New Campaign Looks To Reactivate Historic Hangars At Floyd Bennett Field

BROOKLYN, NY — The Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy has launched “Fifty for Floyd Bennett Field,” a public fundraising campaign aimed at supporting the restoration and reactivation of historic Hangars 3 and 4 at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

The campaign invites New Yorkers to contribute $50—or any amount from $5 to $500 and beyond—to help transform the Art Deco hangars into year-round civic spaces for arts, education, nature-based workforce development, research, recreation and visitor services.

The campaign was launched alongside the second biennial Floyd Bennett Field! Public Arts Festival on Saturday, Oct. 3.

An estimated 2,200 people attended the festival.

The new campaign is inspired by Joseph Pulitzer’s 1885 “penny campaign,” which rallied ordinary Americans to help fund the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.

The project is part of a $100 million partnership between the National Park Service and JBRPC.

The initiative follows a recent projection-mapping exhibition that turned the hangars into a large-scale digital art installation featuring 15 newly commissioned works by 21 contemporary artists.

The artworks explored Floyd Bennett Field’s history, ecology and legacy of innovation, demonstrating how the historic structures could serve as spaces for community storytelling and cultural events.

Floyd Bennett Field, New York City’s first municipal airport and now part of Gateway National Recreation Area, spans about 1,300 acres with more than six miles of shoreline, 240 acres of coastal forest and six miles of historic runways.

To view the future architectural renderings of Hangars 3 & 4, explore upcoming initiatives, or make a contribution to the campaign, visit this website.