STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Alice Austen House has received a $250,000 grant from the Richmond County Savings Foundation (RCSF) to transform the grounds of the National Historic Landmark and museum once belonging to renowned Staten Island photographer Alice Austen.
In an announcement made on the grounds of the Rosebank site on Tuesday afternoon, the Alice Austen House was named the recipient of RCSF’s year-long, competitive Innovation Grant program. The program asked Staten Island organizations to submit their most innovative ideas for programs and projects. Forty submissions were received and — after three rounds of reviews — the Alice Austen House was selected as the winner.
“It came down to five finalists, and they all had really good proposals. but what separated [the Alice Austen House] was that you’re ready to go,” said Cesar Claro, executive director of RCSF. “We know it’s hard working through the system to get approvals, particularly for a project of this size. The quality of the portfolio, and the fact that you recently did a renovation, shows that things are really moving up in the museum, kind of put it over the top.”
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The grant will help transform the exterior of the Alice Austen House, which will extend and support the work of the museum to serve the diversity of the community more fully. The outdoor environment aims to enhance community engagement among the most vulnerable Staten Island residents.
Plans include using large-scale outdoor interpretive panels, a community garden, functional seating, defined activity spaces, and the removal of barriers between the park and the surrounding community — hoping to inspire wider community participation.
“When I was able to bring home this reinterpretation of all of the galleries, it was really time to start thinking forward to the exterior space, and of course with COVID-19, the public — they…
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