THE MUSTER IS A PUBLIC ART EVENT IN WHICH ARTIST ALLISON SMITH invokes the aesthetic vernacular of the American Civil War battle reenactment as a stage set for a polyphonic marshalling of voices in her artistic and intellectual communities. The Muster takes form in a creative encampment on the Fort Jay marching grounds of Governors Island, in which fifty enlisted participants fashion uniforms, build campsites, and declare their causes publicly to an audience of spectators. Smith creates a literal platform, complete with banners and flags, to identify the creative minds in her midst and to celebrate what they are fighting for. Smith directs but does not script the event, so that its outcome is only revealed at the Muster itself.

WHEN, IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS, it becomes necessary for people to solidify the creative, intellectual, and political bonds that connect ourselves to one another, a respect to the opinions of Everyone requires that we should Declare the Causes which impel us to the confederation. It is to this ultimate end that I wish to address you, that this proclamation be heard by All who find themselves in the midst of War.

This is a Call to Art!

Whereas the issues before us, rapidly assuming a portentous magnitude, deserve formal acknowledgement, I hereby proclaim that the means which conduce to a desirable result are now in Your Hands. Are you ready to devote your time, energies, blood and treasure to the Declaration of your Cause? For the opportunity is now at hand, not only to make your voice be heard but to receive ample reward from your comrades for the services you render in the Field. We need volunteers to march immediately and report for duty to the Muster, an assembly of troops for the purposes of inspection, critique, exercise and display. Engaging in a collective spirit that aims to Proclaim rather than Protest we will form a diverse regiment of our own design.

Enlist!

The place of general rendezvous will be in the heart of New York Harbor on Governors Island, where troops have mustered for over two hundred years. Permits have been secured to assemble on the marching grounds of Fort Jay, a splendid star-shaped fortification, flanked by Civil War cannons and framed by spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty and the majestic Manhattan skyline. On the 14th day of May 2005, we will gather under the banner of a polyphonic marshalling of voices, which come together to form a multi-layered, collective Cause, a portrait of our community in all its prismatic variety.

Get your uniform ready!

Using the American Civil War battle re-enactment as our aesthetic palette and point of departure, we will participate in the cultural practice of Living History, founded on the belief that historical events gain meaning and relevance when performed live in an open-air, interactive setting. And in effect, we will create our own unique historical event, for future re-enactors of the world.

Let every person come out!

Emblazon your Cause on a self-fashioned uniform. Enact your own costume drama. Wear your war on your sleeve. Show off your revolutionary style. Assume a historical personage. Dress up in soldier drag. Go into total role-playing. Take your shirt off. Form alliances. Form companies. Raise a border regiment. Marshal a Middlesex infantry. Lead a bugle brigade, drum corps, or dance troupe. Cause a Rebellion, provoke a skirmish, or go AWOL. Use your art supplies to make new forms of trench art. For, wherever you place yourself amidst the advances and retreats of art history, we are making an arsenal, a record, a form of currency, and a conversation.

We want you!

Proposals are now being accepted for a volunteer militia of up to fifty participants, who will build an encampment and produce, on-site, the contents of a public festivity. If Enlisted, you will be called upon to Muster into Action on the installation days of May 10th through May 13th, 2005, during which time you will pitch your tent, in the form of an artistic elaboration of the Cause you are representing at the Muster. There are already troops in place to assist you with your equipment, and there will be a Muster ferry service to transport you by boat onto Governors Island. On the evening of May 13th, you will be served excellent campaign rations, and in recognition of your participation in the Muster you will be ceremoniously welcomed and rewarded with a respectable cash bounty. That night, we will sleep under the stars. On the morning of May 14th, you will register your name on the official Muster Roll and pose for a traditional portrait, in uniform. At noon, the general public will be invited to tour the encampment and participate in whatever activities you deem necessary to engage spectators in your Cause. This could take the form of mock-battles, field games, cheerleading squads, grand processions, quilting bees, performances, demonstrations, or other colorful displays. The event will culminate in a formal Declaration of Causes, in which you will be called by name to an especial platform erected in your honor, to boldly state your response to this question:

What are you fighting for?

Accept this invitation with the promptitude and pleasure that has heretofore marked your response to every call that has been made to you by your friends in need. Conjure your insurgent grandparents, bra-burning aunts, funny uncles, and the transrevolutionaries who have paved the way for your life’s work. Summon your historical peers and chosen family throughout time, and the Causes for which they fought and bled. Fly to arms and succor your brave sisters and brothers already in the field.

Rally at Once, before it is too late! Muster!

The Muster Book. On May the 14th, 2005, artist Allison Smith transformed Governors Island--a former U.S. military base located only minutes by ferry from the southern shore of Manhattan--into a stage for an unforgettable work of public art, commissioned by the Public Art Fund. Inspired by American Civil War battle reenactments, the Muster was a "polyphonic marshalling of voices" in which Smith invited artists and non-artists alike to declare a cause and create a campsite-installation in response to her central question: 'What are you fighting for?' Combining celebration, art, craft, history and activism, this earnest and jubilant event embodied the complexities of its political, aesthetic and cultural moment, and is documented here in photographs and texts by Tom Eccles, James Trainor, Anne Wehr, and 'Mustering Officer' Allison Smith." Click here to buy the book on Amazon.com.

Pre-Colonial Era. Lenape Indians settle on island they call “Pagganck” (“Nut Island”).
1524. Giovanni da Verrazzano sights Governors Island.
1609 Henry Hudson explores New York Harbor looking for a route to the Pacific Ocean.
1624. “Noten Eylant” (“Nutten Island”) is one of the Dutch West India Company’s first settlements in the colonial era.
1637 Wouter Van Twiller, Dutch Governor of New Netherlands, privately acquires the island from Native American owners, Cakapeteyno and Pehiwas, allegedly for two axe heads, a string of beads and a few nails.
1664 British take possession of the island during occupation of New Amsterdam. It remains rural, housing the Governors’ sheep, cattle and coach horses.
1698 British officially acquire the island, thereafter called “Governors Island,” for the “benefit and accommodation of His Majesty’s Governors.”
1702 Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, Governor of New York State and an alleged transvestite, builds a “splendid” permanent home for the British governors on high ground.
1732 Governor William Crosby stocks the island with English pheasants.
1755 The 51st Regiment of Foot is the first trained unit of soldiers posted on the island. Later, the unit is joined by the “Royal Americans,” a British regiment recruited in America.
1776 Continental troops under George Washington occupy and fortify Governors Island against British invasion; New York City and Governors Island fall to the British.
1783 British Royal Navy surrenders the island to New York State. In addition to three forts, structures left behind include: a wharf, three wells, three kitchens, captains’ barracks, lieutenants’ barracks, guard house, gardener’s house, summer house, convalescent hospital and barn for cattle.
1784-1794 In the New Republic, unused military facilities fall into disrepair and the island is leased for a racetrack and summer resort.
1794 Using volunteers from Columbia College, political clubs and trade guilds, Governor Clinton organizes construction of new defenses on the island. A passenger rowboat is licensed. Fare: three cents.
1798 The fort is named after patriot John Jay, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, a drafter of the peace treaty with England, and the only Founding Father born and bred in New York.
1800 New York State cedes the island to the United States.
1811 Castle Williams, on a point of land at the edge of the Harbor, is completed and named after its designer, Jonathan Williams, the first superintendent of West Point.
1815 Peace Treaty with Britain ending the War of 1812 is celebrated with fireworks on Governors Island.
1821 Island becomes headquarters of the Army of the East.
1823 Governors Island is designated a signal station. Flags announce the arrival of ships in New York Harbor.
1833 Ordinance Department of the Army selects Governors Island as a major arsenal, and occupies waterfront land.
1849-1868 Periodic cholera epidemics sweep the Island.
1852 Ulysses S. Grant resides in the officers’ quarters known as the Block House.
1852 Governors Island changes from an artillery post to a recruiting depot.
1861 Steam tugs supplant the oar-powered barge-ferries to the Island.
1861-1865 During the Civil War, Governors Island is the central Army recruiting station for the Eastern Seaboard; Castle Williams is a prison camp, sometimes holding over 1,000 Confederate soldiers.
1865 Confederate Captain John Yates Beall is executed on Governors Island for piracy on Union shipping.
1870 Yellow fever epidemic rages on the island.
1878 Island changes from Army fortification to administrative center.
1895 First squirrels are brought to Governors Island.
1897 Congress proposes a bill to convey Governors Island to the City of New York “for the purpose of a public park.” The Army Board of Engineers, citing the Island’s indispensability “for military purposes,” soundly rejects the proposal.
1909 Wilbur Wright takes off from Governors Island on the first flight ever over American waters, circling the Statue of Liberty before returning. A few days later he flies from the island to Grant’s Tomb and back.
1914-1918 During World War I, the island is a major supply base and embarkation point.
1918 “World’s shortest railroad” (a locomotive and three flat cars) is built to carry coal, machinery and supplies from the pier to shops and warehouses.
1937-1938 Comedians Tommy and Dick Smothers are born at the base hospital while their father, Major Thomas Boyln Smothers, is stationed on the island.
1939-1945 During World War II, the island is a major administration center and chief reception center for inductees.
1942 WAC detachment brings the island its first women soldiers.
1966 U.S. Army leaves Governors Island. Island converted to a U.S. Coast Guard base, becoming the largest in the world.
1966-1996 Island’s piers house six vessels—Coast Guard cutters, tenders and tugs—for law enforcement, buoy care and ice breaking.
1976 Governors Island hosts 20,000 residents and visitors on Independence Day for fireworks and a parade of tall ships for America’s Bicentennial.
1988 Diplomatic meetings between Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held at the Admiral’s House.
1996 Coast Guard leaves Governors Island.
2001 The 22-acre Governors Island National Monument is established
by presidential proclamation to preserve Fort Jay and Castle Williams.
2002 President George W. Bush, Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg announce that the federal government will sell the island back to the people of New York for one dollar.
2003 After 200 years, Governors Island is returned to the people of New York City and State through the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation. The Governors Island National Monument is
transferred to the National Park Service.