Sand sculptors are heading back to Beach 108th Street on September 13, when Creative Time revives its Sandcastle Competition at Rockaway Beach for the first time since 2013. Artists will spend three hours, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., piling and carving sand into elaborate temporary sculptures while spectators watch the works take shape on the open beach.
The nonprofit first staged the contest at Rockaway Beach in 2012 and brought it back in 2013, but the event then went dark for over a decade, according to Time Out. Early editions featured artists including Tom Sachs, Snarkitecture, Dustin Yellin and Duke Riley, per the outlet's reporting. This year's roster of participating artists includes Anthony Akinbola, Dean Millien, Rachel Rossin, Gabriela Ruiz, Marianna Simnett, Eliza Douglas, Chiffon Thomas and Victoria Martinez, alongside the Canal Street Research Association, who will compete for the win.
“Creative Time is thrilled to bring its Sandcastle Competition back to the Rockaways,” Jean Cooney said in a statement, per the report. The event invites artists to take over a New York City public space and create ambitious, ephemeral work, a mission that has defined the organization's approach to public art for decades.
A Judging Panel With Deep Roots in the Rockaways
This year's judging panel includes Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak, designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia, artist Pedro Reyes, Rockaway Hotel owner Michi Jigarjian, and Julio Torres, creator of Problemista. Reyes previously created Doomocracy, one of several Creative Time artist-led projects that also includes Tribute in Light and Kara Walker's A Subtlety. Ahluwalia has history with the contest as well — he served as a guest judge back in August 2013 alongside Klaus Biesenbach, joining that year's returning judges Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw, the artist duo who won the inaugural 2012 competition, according to Art Observed.
Whichever team the five judges select this year will take home a custom golden shovel trophy, according to event details published by Creative Time. The winning artists' celebration will continue afterward at The Rockaway Hotel, the boutique property that opened in September 2020 under partner and Chief Social Impact Officer Michi Jigarjian as a year-round cultural hub with dedicated artist residency programs, per reporting from The Wave.
Why the Contest Vanished for So Long
The gap between sandcastle competitions wasn't a coincidence of scheduling. Superstorm Sandy struck Rockaway Beach in October 2012, just two months after that first contest, destroying large sections of the boardwalk and triggering a multi-year concrete boardwalk reconstruction that wasn't completed until May 2017, according to ENR. The peninsula's slow rebuild helps explain why a beloved public art tradition sat dormant for 13 years before returning to the same stretch of sand.
Rockaway Beach has since rebounded significantly as a destination, recording 3.7 million visitors during the 2025 summer season alone, per Rockaway Passport. Beach 108th Street, this year's competition site, also serves as the main peninsula terminal for the NYC Ferry Rockaway route, which launched in May 2017 to connect lower Manhattan and Brooklyn directly to the shoreline, according to the MTA.
Getting There and What to Know Before You Go
The September 13 date lands on the official final day of NYC Parks' summer beach season, when lifeguards remain on duty daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. across city shorelines, per Rockaway Passport. Visitors biking to the event should note that NYC Parks restricts bicycle riding on the boardwalk between Beach 73rd and Beach 108th Streets during peak hours, limiting cyclists to 6 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., according to The Rockaway Times; cyclists arriving later are redirected to protected bike lanes along Shore Front Parkway.
The 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. sandcastle competition on the beach is free and open to the public with RSVP. The Sandcastles Benefit Bash that follows, running from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at The Rockaway Hotel with music from DJ Maya Margarita plus drinks and surprises, requires a paid ticket, with tax-deductible proceeds supporting Creative Time's artist-led public projects, according to event listing site AllEvents. Founded in 1974 with its inaugural public project staged in a vacant Financial District building, Creative Time has presented more than 400 site-specific installations across five decades, per Family Style — a legacy this year's Rockaway return is meant to extend.
