Camp Rockaway, a camp ground on the sea side just outside New York

On Friday afternoon, we had our last interview. The project we looked at is called Camp Rockaway, founded by designer Kent Johnson. Kent invited us to meet him on Rockaway beach. Rockaway beach is a peninsula located in New York, completely isolated from the urban. Just one train ride away from Manhattan, it is a very popular summer resort.

All of Rockaway was heavily damaged by hurricane Sandy in 2012. In the rebuilding process, new creative businesses have been opening up on Rockaway beach. Kent Johnson wanted to be part of this new energy which made Rockaway more lively, and he had the idea of opening up a camp ground on the island. The plan for Camp Rockaway, as it was called, still had to be developed and planned. In order to do so, money was needed.

In May 2014, Kent Johnson started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise $50,000. With a team of ten people and with the use of social media, events, mailing lists and talking to a lot of people from the Rockaway beach area, the campaign managed to raise $50,789.

Many people helped funding the campaign; friends, family, and people from New York. But according to Kent, also people who are very active on Kickstarter and fund multiple campaigns were among the funders. ‘Serial funders’, as he calls them.

With his newly acquired funds, Kent Johnson hopes to realize Camp Rockaway in 2016. The municipality of New York is very enthusiastic about the camp ground and told Kent that they are happy to help. Camp Rockaway can revive the neighborhood of Rockaway and play an important role in the community.

After our interview with Kent, we stayed on the beach for a while to enjoy the quietness before heading back to Manhattan. With its many nice little restaurants selling delicious food such as empanadas, arepas and burgers, accompanied by the locally brewed Rockaway beer, Rockaway beach is the perfect getaway for a city like New York. We can only imagine Camp Rockaway will make this place even nicer!

Babycastles, promoting video games as an independent art form

We interviewed Ari Spool from Babycastles at their video game exhibition space about her experiences with crowdfunding. Babycastles' mission is to promote the development of video games as art form. In 2010 they began a crowdfunding campaign to fund the rent and equipment for a temporary gallery near Grand Central in Manhattan. Even though their exhibition was highly successful, they were forced to a new location. Nowadays they have moved to 24th street, also in the centre of Manhattan, where they continue running various expositions, events and workshops to promote the artistic aspects of video games. Below a video about video games as an art form from the TIME magazine, with images of the old location of Babycastles.

Their crowdfunding campaign managed to raise $9,000, largely exceeding their target of $6,000. The success can be attributed to their widespread media attention and large network of the members of Babycastles. For instance, an article in the New York Times was published and a part of their contributions was matched by the large video game enterprise IGN Entertainment.

Today the organisation is self-sustaining. Only recently they set up a membership system that allows members special privileges and free access to events. The events frequently draw more than 100 visitors, which also function as a source of income. Also the hosting of workshops contribute to their maintenance costs such as rent and exhibition equipment.

Because of crowdfunding Babycastles, managed to afford to rent their new exhibition centre. Without the initial funding they would never have been able to grow to their current size. Their workshops are attended by a diverse group of people, either from the neighbourhood or from farther away. To read more about them visit their website: www.babycastles.com.