A chronological list of project I’ve worked on aimed at reconnecting New Yorkers, and especially Gowanus residents, with their waterfront as a place of creativity, community, and imagination.
Pretty/Ugly | June 2019
As a trustee with the Awesome Foundation’s NYC chapter and a Gowanus Dredgers member — I organized Pretty/Ugly, a set of short talks by creative New Yorkers who find beauty in “ugly” things, from the Gowanus to Guantanamo.
Paddle-In Movies | 2019-2021
During the summers of 2019, 2020, and 2021, I co-hosted monthly paddle-in movie nights. We showed a mix of classic monster movies, noir, and cult films, along with an annual screening of Creature from the Black Lagoon, which continues. In 2020, we also partnered with NY Silents to do a special screening of Filibus, a 1915 Italian silent film with live musical accompaniment.
Lost Islands of New York | October 2019
I worked with Tideland Institute to bring nearly more than 75 canoes, kayaks, and other boaters (plus one lucky goldfish who traveled in a takeout container) out on Newtown Creek for a paddle-in performance held on a historic tugboat as part of the annual HONK! festival.
Bridges of Brass | September 2020
In the middle of the first COVID summer, we loaded our canoes with the Funkrust brass band and invited the community to join us on the shoreline of the Canal for a socially distanced live musical performance. Hundreds of neighbors came out to celebrate and be joyful together, amid a challenging time.
Gowanus Canal Ribbed Mussel Survey | October 2020
I helped organize a community science event to survey ribbed mussel populations in the Gowanus Canal, ahead of planned construction activity under the Superfund program that would remove significant habitat. Volunteers with the Gowanus Dredgers and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy (GCC) enumerated more than 4,000 ribbed mussels living along our survey area, providing scientific data to ongoing efforts to preserve and expand wildlife habitat and ecological restoration on the canal. This survey is now an annual event. It supports an ongoing multi-year, grant-funded education and research project, lead by Gary Francis and partners at GCC, focused on ribbed mussel habitat in the Gowanus Canal. In 2025, I helped the team secure a pilot installation of habitat modules in the canal.
Boat for the Vote | October 2020
I volunteered as part of a get-out-the-vote event on the eve of early voting that brought an opera-singing drag queen, a french horn quartet, and live-painting artists to boats on the Gowanus Canal for on-shore watchers.
Lake | March 2021
I led the Dredgers’ collaboration with Pioneer Works and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy to project artworks by artist-in-residence Erin Johnson in multiple locations along the Gowanus Canal, viewable from the water and on land. I like to believe that the work, featuring images of swimmers floating in dark water, helped people imagine a future in which the Gowanus Canal could be swimmable.
Unheard-of Ensemble | 2021 – present
I co-organize an ongoing series of on-water concerts with Unheard-of Ensemble featuring original music and artwork examining climate change and other environmental issues. Our first performance was held in September 2021, with subsequent performances in summer 2022.
Gowanus Superfund Community Town Hall | June 2022
As the Dredgers’ representative for the Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group, I chaired the June 2022 Town Hall planning committee, a hybrid virtual/in-person event that brought EPA representatives; federal, state and local elected officials; and about 100 community members together for an educational overview and public Q&A about the Superfund program cleanup of the Gowanus Canal.
Community Dock Construction Workshops | August 2022
Due to the ongoing Superfund cleanup, the Dredgers primary dock and boat launch location has been closed to boaters since early 2021. I led our efforts to secure a new launch location on Gowanus Bay, as well as our partnership with the Tideland Institute to construct a floating dock that will establish a new boat launch on the Gowanus Canal. Tideland Institute hosted a series of hands-on workshops for dozens of club and community members to help with the construction and installation of the new dock. The dock will support expanded public programming and provide new water access for the South Brooklyn community.
Public Comment Postcards: Restoring the Gowanus Canal | March – July 2024
The second phase of the Gowanus Canal Superfund project is the Natural Resource Damages (NRD) process, which will help restore fish, wildlife, habitat and human uses of the canal that were lost to both industrial pollution and the Superfund remediation work. The NRD process is a long-term effort that involves multiple federal agencies, the private companies and public entities held responsible for the pollution and its cleanup. There’s a lot of jargon, some very confusing grey areas, and a lot of formal processes, too. I led a series of teach-ins and public outreach efforts with my collaborator Lillian Ruiz, to help community members understand the stakes and scope of a draft NRD assessment plan that was proposed. We collected nearly 100 unique public comments via hand-illustrated postcards on which participants mapped and drew important neighborhood elements as part of their feedback.
Artist Boats
When the Dredgers added several new boats to our fleet of canoes in 2024, I proposed a collaboration with the Dredgers’ art gallery coordinator Pam Wong to upgrade the older boats: commissioning local Gowanus artists to decorate them with original artwork.
Bush Terminal Community Boating Programs, Ongoing
I am leading the Gowanus Dredgers work with a coalition of community waterfront organizations to establish a new community boathouse in Sunset Park. Over the past two summers, I have spearheaded local outreach and volunteer coordination for a series of 5 free, walk-up paddling programs at Bush Terminal Piers Park, reaching more than 500 participants this summer. I conducted a participant survey with attendees, collecting detailed feedback in English and Spanish to help inform plans for a season-long program. We presented our work at Community Board 7 in 2024 and are on track to launch a permanent program in 2026.
Key Partners
The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club is a volunteer organization dedicated to providing waterfront access and education to the public. I’ve been involved with the club as a member, volunteer, board member, and an official representative in other community contexts since 2019. Most of our work is focused on introducing locals to the Gowanus Canal and the New York Harbor in unexpected and creative ways that center arts, culture, science and community activities.
Volunteer, 2018-Present
Board Member, 2021-Present
EPA Community Advisory Group, 2020-Present
Tideland Institute connects New Yorkers to their harbor by building on-water opportunities for physical access, celebration, and creative engagement. I’ve been a frequent collaborator with, friend of, and adviser to the Tideland team since we met at the June 2019 Pretty/Ugly event listed on this page.
Unheard-of Ensemble is a Brooklyn-based clarinet, violin, cello, and piano quartet performing dedicated to connecting new music to communities in New York and across the United States through the development and performance of adventurous programs using technology and interactive multimedia. Their ongoing commitment to and engagement with the Gowanus Canal and the New York harbor, at large, is unparalleled.
Additional Credits: These are all events I played a significant role in organizing, but they would not have been possible without the collaboration, leadership and/or support of dozens of other Gowanus Dredgers and friends, but most especially Brad Vogel, Gary Francis, N.D. Austin, Danielle Butler, Ford Fourqurean, Nicole Vergalla, Jos Prol, and Lillian Ruiz.
Celeste LeCompte 
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