Meet our Interim Executive Director, Shana M. griffin

Shana brings a wide-ranging track record of leadership, organizational development, program design, and managerial experience to Antenna, along with an extensive interdisciplinary practice as a feminist researcher, activist, artist, and applied sociologist. Shana’s work extends across the fields of sociology, geography, land-use planning, and socially engaged art and within movements challenging urban displacement, carcerality, reproductive control, and gender-based violence. 

She also brings deep New Orleans roots to Antenna. Born and raised in New Orleans and informed by her activism and art practice, Shana is deeply committed to engaging in research, collaborations, and art practices that attend to the lived experiences of the Black Diaspora, Indigenous peoples, communities of color, women, and LGBTQ-GNC creators with opportunities to produce projects, exhibitions, events, and published works. 

Since joining Antenna in January as Associate Director, Shana oversaw the creative and operational direction of programs, including the Platforms Fund, 20/20 Reflections on Water series,   Spillways Residency, and later the launch of Creative Response–a collaborative art and movement building relief initiative established in direct response to the COV-19 pandemic. Since initiating the launch of Creative Response through Shana’s leadership, Antenna partnered with Ashe Cultural Arts Center, Junebug Productions, and The Weavers Fellowship in raising $732,000 for the Creative Response Collaborative Relief Fund–supporting 610 artists, performers, and creators, writers, and culture bearers across the Greater Metro Area; convened a network of over 100 artists and art-based organizations serving as a resource hub of information, opportunities, support, and advocacy to advance a more just arts community;  and distributed over 14,000 art and activity kits to youth across the city. 

As Interim Executive Director, Shana will continue Antenna’s work of being ‘being a vital participant in the life of the city through the creation and support of artist- and writer-driven programs’ through a robust slate of programming, partnership, and new initiatives, working with alongside Antenna’s staff, board, collective, and the broader community.