Spring Break Adult + Junior Tennis Program

During Spring Break, the Prospect Park Tennis Center offers intensive group instruction for adults and children of all levels of experience. Our accomplished staff of tennis professionals gives players personal attention while they acquire game fundamentals and increase their skill level. File

Holiday Adult + Junior Tennis Program

During the holiday season, the Prospect Park Tennis Center offers intensive group instruction for adults and children of all levels of experience. Our accomplished staff of tennis professionals gives players personal attention while they acquire game fundamentals and increase their skill level. Advance registration required.

Cherry Island, Anthony Goicolea

Natural Disruptions

The Prospect Park Alliance and ArtBridge have collaborated to transform 300 feet of construction fencing in Prospect Park into a large-scale, outdoor photo installation. Natural Disruptions features the work of two Brooklyn artists, Mark Dorf and Anthony Goicolea.

Through digital manipulation, Dorf and Goicolea slyly alter our understanding of nature. Goicolea’s landscapes are like snapshots from a playfully dark daydream. Dorf’s work questions the ways that science and the Internet define our relationship with nature.

The installation will cover construction fencing at the historic 1869 Wellhouse, one of Prospect Park’s oldest structures, which originally served as a pump house for the Park’s water supply. The Prospect Park Alliance is transforming the building into public restrooms featuring composting toilets—the first to be installed in a New York City park.

Natural Disruptions will be on view from September 30, 2015, through Summer 2016. In addition to the Wellhouse, the exhibition will continue along Wellhouse Drive at Terrace Bridge, adjacent to the Park’s new Sunday Smorgasburg event (which runs through October 11). The photo installation consists of more than 40 artworks, running 300 feet along Wellhouse Drive, and ranging from 6 to 8 feet high.

For a chance to win a limited edition print from this show, Instagram or Tweet an image of this exhibition with the hashtag #ArtInProspectPark. See rules.

Winter Recess

Join the Prospect Park Alliance during the Winter Recess (December 26 – January 1) for free family programming to ring in the new year.

  • Nature Exploration, 12–4 pm
    Prospect Park Audubon Center, Free

    Bundle up and find out what your favorite Park animals are doing this winter. Join Alliance naturalists to discover the winter survival strategies of animals that live in Prospect Park. Enjoy nature games, science activities and bird watching!
    Blooming Naturalist, 1–2 pm: Learn how to identify birds, use binoculars and create your own “Official Blooming Naturalist” button.
    Christmas Bird Count, 2–3 pm: Join Alliance Naturalists in this fun, nation-wide Citizen Science project.  Each checklist submitted helps researchers learn more about the health of birds and how to best protect them!
    Animal Encounter, 3–4 pm: Join Alliance Naturalists in learning more about the animals in the Audubon Center’s collection and even assist in an actual feeding.
  • Historic Crafts and Games, 1–3 pm
    Lefferts Historic House, $3 suggested donation

    Join us at the Lefferts Historic for our last week of the season and try your hand at creating a small needlework sampler to take home.

Thanksgiving Holiday

Join the Prospect Park Alliance for holiday programming at Lefferts Historic House, the Audubon Center, and the Carousel.

  • Nature Exploration, 12–3 pm
    Prospect Park Audubon Center, Free

    Join the Prospect Park Alliance for nature education programs at the Prospect Park Audubon Center, the first urban Audubon Center in the nation.
    Bird Nerds Game Hour, 1–2 pm: Test your knowledge of birds in this fun, mildly competitive hour of puzzles, Bingo, card games, and more!
    Nature on the Go!, 2–3 pm: An Alliance naturalist will lead children and families to areas near the Audubon Center, where you can learn about the nature that is all around us and participate in a Citizen Science project.
    Animal Encounter, 3–3:30 pm: Want to watch the snake gobble up a mouse? Join Alliance Naturalists in learning more about the animals in the Audubon Center’s collection and even assist in an actual feeding.
    Discovery Pack, 12–3 pm: The Prospect Park Alliance invites you to get inspired by nature with our new Discovery Packs, a ready-to-go kits filled with nature activities for families.
  • Carousel Rides, 12-5 pm
    Children’s Corner, $2 per ride, $9 for a book of 5 tickets, free with Alliance Family Plus membership 

    Celebrate the start of spring with a first ride of the year on the Park’s beloved 1912 carousel. Join the Alliance at the $125 level and your family (up to 4 people) will receive unlimited rides on the Carousel for a full year!
  • Paper Quilting, 1–3pm
    Lefferts Historic House, $3 suggested donation

    Now at Lefferts: Our annual show with the Brooklyn Quilters Guild is on display in the month of November. While you are here, make your own paper quilt collage to take home or add it to our community patchwork.

Halloween in Prospect Park

Enjoy family-friendly programming at the Prospect Park Audubon Center, Lefferts Historic House, 1912 Carousel and Prospect Park Zoo. On Saturday, also enjoy the 36th Annual Halloween Haunted Walk and Fair.

Creepy Crawly Halloween
Prospect Park Audubon Center, Free

Take a second look at the creatures that give you the creeps, you may find you like them! Participate in fun activities and experiments that will make your spine tingle!

  • Owl Pellet Dissection, 1–2 pm: Participants will have the opportunity to pick apart owl pellets, masses of undigested parts of food that owl species occasionally regurgitate!
  • Creepy Crawly Walk, 2–3 pm: Participants will search for Prospect Park’s creepy residents and explore the hidden side of the park.
  • Animal Encounter, 3–3:30 pm: Want to watch the snake gobble up a mouse? Join Alliance Naturalists in learning more about the animals in the Audubon Center’s collection and even assist in an actual feeding.

Scary Stories With Tammy Hall, Saturday only, 2–4 pm
Lefferts Historic House, $3 suggested donation

Make sure you’re sitting next to someone braver than you! Master storyteller Tammy Hall keeps the tradition of scary stories alive with tales told in the village of Flatbush 200 years ago. While you’re here make a spooky Halloween cut-out based on a Lefferts family design.

Scharen Knippen, 2-4 pm
Lefferts Historic House, $3 suggested donation

Celebrate fall at Lefferts with the old Dutch craft Scharen Knippen. Cut out autumn and halloween scenes and patterns some designed in the 19th century by Mrs. Lefferts herself. While you’re here join us for potato sack races and other fun historic toys and games.

Boo at the Zoo, 11–4 pm
Prospect Park Zoo, Free with Zoo admission

Grab the family & Head to Prospect Park Zoo for a boo-tastic time. Halloween fun awaits at the Prospect Park Zoo’s annual Boo at the Zoo weekend! Jam-packed with fun activities such as a Costumed Character Scavenger Hunt, face painting, and other Halloween-themed games and crafts and, of course, there’ll be plenty of animals to visit.

The Taming of the Shrew

Nothing is as it seems when a group of travelling players enact a famous comedy for a drunken tinker. In this play within a play, Katherine, overbearing and intractable, is married off to the madcap Petruchio. Whilst at the same time, Kate’s sister, Bianca, is pursued by two rival suitors in disguise. The story of these unconventional couples, subverts issues of identity, gender, and power dynamics, and shows in the end that all we need are love and compassion.

The Taming of the Shrew is presented by New York Classical Theater, and the production will move through the park after meeting at Grand Army Plaza. Dates: June 23, 24, 30 and July 1.

Flax Harvest

This event has been cancelled, as the flax is not yet ready to be harvested. Please join the Prospect Park Alliance at Lefferts Historic House on Saturdays & Sundays in June for Flax to Linen.

The Taming of the Shrew

Nothing is as it seems when a group of travelling players enact a famous comedy for a drunken tinker. In this play within a play, Katherine, overbearing and intractable, is married off to the madcap Petruchio. Whilst at the same time, Kate’s sister, Bianca, is pursued by two rival suitors in disguise. The story of these unconventional couples, subverts issues of identity, gender, and power dynamics, and shows in the end that all we need are love and compassion.

The Taming of the Shrew is presented by New York Classical Theater, and the production will move through the park after meeting at Grand Army Plaza. Dates: June 23, 24, 30 and July 1.

Fleece Festival

Join the Prospect Park Alliance and Wildlife Conservation Society for a weekend of fleece fun. Visit the Zoo, where the sheep will lose their winter coats in preparation for summer, and enjoy woolworking demonstrations, crafts, music and, of course, sheep! At Lefferts Historic House, learn how wool was used on a 18th century Flatbush farm. Brush wool with carding paddles, spin yarn using a drop spindle and even make a felt ball to take home. On Sunday, visitors can also enjoy a demonstration by our resident spinner, Catherine Conrad.