Those who work in the creative and cultural sectors are often cited for making a location desirable, and Staten Island Arts wanted to ensure the existing cultural and artistic assets were supported and had a place to expand and strengthen their impact during this time of change—and afterwards as well! To this end, Staten Island Arts submitted the Future Culture idea to the Design Trust for Public Space’s open call  and an independent jury selected the proposal in 2014.

In February 2016, the Design Trust, in partnership with the Alice Austen House and Staten Island Arts, held a jury to select a Photo Urbanism Fellow to document North Shore’s cultural community.

In August 2016, we announced an additional team of Fellows with expertise in participatory art, urban design, policy, and graphic design. Together we conducted brainstorming and feedback sessions with the local community, elected officials and developers to create a plan for connecting and activating public space along Staten Island’s North Shore waterfront.

The project team has built an unprecedented coalition: diverse Working Groups of local artists and cultural practitioners, developers, NYC Economic Development Corporation, and NYC Department of Small Business Services (NYC SBS). From 2016 to 2019, we implemented a range of engagement activities including an open house, two rounds of intensive six-session Working Group of 17 local cultural practitioners, numerous stakeholder meetings and interviews with city agencies and community groups, a survey distributed to a diverse set of 90 groups engaged in cultural activities, office hours with our Participatory Art Fellow, a peer review process with 21 reviewers, a public forum attended by 100 residents and workers, a public program as part of NYCxDesign attended by 60 locals, and four Roundtables of (10-20 attendees each) with the African and African-American community of Stapleton, the African-American community around Jersey Street, the Latinx community of Port Richmond, and youth in Tompkinsville. These engagement opportunities resulted in a set of guiding principles and a range of ideas that have directly informed the Future Culture planning and policy recommendations. In December 2016, we started publishing the Future Culture Newspaper in English, Spanish, Bengali, Sinhala, Tamil, and Urdu, to apprise the St. George, Tompkinsville, and Stapleton communities and policy makers with our activities and elicit their input. 

The Design Trust and Staten Island Arts released the Future Culture Initial Recommendations for design and programming on March 28, 2017, and following that, we issued a call to artists for proposals and announced two public art pilots, Sonic Gates and Court Yard Fridays, to test and advance Future Culture’s recommendations on promoting exploration of the Staten Island North Shore and re-imagining underused “in-between” spaces. on July 13, 2017.

The Future Culture exhibition showcasing the finalists and highlighting the two selected projects was on view from September through December 2017 at Staten Island Arts’ ArtSpace. The exhibition also featured an interactive map inviting artists, community members, and organizations to share examples of initiatives that Staten Islanders had been undertaking in the St. George, Tompkinsville, and Stapleton communities among others. 

The Future Culture Photo Urbanism Fellow Gareth Smit’s exhibition was on view at Alice Austen House from September 16 to December 10, 2017.