Paul Martinka

Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Prospect Park

January 3, 2020

As we enter a new decade, Prospect Park Alliance invites you to join us for special Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities in Prospect Park. This holiday is a great opportunity to take stock of the world we live in and reflect on what we can do to make it a better place for all. It’s also an ideal time to fit in those special winter activities you didn’t quite get to in December.

Freedom Songs and Stories with Tammy Hall
2 + 3 pm
Lefferts Historic House, $3 suggested donation, Registration Required

While Martin Luther King Jr. Day is specific to the United States, the struggle for freedom and self-determination is a universal experience across the world. This holiday, join Prospect Park Alliance at Lefferts Historic House for Freedom Songs and Stories with Tammy Hall. A masterful storyteller, Tammy Hall weaves together diverse tales from around the world to create a rich experience for all. Space at this event is limited, so please make sure to register for the event and bring your ticket confirmation on the day of the event.

RSVP-btn-orange.png

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

We hear you: it’s hard to get outside in the dead of winter! If you need a reason to get out there, consider joining Prospect Park Alliance at the Audubon Center. Designed to encourage children’s curiosity while teaching them about the plants and animals native to Brooklyn, these activities are fun for kids and caretakers alike.

  • Discovery Pack, 12–3 pm: Want to create your own Prospect Park adventure? Stop by the Audubon Center to pick up a Discovery Pack, a ready-to-go kit filled with nature activities for families, and explore the diverse habitats of Brooklyn’s backyard in whichever way you please!
  • Animal Encounter, 2–3 pm: Watch and ask questions as Alliance Naturalists tell you about the animals that live inside the Audubon Center. Found near and far, learn the animals’ favorite foods and the habitats they call home. This program starts promptly at 3 pm. Animal Encounters is made possible with generous support from Macy’s, Inc.
  • Winter Wilderness Walk, 3-4 pm: Curious about animal tracks in the snow, how trees survive without leaves, or how bugs stay warm? Join an Alliance Naturalist for a tour of Prospect Park to learn how plants and animals survive the winter. This program leaves from the Audubon Center promptly at 3 pm.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Tennis Program
Monday, January 20, 1–4 pm 
Prospect Park Tennis Center, $80, Registration Required

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a longtime tennis player or just learning the basics of the game. Geared toward both adults and juniors, the Martin Luther King Day tennis clinic features fast-paced drill stations that focus on specific skills, including serve & volley, ground strokes, approach shots and offense/defense strategies. Advance registration required.

Ice Skating at Lakeside
Monday, January 20, 9 am–5 pm
LeFrak Center at Lakeside, Admission: $11 on holidays, Skate rental: $8

An extra day to skate at LeFrak Center at Lakeside? Yes, please! Make sure to stop by on MLK Jr. Day for gliding, swirling and dancing on the ice to great tunes. When it comes time to refuel and warm up, grab a seat at Bluestone Café for lunch, snacks, and warm drinks. And for those that would like to brush up on their skating skills, make sure to check out Lakeside’s Skate School with instructors and Olympians (yes, Olympians!) Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov. See you on the ice!

Martin Seck

Winter Recess Festivities at Prospect Park

November 19, 2019

Prospect Park Alliance interrupts your regular device-filled schedule for some hands-on holiday activities at Prospect Park! Getting outside during short winter days is a great mood booster and a welcome break from the winter grind. And what better time to shake it up than the holiday season? During Winter Recess, December 26-30, Prospect Park has something for everyone, whether you’re hoping to spend quality time with your kids, commune with nature, or spend a day at the tennis courts. Whatever it is, grab a loved one, bundle up and head over to Prospect Park to make lasting memories during the most wonderful time of the year.

Gilded Frame Making
December 26–29, 1–3 pm
Lefferts Historic House, $3 suggested donation

Looking to get crafty this winter recess? Join Prospect Park Alliance at Lefferts Historic House for “gilded frame” making! Gilding refers to the practice of applying a thin layer of gold leaf over a given object. In days past, wealthy citizens often had a collection of gilded items, from candle holders and mirrors to frames for works of art. The gilded frames made at Lefferts Historic House are perfect for holding holiday photos and pictures of other special memories.

Nature Exploration
December 26–29, 12–4 pm
Prospect Park Audubon Center, Free

When’s the last time you watched a snake eat dinner? Have you ever held a hissing cockroach? Or spotted an Indian walking stick hiding among leaves and branches? Join Prospect Park Alliance at Prospect Park Audubon Center for Winter Recess, where you can do all that and more during Nature Exploration.

  • Discovery Pack, 12–3 pm: The Prospect Park Alliance invites you to get inspired by nature with our Discovery Packs, ready-to-go kits filled with nature activities for families.
  • Bird Nerd Game Hour, 1–2 pm: Learn about birds and nature in this fun, mildly competitive hour of trivia, bingo, card games, and more! Prizes will be available for all participants. 
  • Animal Encounter, 2–3 pm: Join Alliance Naturalists in learning more about the animals in the Audubon Center’s collection. This program starts promptly at 2 pm.
  • Winter Wilderness Walk, 3–4 pm: Curious about animal tracks in the snow, how trees survive without leaves, or how bugs stay warm? Join an Alliance Naturalist for a tour of how plants and animals live in the winter months. This program leaves from the Audubon Center promptly at 3 pm.

Tennis Holiday Adult & Junior Programming
December 26, 27 + 30, 1–4 pm
Prospect Park Tennis Center, $80/day, Registration Required

If you’ve been looking forward to a few days off so you can improve your tennis game, we have just the thing for you! On December 26, 27 and 30, Prospect Park Tennis Center will offer intensive, 3-hour group classes for adults and children of all levels of experience. Our accomplished staff of tennis professionals will give players personal attention while they acquire game fundamentals and increase their skill level. Don’t worry about snow, rain or sleet, because all Tennis Holiday Programming will take place inside the Tennis Center’s seasonal bubble.

Martin Seck

Ready to Skate!

The winter ice-skating season at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park will begin Wednesday, November 20, 2019, with open skating hours the entire family will enjoy.

The LeFrak Center at Lakeside is Brooklyn’s premier ice skating destination. The center welcomes the public for ice skating as well as lessons and leagues in a range of winter ice activities, from figure skating to hockey and curling. 

This season, Lakeside is updating its fleet of ice skates with brand-new skates for rent, which will roll out in the coming weeks. In addition, world-renowned Olympic figure-skating athletes Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov have been appointed as Directors of Sports Programs for Lakeside’s growing Skate School.

Gregory and Petukhov represented the United States in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, and claimed six consecutive U.S. National Championships medals. They won the United States Olympic Committee “Rings of Gold” award for innovative sports programming and youth development, and continue to represent the United States Olympic ideals. Along with Hockey Director Greg Vaslet, the team will further strengthen Lakeside’s commitment to the community by providing exceptional coaching and expanded learn to skate programs. 

Learn-to-Skate and Learn-to-Play-Hockey classes will kick off the week of December 2, 2019. Interim booster classes for all ages will be available the weekends of November 23/24 and November 30/December 1 at 9 am for hockey, and 10:30 am for skating. To register, please contact skate@lakesidebrooklyn.com.

The LeFrak Center at Lakeside is a year-round recreational destination created by Prospect Park Alliance and NYC Parks, and operated by Upsilon Ventures, featuring ice skating and related sports in the winter months and biking, boating, roller skating and water play in the spring through fall. This 26-acre destination also includes a cafe and beautifully landscaped terraces and an esplanade to enjoy all four seasons. Lakeside opened to the public in 2013, and is the most ambitious project in the history of the park since its creation in 1867. It serves more than 250,000 people each year.

Visit our Lakeside page for hours, admission and additional information.

Upsilon Ventures

Summer Fun Checklist: Kids Edition

May 14, 2018

Warm weather has arrived, and with so many fun activities for kids and families to enjoy in Prospect Park, you can spend all summer enjoying Brooklyn’s Backyard. Here is our checklist for must-do activities this summer:

  1. Visit the LeFrak Center at Lakeside: You’ll need to plan more than one visit to enjoy all the fun activities that Lakeside has to offer. Try roller skating, biking and boating for all ages, or it it’s too hot, run around in the jets on the Splash Pad, the park’s largest water play area, opening Memorial Day weekend.  
  2. Explore Nature with Pop-Up Audubon: From May through September, enjoy nature programs while exploring the Park with the Alliance’s Pop-Up Audubon program, made possible through the generous support of ConEdison and the Brooke Astor Fund for New York City, which takes place in different natural areas throughout the Park. Featured topics this summer include Radical Raptors, Climate Clues, Incredible Invertebrates and the Macy’s Fishing Clinic.
  3. Attend a Concert: The BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival is back in Prospect Park. In 2018, the festival celebrates its 40th season with 31 performances, running from June 5–August 11, including a free family concert featuring Los Lobos on June 10.
  4. Visit All the Playgrounds: Believe it or not, Prospect Park is home to seven playgrounds! Located throughout the Park, they offer children engaging opportunities for safe and imaginative play. Don’t miss the Zucker Natural Exploration Area, named the Best of New York by New York Magazine.
  5. Ride the Carousel: Located in the Park’s Children’s Corner, the Carousel is one of the Park’s most popular attractions for visitors of all ages. Its 53 magnificent horses ride alongside a lion, a giraffe, a deer and two dragon-pulled chariots. And you can book a birthday party at the Carousel to boot!
  6. See a Summer Movie: Pack a picnic and head to Prospect Park, because summer movies are returning to Prospect Park’s Long Meadow for four Wednesdays in July and August! A Summer Movie Under the Stars series, presented by Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams and Prospect Park Alliance in partnership with Brooklyn’s Nitehawk Cinema, brings free family-friendly movies to Brooklyn’s Backyard. Enjoy screenings of Alice and Wonderland, Space Jam and more.
  7. Travel Back in Time: See how Brooklynites lived way back when! Built by a Dutch family in the 18th-century, the Lefferts Historic House features a working garden, historic artifacts, period rooms and exhibits. Kids can play with traditional tools, toys and games and engage in historic activities.
  8. Bite into a Breakfast Taco: Everybody loves a taco, and you can pick up an authentic, Austin-style breakfast taco seven days a week at King David Tacos, located at Grand Army Plaza.
c. Elizabeth Keegin Colley

Top Sledding Spots in Prospect Park

January 22, 2016

Both through nature and by design, Prospect Park’s landscape is dotted with rolling hills, which makes it prime territory for winter sledding. Here are just a few of the top sledding destinations in Brooklyn’s Backyard, recommended by Christian Zimmerman, Prospect Park Alliance’s Chief Landscape Architect.

Long Meadow 

The Long Meadow is the longest stretch of uninterrupted meadow in any urban park in the nation, and was designed by Park creators Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux with a number of rolling hills. Add in the long incline sloping down from Tennis House (enter at 9th Street then cross West Drive), and you’ve got the perfect recipe for long-run sledding.

Lookout Hill

Lookout Hill is the highest point in the Park. A grassy, treeless swatch on the hill’s southwest side is steep enough to satisfy any sledder’s need for speed. From the Vanderbilt Street entrance head northeast toward Wellhouse Drive.

Drummer’s Grove

On snowy days there tends to be fewer drummers in the aptly named Drummer’s Grove (near the Parkside and Ocean entrance), but the sounds of sledding on the small hill across the East Drive near the LeFrak Center at Lakeside fill the sonic void.

Endale Arch

Enter the Park at Grand Army Plaza and head toward the Long Meadow via Endale Arch, then look to your left to scope out the short steep slope from the Park Drive to the meadow, a perfect place for first-time sledders.

 

Michael Moran/OTTO

Ice Skating Season is Around the Corner

October 20, 2015

The fall may be just underway, but ice skating season is around the corner at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside. Slated to begin October 31, this season enjoy expanded programs and clinics on the ice. There will also be opportunities to try these new offerings for free.  

The skate school is back, offering lessons, hockey clinics and an expanded figure skating program, including a slate of performances and showcases. Ice skating lessons are available for all ages, from special Parent/Child and Tots classes to beginner to advance levels for youth and adults. Lakeside’s Hockey Academy teaches the fundamentals of this ultimate winter sport, including beginner hockey lessons, and youth and adult clinics.

Love curling? Last year, Lakeside introduced this Olympic sport to Brooklyn for the first time in more than a century. This year, curling returns with an expanded schedule of introductory sessions and league play. The center is also introducing another sport—broomball, a hockey-like game played with brooms and sneakers. Ice skating skills are not required, anybody can play!

Not sure which of these fun, seasonal activities is the best fit for you? Try them for free. Lakeside will offer free lessons and clinics this season. Stay tuned for more details.

The LeFrak Center at Lakeside will feature a new seasonal menu at the Bluestone Café. Stop in for a hot chocolate and other tasty treats, and enjoy the view of the rinks from a table indoors or outdoors.

Learn more about skating programs.

c. Martin Seck

Halloween in Prospect Park

The Prospect Park Alliance presents its 36th Annual Halloween Haunted Walk and Fair on Saturday, October 24, from 12 to 3 pm. Join us on Lookout Hill and the Nethermead for an afternoon of free ghoulish fun.

Encounter zombies, werewolves, good (and not-so-good) witches, and other Halloween characters on a haunted walk through the winding paths of Lookout Hill, ideal for families with children ages 7-12. All ages can enjoy the Halloween Fair on the Nethermead, featuring family-friendly activities, as well as sweet and savory treats from some of the city’s best food trucks. This year, learn to draw Snoopy with Blue Sky Studio artists and meet the famous beagle from The Peanuts Movie.

Halloween activities will take place all weekend long throughout the Park. Discover spooky creatures at the Audubon Center at its annual Creepy Crawly Halloween, and get chills with Scary Stories at Lefferts Historic House with master storyteller Tammy Hall. Take a spin on the 1912 Carousel to your favorite Halloween jams, and enjoy Boo at the Zoo at the Prospect Park Zoo.

Learn more about Halloween in Prospect Park.

We need you! Volunteer to help the Prospect Park Alliance with this event. Sign up today as an actor, tour guide, make-up artist, or other behind-the-scenes roles!

The Prospect Park Alliance Halloween Haunted Walk and Fair is made possible through the support of the following sponsors:

PEANUTS MOVIE LOGO BLOCK.jpg

lakeside logo small.jpg

nyislanders logo small.png

Media Partners

Corner Media.jpg

News 12 Brooklyn

park slope parents.jpg

c. Virginia Freire

Audubon Takes Flight

April 14, 2015

From Nature Play to Bird Nerds Game Hour, this spring the Prospect Park Alliance is offering a slate of new and expanded free nature programs. Starting Saturday, April 18, the Alliance will open the Audubon Center at the historic Boathouse for weekend activities, add a second tent to its popular Pop-Up Audubon program, and launch Discovery Packs, ready-to-go kits filled with activities for families.

“The Alliance offers more than 800 programs serving 75,000 visitors each year throughout the Park, including the Audubon Center,” said Alliance President Sue Donoghue. “Providing families from neighborhoods across Brooklyn – and all over the city – with fun, creative ways to explore and learn about the Park’s natural areas and wildlife is an important part of our mission.”

The Prospect Park Audubon Center was established in 2002 through an innovative partnership between the Prospect Park Alliance and Audubon New York as the first Audubon Center in an urban park. Families are able to directly engage with nature through fun, play-based activities such as bird watching, catch-and-release fishing and citizen science projects. The expanded programming reflects both the popularity of Audubon activities with visitors, as well as the Alliance’s focus on increasing access to Park amenities for surrounding communities. 

Every Saturday and Sunday, the Alliance will offer family-friendly nature programming from 10 am until 1 pm at the Boathouse, such as Nature Play, an innovative game-centered approach to connecting kids with the great outdoors, and Blooming Naturalists, which introduces families to the Park’s vast variety of birds. The Alliance’s popular Pop-Up Audubon program, which launched in 2013 and occurs at locations around the Park, will double the fun with a second tent that explores the Park’s aquatic habitats.

In addition, Discovery Packs will be available at the Audubon Center and new Pop-Up Audubon tent that families can borrow to explore the Park. Similar to Pop-Up Audubon, the Discovery Packs will feature a new theme each month. In April, participants will play Habitat Bingo, searching for specific birds then designing nests. 

Check out the full schedule of programs.

c. Paul Martinka

Brooklyn Ice

March 16, 2015

This winter, Brooklyn Ice, a nonprofit organization that provides free afterschool figure skating lessons to community youth, returned to Prospect Park after a several year absence with the first full winter season of ice skating at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside.

Brooklyn Ice was founded over ten years ago in Prospect Park by Violet Eagan, a longtime figure skating coach, with the mission of making figure skating an accessible sport for underserved youth. The program launched in 2004 with just 12 neighborhood youth, and has grown to support over 60 youth, providing not only skating instruction but also academic tutoring and special workshops on nutrition, college preparation and more.

“Encouraging personal growth through sport and community is our goal,” says Eagan. “It’s a great opportunity for the kids to meet new friends outside of their regular school day while improving skate skills and becoming better members of the community.”

Participants in the program are recruited from schools neighboring Prospect Park, and the program brings together a diverse group over the course of several years, enabling youth to form long-term friendships. “My favorite thing about Brooklyn Ice is that it gets you moving,” said Lucero, a fifth grader at PS 10. “Your not just sitting in the house, you are having fun working with people.”

The program will run through March 23, when students will present their skills to the public at the Brooklyn Ice Annual Skating Show at 6 pm at the LeFrak Center. The ice show not only showcases the progress and efforts of the students participating in the program, but features guest performers including Jimmy Ma, a figure skating senior national competitor. Prospect Park Alliance members receive a $5 discount on advance ticket purchases using the code PPA15.

 

c. Martin Seck

Water, Water Everywhere!

July 1, 2014

Summer is heating up in Prospect Park, and with plenty of water-filled fun, it is the perfect place to cool off. At the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, enjoy a serene afternoon exploring Brooklyn’s only lake and take in scenic views of the White Levy Esplanade and Chaim Baier Music Island. 

Is water play more your family’s speed? In addition to the great water features located in the Park’s playgrounds, there’s a new place for children to soak up the summer fun. Open seven days a week, the new Splash Pad at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside has more than 40 sprays to cool down on a hot day. Before cooling off, work up a sweat roller skating around the covered rink, with new programs this summer including Toddler Tuesdays. Afterwards, enjoy some frozen treats from the LeFrak Center’s Bluestone Café and take in the park views and lake breeze.

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, families can also enjoy the Pop-Up Audubon Macy’s Fishing Clinics at the White Levy Esplanade at Lakeside and across the Lake at Wellhouse Drive. This family-friendly clinic will teach children how to tie a fishing knot, cast a line, and even collect their own bait.

With boating, water play and catch-and-fishing to enjoy, this might be the best Prospect Park summer yet. Share the fun on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at #prospectparksummer. We’ll select the best summer images for our Photo of the Week.