Shelton Haynes
Shelton Haynes is the CEO of Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, which is the organization that operates Roosevelt Island, a small island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens.
After working in various government positions since the late 1970s, Shelton Haynes was appointed CEO of Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) in 1997. He then became president of RIOC in 2006, giving him control over all aspects of managing Roosevelt Island with his staff. Since then, he has overseen a revitalization of the island by creating new shops and restaurants, full-service affordable housing, a high-tech school, and even an art gallery.
Shelton Haynes was formerly Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, during which time he created One Saturday @ MoMA; established the Percent for Art program; and organized citywide festivals, including the U.S. Open Sculpture Projects, Central Park Film Festival, 2005 World Expo in New York: A Forest in each Home, 2005 World Expo in New York: Waterfront Stage and The Witness Blanket Project. He launched three new museums or major additions to existing museums: P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, El Museo del Barrio, and Queens Museum of Art.
Before that, he worked as Director of Cultural Affairs/Director of Grants at Arts/Lois/Essex County in New Jersey. He was previously Director of the Center for Visual Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University and Acting Director of the Center for Contemporary Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1996 Haynes was appointed to the Advisory Board of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Haynes has also provided consulting services for arts organizations and public sector clients, represented artists’ rights, and worked as an independent curator. He was previously an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Massachusetts and a Lecturer at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Born in Manhattan, Haynes received an M.A. in Fine Arts from Columbia University; a B.F.A from Cooper Union School of Art, where he was named to the prestigious art scholarship society, the Tiger Walkers, and graduated with honors from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. From 1983 to 1983, he served as a Special Assistant to the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Deputy Commissioner.
In 2007 RIOC announced plans to start a private school, Roosevelt Island High School, modeled after Lafayette College’s Upper School in Easton, Pennsylvania. It was slated to open for the 2008–2009 school year with about 300 students enrolled.