Don’t let the MTA’s new map design fool you: Staten Island is not shrinking. Not geographically. And certainly not artistically. The Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island is making sure that this truth is known. One look at their online calendar of arts and cultural events and you know: art is happening there. COAHSI’s Ginger Shulick tells us why the borough’s visual and performing artists deserve both our attention and patronage.

What is the mission of Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI)?

The mission of COAHSI is to cultivate a sustainable and diverse cultural community for the people of Staten Island by 1) making the arts accessible to every member of the community; 2) supporting and building recognition for artistic achievement; and 3) providing artists, organizations, and arts educators the technical, financial, and social resources to encourage cultural production.

What programs and services do you provide for artists to achieve this mission?

COAHSI offers several regrants throughout the year to individual artists and arts organizations, as well as to arts educators through its Arts-in-Education Program. Through Arts-in-Education, COAHSI also offers a Teaching Artist Institute to train professional artists to work in the schools. COAHSI’s Folk Arts program explores, documents, and shares the folk life of Staten Island.

We  offer technical assistance workshops and panels on a wide variety of topics such as grant-writing, creating artist statements, portfolio development, and project budgeting and financing. COAHSI also offers a bi-weekly e-blast of funding and exhibiting opportunities for individual artists of all disciplines, as well as an online artist registry and weekly e-blast for artists to advertise their work and upcoming exhibitions.

Please describe the current arts scene on Staten Island.

COAHSI actively works with the emerging art scene on Staten Island. In January 2010, The Assembly Room Gallery started Second Saturdays, a monthly art walk that takes places in artists’ studios, apartments, and commercial spaces in the St. George neighborhood. An artist collective, the Staten Island Creative Community, produces “Art by the Ferry”, a series of exhibitions and performances for two weekends in June, now in its third year. This group also recently opened a community gallery called Art at Bay to highlight the work of this collective.

COAHSI also helps to present work by local artists on Staten Island through special exhibitions and events such as “Mapping Staten Island”, a temporary art space and exhibition that took place at the New York Container Terminal, and “LUMEN”, a video and projection art festival featuring the work by both emerging Staten Island artists and more established video artists from around the world. More information on this festival can be found at www.lumenfest.org.

Do the artist communities of Staten Island have needs that are different from those in NYC’s other boroughs?

Staten Island, as the “forgotten borough”, has needs that are quite different from other boroughs. Transportation is a huge barrier preventing Staten Island from realizing its full potential. One can either drive over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, paying an $11 toll to do so, or take a free ferry that takes 25 minutes from Lower Manhattan. Despite the negative connotations attached to Staten Island, partially from MTV shows like “The Jersey Shore” and the True Life series, there is a thriving arts community on Staten Island, particularly in the north-shore neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, and Stapleton. Artists struggle for recognition, as curators, gallery representatives and collectors — not to mention audiences — are sometimes unwilling to travel the distance to Staten Island to take in art, music, or other performances.

What is one fact about the arts on Staten Island that you wish was more widely known?

The fastest growing borough, Staten Island is home to artists that exhibit all over the world — they choose to make their home in this scenic borough. There are good artists here and an active, supportive arts community.

Have you seen an increase in demand for any of your services in particular during these tough economic times?

Over the past year, while city and state funds were decreasing, COAHSI saw a dramatic increase in the amount of applicants to its regrants. This was partially due to expanded community outreach, but also due to the influx of artists moving to Staten Island.

When and how do you know that you are succeeding in your mission?

COAHSI actively works to reach every member of the community, specifically through its Folk Arts and Arts-in-Education programs.  Folk Arts works actively with the growing immigrant and ethnic populations on Staten Island — these communities are becoming better grant writers, exhibiting and performing across Staten Island, and gaining more recognition. Further, if more artists on Staten Island receive awards and commissions outside of Staten Island, if audiences from outside of Staten Island attend exhibitions and performances here in increasing numbers, and more and better press covers events on Staten Island, then COAHSI will have succeeded in its mission.

How people can get involved with COAHSI?

We frequently have volunteer opportunities for our larger events. All of COAHSI’s events are free and open to the public. A complete listings of events can be found on our Cultural Calendar.

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If you are an arts organization based in the United States with 50 or more members, or if you have a defined constituency of 50+ artists who you support, you may be eligible to participate in Fractured Atlas’s Open Arts Network. Contact Adam Natale for more information: adam.natale@fracturedatlas.org, 212-277-8023.

Photo credits:
1) Pancha Thurya Hevisi Drum Group. Photo courtesy of Mike Shane Photography.
2) Mandy Morrison performing in “Mapping Staten Island”. Photo courtesy of David Giordano.
3) Local band Orchard. Photo courtesy of Mike Shane Photography.
4) Staten Island Water Museum by Nick Fevelo at “Mapping Staten Island”. Photo courtesy of David Giordano.