple canvas, she envisioned it as a liminal space connecting land, sea and sky, like a floating extension of the island.
You'll be able to spot Spring Migration sailing across New York Harbor through 2027. And unlike most public art installations, this one won't stay in one place for long: it will spend the next year and a half gliding back and forth across the harbor, carrying thousands of visitors while doubling as one of the city's most colorful commuters.