“Starving for Artists”
The cover story of this mornings’ AM New York “Starving for Artists - Pricey city forcing out creative talent” featured a photograph of Robert Elmes in Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg. Those in our little community are well aware of the troubles and tribulations Galapagos has faced with their rising rent, and yet they are just one of many. The article quoted that Manhattan apartment prices rose 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. As a resident of Manhattan who is about to experience a 62 percent increase in rent (and therefore will be moving) I don’t find that statistic shocking. But here we are again talking about the ever constant problem of living, working, and creating in a city that is pushing artists, art centers, and art administrators out. The article quoted that the Arts and Entertainment industry creates 160,300 jobs. Jobs we all know pay what they can but leave hard working employees searching for Ramen noodles as there main food substance. If New York - a city known for culture - continues on this path, art administrators, producers, executives and crews will no longer be able to live within an hour or two of the city, forcing the backbone of the art industry out, and cutting support systems for artists who are also struggling to get by. Before we know it New York City will be nothing but bankers.
Art Space in Brooklyn to Get New Digs
sk (January 6th, 2008 at 12:15 am)
I rarely pick up a paper in the morning, but this headline caught my eye and I was all too quick to grab one on my way to work last week. Unfortunately, the truth of this news deeply resonates with those of us who strive to create art while also living in this rapidly transforming city. Having called New York my home on and off for the past 7 years, I have been equally thrilled and dismayed by the evolution of its performing arts culture. True, there are more “affordable” rehearsal space venues in the 5 boroughs than ever before, but with them comes the formal structure of hourly rentals with selected availability, no room to store props, set or costume pieces, and spatially limited performance venues if any - all of which can inhibit and/or limit the work being created. It wasn’t so long ago that Bushwick, Brooklyn was the new, uncharted territory where artists learned to embrace the spacious lofts that existed in the industrial outskirts of Williamsburg – where rehearsal space wasn’t always timed by the minute, and unique, site-specific work was created on rooftops and on rollerskates. But those days are too, almost over, as warehouse venues are converted into expensive loft apartments, and once again artists are forced to seek out new, unconventional spaces to create and perform in, farther and farther from where many of them, and their potential audiences, work and live.
New York’s artists have always had the resourcefulness to reinvent themselves, but what happens when the actual resources and spaces run out? Are we doomed to pay out the nose to rent and perform in Manhattan’s remaining, tiny venues as capitalism takes over this city?