Young artists from the Staten Island's local scene have rallied around COAHSI's (Council on Arts and Humanities on Staten Island) grant director Ginger Shulick, who appears to be headed out the door. People have been lighting up the Facebooks and Twitters with a petition to try and save her job.
"If u know Ginger Shulick then u probably have been inspired to create more art on staten island. People want her fired. Don't let them."
via FB
The issue seems to be the grant-giving process, and some perceived "bias" on the panel that distributes the grants. Complaints have been made from some in the community about latest COAHSI grant process. Though like many things on Staten Island it's been boiled down to two groups. These people and these people.
A town-hall meeting was set up to address the issue, but has been rescheduled. Here is the statement from COAHSI.
"There have been several rumors circulating in the community about how the panel process is structured and how decisions on grantmaking are made, and we encourage you to engage in this dialogue on the process as we continually create panels that are as fair and unbiased as possible."
So it seems that people are mad about the grant process, those people wanted a meeting, a meeting was postponed until Wednesday, January 13th, and now what?
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ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteWhile I greatly appreciate the effort that you have put into this blog, your reportage boiling down the issues here to two groups at odds is greatly reductive. I am friends with Ginger and the COAHSI staff; members of the SIcoLab, including the steering committee and other active members; and the leadership at SICC. In the past year I have volunteered with all three of these organizations and worked along side all of the people I just mentioned very closely. Indeed, toward gaining insight into the situation, I have been engaged in discussion and thoughtful listening to various points of view today. If you report on a situation, it would be in everyone's best interest if, rather than reporting gossip and stirring an already fraught situation with more hyperbolic description, you directed your positive intentions toward responsible, analytical journalism.