Project Overview
Staten Island’s waterfront is home to hundreds of artists and arts organizations in the Naturally Occurring Cultural District of St. George, Tompkinsville, and Stapleton. The area hosts multiple private development projects and related NYC government initiatives, such as the Bay Street Corridor Plan. This diverse downtown community faces challenges in planning for cohesive, quality public space during this rapid transformation.
Future Culture will develop and communicate a vision for how art and cultural practices can enrich the public- and privately-controlled 'public realm' of Staten Island’s North Shore and express the unique conditions of its waterfront. The project will produce design concepts, planning documents, and develop policy recommendations to share with key public officials and private stakeholders, informing strategies for neighborhood revitalization, sustainability, and equitable economic development.
Project Background
In 2014,
the Design Trust conducted an open Request for Proposals, The Energetic City: Connectivity in the Public Realm, to
give life to the city by connecting people through innovative design informed
by the needs and aspirations of community users. An independent jury
selected Staten Island Arts’ proposal to partner with the Design Trust in
creating a model of inclusive development using public art to link the cultural
assets of Staten Island neighborhoods. Since then, Design Trust and Staten
Island Arts developed the scope of the project, working with Cornell University
architecture and planning students to research and analyze the physical and
social landscape of the area, and meeting with
numerous stakeholders including artists, community members, developers, and
representatives from NYC agencies.
The Design Trust, Staten Island Arts, and the Alice Austen House, awarded the Future Culture Photo Urbanism Fellowship to Gareth Smit in March 2016 to document the cultural community of the North Shore in a time of transformation. The Fellowship will complement the broader Future Culture project and inform the team’s work.
Key Project Activities
- Engage the Local Community and Stakeholders:
The project team led by the Design Trust and its Fellows will plan and implement a comprehensive stakeholder engagement strategy, i.e., interviews, workshops, public forums, to assess public space needs and identify high-impact opportunities, bringing together the local cultural community and neighborhood stakeholders, developers, and city agencies.
- Develop and Communicate the Future Culture Plan:
The project team will research and analyze the physical and social conditions of the area, and its cultural community, synthesize feedback from stakeholders, and recommend ways to enrich the area’s 'public realm', producing a four-edition project newspaper and cultural plan.
- Test and Promote the Future Culture Plan:
The project team will develop the core components of a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for public art pilots (pilot funds pending). The project team, selected artists, and stakeholders will test and promote the cultural plan to the public, policy makers, key stakeholders, and media. Staten Island Arts will hold an exhibition at the Culture Lounge located inside the St. George Ferry Terminal in the fall of 2017 documenting lessons learned from the planning and piloting process.
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Deliverables will include the following:
- Four-edition Future Culture newspaper;
- Future Culture plan, including written and visual documentation, and recommendations;
- Future Culture RFQ for public art pilots;
- Future Culture exhibition at Staten Island Art’s Culture Lounge at the St. George Ferry Terminal.
Process deliverables may include documentation
drawings, memoranda from meetings, visual presentations, draft visual and
written recommendations, and an assessment of piloting the plan.
Fellowship Overview
Design Trust Fellows are leading professionals in their field, and are chosen for
their talent, expertise, experience, and strong qualifications. Fellows must
have a demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively, as
well as direct experience producing deliverables similar to those stated in the
Fellow Description.
The Design Trust process is open and collaborative. Fellows must work effectively with one another, the project partners, Design Trust staff, and community stakeholders. Fellows bring their skills and expertise to bear on the project, uncovering innovative responses to the city’s most vexing challenges and pushing for creative thinking. Together with the Design Trust, project partner, and community stakeholders, Fellows create unique design solutions that generate systemic or policy change for New York City’s public space.
Design Trust projects require significant time commitments from Fellows to work with multiple stakeholders, develop implementable design strategies, and produce final deliverables. Fellows are expected to devote approximately 1-2 days per week to the project. Stipends are awarded to the Fellow commensurate with prior experience.
Firm principals and sole proprietors are encouraged to apply, understanding that the fellowship is time consuming and the compensation is modest. Professionals with full-time positions may apply if they have the support of their employers; recognition of firms can be arranged. Students are not eligible to apply.
All applicants must have the legal ability to work in the United States and must be located in the New York City area for participation in meetings and events.
Fellowship Descriptions, Responsibilities, and Qualifications
Participatory Art Fellow (open to Staten Island Residents only)
The Participatory Art Fellow will serve as the lead Fellow and will be responsible for community organizing and engagement, and the visioning process for how art and other cultural practices can enrich the ‘public’ realm of the area and express the unique conditions of its waterfront.
Working with staff from the Design Trust and Staten Island Arts, and the Urban Design, Policy, Graphic Design, and Photo Urbanism Fellows, the Participatory Art Fellow will:
- Devise an inclusive stakeholder strategy to bring together artists, arts organizations, other cultural practitioners, and the broader community with the participating developers and city agencies;
- Plan and facilitate workshops and other types of engagement (tbd); lead presentations, and interface with a broad range of stakeholders, including multiple public agencies and community groups;
- Research and analyze innovative public art case studies, and refine a set of community-based ideas and best practices for the integration of art in the built environment, to be included in the resulting cultural plan;
- Consider how cultural activities in the area’s 'public realm' can accommodate the local population, regional visitors, and domestic and international tourists, negotiating potential conflicting priorities and capitalizing on synergies;
- Contribute content, co-produce, and distribute a four-edition newspaper;
- Develop key written and visual recommendations for the Future Culture plan;
- Outline core components of an RFQ for public art pilots;
- Work with selected artists to test key aspects of the Future Culture plan;
- Conduct an assessment of the piloting process (pending funding), identifying key lessons learned for the Future Culture exhibition;
- Promote the Future Culture plan within the local community and a targeted group of public and private stakeholders.
Candidates must reside in Staten Island (resident for at least one year to date), demonstrate familiarity with the cultural community in New York City and Staten Island in particular, and should have three to five years of relevant experience. Preference will be given to candidates who have realized multidisciplinary art projects, demonstrated community-organizing skills with a proven ability to engage and retain constituency and/or partnerships, and those who have led inclusive visioning processes or community-based cultural projects across different neighborhoods. Knowledge of the field of public art is a plus. Candidates should have significant experience in visually communicating and writing about complex issues for a broad public audience; fluency in Spanish is a plus.
The ideal candidate will be: an inspiring and dedicated leader who is passionate about effecting change in their community; a critical thinker and clear communicator with strong public speaking skills; an ethical individual with a commitment to equity, diversity, tolerance, and collegiality; an approachable and gracious person, with the ability to relate to a spectrum of experiences and backgrounds.
Urban Design Fellow
The Urban Design Fellow will be responsible for the physical documentation and analysis of the area, identification of key sites, and recommendations for effectively facilitating and integrating public art and cultural activities into the built environment.
Working with staff from the Design Trust and Staten Island Arts, and the Participatory Art, Policy, Graphic Design, and Photo Urbanism Fellows, the Urban Design Fellow will:
- Create comprehensive documentation of the existing and future (immediate and long-term) conditions of the study area, incorporating both public and privately-controlled sites, and coordinating with the Bay Street Corridor Plan and other city initiatives;
- Consider how the area’s 'public realm' can accommodate the local population, regional visitors, and domestic and international tourists, negotiating potential conflicting priorities and capitalizing on synergies;
- Consider how climate change will affect the waterfront and how it can inform approaches to cultural uses of the 'public realm';
- Propose where public art and cultural activities could have the most impact; what types of impact, and for whom;
- Explore the opportunities and challenges for presentation and production of work at key sites and consider how activation of the waterfront area can extend upland;
- Lead presentations, and interface with a broad range of stakeholders, including multiple public agencies and community groups;
- Contribute content and co-produce a four-edition newspaper;
- Develop key written and visual (drawn) recommendations for the Future Culture plan.
- Outline core components of an RFQ for public art pilots;
- Work with selected artists to test key aspects of the Future Culture plan;
- Conduct an assessment of the piloting process (pending funding), identifying key lessons learned for the Future Culture exhibition;
- Promote the Future Culture plan within the local community and a targeted group of public and private stakeholders.
Candidates should have at least five years of relevant work experience and a degree in urban design, landscape architecture, or architecture. Preference will be given to candidates who have realized multidisciplinary projects related to waterfront development, public plazas, streetscapes, and transportation infrastructure and multimodal systems. Knowledge of the field of public art and waterfront development is a plus. Candidates should have significant experience in graphically communicating and writing about complex issues for a broad public audience; fluency in Spanish is a plus. Proficiency in CAD software and Adobe Creative Suite is required.
Policy Fellow
The Policy Fellow will be responsible for assessing the structural and systemic challenges of the area's public- and privately-controlled 'public realm', opportunities associated with the way artists, arts organizations, cultural groups, and informal practitioners present and produce work in the area, and how these issues should be addressed to define the character of public space and grow the cultural community in this time of transformation.
Working with staff from the Design Trust and Staten Island Arts, and the Participatory Art, Urban Design, Graphic Design, and Photo Urbanism Fellows, the Policy Fellow will:
- Analyze how cultural practitioners are presenting, producing, and living in the area, and related challenges and opportunities, interfacing with the local arts community, private stakeholders, and city agencies, coordinating where appropriate with the city’s cultural plan that is currently underway, the Bay Street Corridor Plan, and retail/commercial corridor initiatives of NYC Department of Small Business Services and NYC Economic Development Corporation;
- Consider how the operation and management of the area’s 'public realm' can accommodate the local population, regional visitors, and domestic and international tourists, negotiating potential conflicting priorities and capitalizing on synergies;
- Propose models or mechanisms that should be employed to ensure the equitable economic development of the area;
- Develop an economic impact analysis of key recommendations of the Future Culture plan;
- Lead presentations, and interface with a broad range of stakeholders, including multiple public agencies and community groups;
- Contribute content to and co-produce a four-edition newspaper;
- Develop key written recommendations for the Future Culture plan;
- Outline core components of an RFQ for public art pilots;
- Work with selected artists to test key aspects of the Future Culture plan;
- Conduct an assessment of the piloting process (pending funding), identifying key lessons learned for the Future Culture exhibition;
- Promote the Future Culture plan within the local community and a targeted group of public and private stakeholders.
Candidates should have at least five years of relevant work experience and a Masters in public administration, business, real estate or planning, or a related field. Preference will be given to candidates who have worked on multidisciplinary projects related to waterfront development and neighborhood stabilization. Knowledge of the arts, and the field of public art is a plus. Candidates should have significant experience in writing about complex issues for a broad public audience; fluency in Spanish is a plus.
Graphic Design Fellow
The Graphic Design Fellow will be responsible for developing the identity and graphic system for the project to effectively communicate and deploy design-thinking with diverse audiences throughout the Future Culture process.
Working with staff from the Design Trust and Staten Island Arts, and the Participatory Art, Urban Design, Policy, and Photo Urbanism Fellows, the Graphic Design Fellow will:
- Develop visual and multilingual tools for the community and stakeholder engagement process to encourage creative, meaningful, and diverse participation;
- Consider the role of graphic systems within the Future Culture plan, including identity for the Naturally Occurring Cultural District, as well as wayfinding, signage, and environmental graphic components, in coordination with other community-based and city agency initiatives, such as WalkNYC;
- Consider how graphic systems in the area’s 'public realm' can accommodate the local population, regional visitors, and domestic and international tourists, negotiating potential conflicting priorities and capitalizing on synergies;
- Design the four-edition Future Culture newspaper to communicate the project process and key issues;
- Develop written and visual recommendations for the Future Culture plan related to graphic systems and identity;
- Design the Future Culture plan publication, to be used by cultural practitioners and private and public entities as a tool for activating and enriching the area’s 'public realm';
- Outline core components of an RFQ for public art pilots;
- Work with selected artists to test key aspects of the Future Culture plan and design signage and/or wayfinding for public art pilots (pending funding);
- Conduct an assessment of the piloting process (pending funding), identifying key lessons learned for the Future Culture exhibition;
- Design the Future Culture exhibition, to communicate lessons learned in the planning and piloting process;
- Promote the Future Culture plan within the local community and a targeted group of public and private stakeholders.
The Fellow will be expected to produce written and graphic work, lead presentations, and interface with a broad range of stakeholders, including multiple public agencies and community groups. Candidates should have three to five years of relevant work experience and a degree in Graphic Design or a related field. Preference will be given to candidates who have experience working in the public realm and with diverse communities, and at multiple scales, ranging from book design to wayfinding. Knowledge of the arts, and the field of public art is a plus. Candidates should have significant experience in graphically communicating complex issues for a broad public audience; working directly with and presenting to clients; working on collaborative projects or in teams; fluency in Spanish is a plus.
Fellowship Benefits
Design Trust Fellows receive benefits that advance their immediate and long-term career growth. Participation in a Design Trust project gives Fellows the opportunity to explore an urban issue in-depth and make a tangible effect on New York City’s public realm. Additional benefits include:
- Introductions to and opportunities for significant engagement with policymakers, community leaders, and professionals from other disciplines;
- An honorarium, approximately $10,000, depending on the scope of work and experience of the Fellow;
- Participation in speaking engagements associated with the project or related topic (both Design Trust events and programs organized by peer organizations);
- Opportunities for recognition in local and national media coverage of the project;
- Credit as a Design Trust Fellow for life, including:
- Recognition on the Design Trust website with biographic information and the opportunity to highlight awards and latest news;
- Inclusion of professional milestones in the Design Trust newsletter;
- Invitation to Fellows Forum events;
- Honorary Membership in Design Trust Council, the leadership circle of the Design Trust for Public Space, for a year, including invitations to Design Trust Council events.
How to Apply
Candidates should send a single PDF (maximum of 10 pages and 5 MB), including a cover letter specifying the Fellowship category they are applying for, a curriculum vitae, and a sample of relevant work to fellowship@designtrust.org. The deadline to apply is July 5, 2016 at 5 PM.
Interviews will be scheduled July 7 – 8, 2016. Please note: candidates under consideration will be contacted by e-mail. No phone calls to Design Trust, please.
Selected applicants should be available to begin work the week of July 25, 2016 and remain available part-time through October 2017.