Member Spotlight on Staten Island Arts

During the month of May, GIA’s photo banner features work of GIA member Staten Island Arts.

Founded in 1992 by a group of community artists, Staten Island Arts is the borough’s local arts council serving a variety of artistic disciplines through its Grants Program for local artists and small arts organizations; Arts Education Program in schools and senior centers; Folklife Program with new & historic immigrant communities; and Contemporary Art Program such as LUMEN, a one-night video and performance art festival that attracts around 3,000 people each year.

Melanie Franklin Cohn, executive director of Staten Island Arts, shares about an exciting new venture that will serve as a nexus between creative enterprise, community-building, and the arts:

This summer, we will be opening a 2,500 square foot space at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in St. George called Culture Lounge. Culture Lounge is a multiform program space and an artist retail market located in a ferry transit hub that sees over 75,000 passengers a day. The goal of Culture Lounge is to create a nurturing space for local artists, heritage bearers, and small arts organizations to gain skills, whether through exhibits, productions, workshops, or retail market experience, while engaging new audiences.

Staten Island Arts hopes to use Culture Lounge as a ‘gateway’ for the wider public to get-to-know and engage with Staten Island Arts grantees, including local artists and heritage bearers. It will also create a space for grantees to test new programs and marketing/fundraising initiatives through pop-up events.

One new Staten Island Arts initiative that illustrates this is ‘Art Intersects,’ an entrepreneur and business development workshop series for grantees and community artists hosting hands-on workshops including topics on business planning, financial literacy, and product development. This series directly involves artists who are participating in the retail ‘Artist Market’ at the Culture Lounge, who will use the marketplace to test their ideas and products in a real retail environment, learning from experience as they hone entrepreneurial skill sets.