Fall for Arts 2022 was in jeopardy last month. RIOC‘s troubled President/CEO Shelton J. Haynes told managers that he was canceling the event. The meeting was in his bunker on the second floor of Blackwell House. But members of the group told him the idea was bonkers. The community of artists counted on the spotlight it brought to Roosevelt Island. Finally, the managers prevailed.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Haynes’s reason for canceling Fall for Arts 2022 was troubling. After firing so many key players at RIOC, including those who’d managed the event for years, no one was left with enough bandwidth to manage it. Overseeing it himself was laughable.
But one manager argued that a set procedure was already in place. Just follow it. But who? The group rallied around a suggestion that the Roosevelt Island Visual Art Association (RIVAA) be recruited for the job. RIVAA, after all, partnered with them for years.
And now, that idea sailed through as the local artists’ collective announced Fall for Arts 2022.
RIOC has not announced Fall for Arts 2022 so far, leaving even that to RIVAA.
In a rush to get the announcement out, RIVAA hastily borrowed material from earlier Fall for Arts, including the mistake of calling the Rivercross Lawn “Meditation Lawn.” The error conflates the nearby Meditation Steps with a grassy area for picnicking, chilling out and exercising.
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