Staten Island Arts

COAHSI’s 20th Anniversary Ga.la is just a few days away. It’s a time when we celebrate the people who have become indispensable to the Staten Island arts scene. And who can that more accurately describe then art critic Michael Fressola? Michael is receiving the Achievement in the Arts and Humanities award this year and you can buy tickets to join us in celebrating him here! We cornered him to ask a few questions about highlights from his career so far.

COAHSI: COAHSI is honoring you for your work as a writer and reporter. What led you to a career in writing and journalism?

Michael Fressola: I came to journalism by default. In the mid-70s when I was out of college and on the loose, with student loans to pay off, it was a lot like today. There wasn’t much work. There was an opening here at the Advance. I grabbed it.

In my early days, newspaper reporters were still learning the drill by “doing police,” covering fire/murder/mayhem. I was terrible at it. My bosses figured that out pretty fast and found other things for me to attempt.

C: Can you share some of the highlights of your career so far? Moments that stand out to you or that just makes a great story?

MF: Highlights? Difficult to say. The Island arts scene is diverse and crabby, sophisticated and insular, arrogant and insecure. I like it a lot. But getting out, off-Island, is great too.

When the ex-Alvin Ailey dancer Clive Thompson had a company on the Island, the president of Jamaica invited him to tour the Caribbean. They took me along. It was crazy, a lot of work and a lot of fun.

I recall “Invisible Thread,” at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art very fondly.

Also, I heard Ingrid Michaelson at a party in Rosebank just before her career took off. She sang a Sondheim tune and a song her dad wrote. She caught fire. Everyone in the room knew that a star had just shot into the sky…

The problem is I get to see/hear great stuff so regularly, I’m spoiled, although I will say that “LUMEN” a couple of months ago at Atlantic Salt was dazzling.

C: Thank you for the “LUMEN” plug, and in such great company! One last question, Joan Caddell and the Midnight Choir is performing at the gala and they want to learn a song to perform just for you. What’s that song?

MF: “Desperado,” “Lush Life,” or “Skylark.”