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Melanie Cohen, Executive Director Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI) St. George, Staten Island

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WELCOME TO STATEN ISLAND!

Although presumed to be homogenous, Staten Island is home to a great deal of diversity, including a large West African population (with immigrants from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana), a large Puerto Rican community and the largest Sri Lankan community outside of Sri Lanka. It is also the fastest growing borough. Home to 500,000 residents, Staten Island is NYCs smallest borough. But consider that its larger than New Orleans and Atlantaand continues to grow (by about 20% since the early 1990s).

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But the boroughs arts infrastructure has not kept pace with this growth. In 2009, COAHSI received a Rockefeller Foundation Cultural Innovation Fund grant to examine how it could address this lack of infrastructure. Through this grant and support from Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, COAHSI has leased a 2500 sq ft space at the Staten Island ferry terminal, that will open to the public as a project space in late fall 2012.

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COAHSIs storefront Culture Lounge and ofce space will offer a gateway to experience Staten Islands cultural community.

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SPACE PLAN 1,200 square feet of gallery space Flexibility for groups to create quiet meeting spaces An open ofce plan 6 desks a receptionist counter transparency to the ferry area

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CHALLENGES: Navigating a complex web of city and federal agency regulations. Communication with these partners is very important. But sometimes it's difcult to know who is responsible for what in a given space. In the ferry terminal, we work with NYC DOT, Homeland Security, the NYCEDC and NYC DOB for build-out permits. Agencies also have different missions. NYC DOT is primarily concerned with keeping tens of thousands of passengers moving through the ferry terminal each day, meaning we must account for their needs alongside our desire to encourage visitation and congregation.

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OPPORTUNITIES: Forecasting and planning has proved very important. In relocating to the ferry terminal, COAHSI faces new populations. April 29, 2012, for example, 77,447 riders passed through the space. If even 5% of those riders come into COAHSI's new space, it will mean 300 visitors an hour (as opposed to maybe 4 in our current Snug Harbor ofce!). Were working to balance a ramp-up of staff support and infrastructure to serve these new populations while preserving the one-on-one support and services that our local artists and organizations expect.

PUBLICLY OWNED BUILDINGS Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI) St. George, Staten Island statenislandarts.org/culture-lounge.html

a case study example from

A Forum on Innovative Cultural Uses of Urban Space

Organized by New York Naturally Occurring Cultural District working group (NOCD-NY)

www.nocdny.org