Sculptor Priced Out of Dumbo Studio Is Overwhelmed by Response to Article
Gabriel Koren’s story sounds all too familiar. The 68-year-old artist — lauded for making public sculptures of African American luminaries like Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X — has been priced out of her Dumbo workspace with nowhere else to go, according to an article in Sunday’s New York Times. But for Brownstoner, Koren’s story hits close to…
Gabriel Koren’s story sounds all too familiar. The 68-year-old artist — lauded for making public sculptures of African American luminaries like Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X — has been priced out of her Dumbo workspace with nowhere else to go, according to an article in Sunday’s New York Times.
But for Brownstoner, Koren’s story hits close to home. The studio she’s kept for the past 28 years is just one floor above our office at 68 Jay Street. When we visited her yesterday afternoon, Koren was overwhelmed by the response to the Times article.
“So many people call. I am very thankful that so many people are calling,” she told Brownstoner. Koren is still listening to her many voicemail messages. She welcomed the possibility of help.
Gabriel Koren’s Statue of Frederick Douglass (left) and Marcus Garvey (right). Photos via the artist.
Crated statues in Koren’s studio
The rent for Koren’s sculpting studio was formerly priced at $1,500 a month, which she split with another artist. In July, the rent rose to $3,000 a month after the landlord gave several extensions and delays on the rent increase in an effort to give Koren time to find a new space.
Her artwork is crated, her tools are packed. But securing a suitable workspace is a time-consuming process. “I haven’t been able to make art in a year,” she told us. “I’ve just been looking [for space]. I looked everywhere in the five boroughs.”
Chris Havens, a commercial real estate broker at Aptsandlofts.com told Brownstoner, “it’s almost impossible to find 1,000 feet [of space] in rough artist condition in Brooklyn today. The only other time the market for small space was this tight in Brooklyn was during World War II.”
Brownstoner, which has been based in Dumbo for years, has witnessed the neighborhood’s changes firsthand — artist space has gradually given way to office space.
“In 1996, you could get space here for $4 per square foot,” Chris Havens told Brownstoner. Today, he explained, the only Brooklyn neighborhood where someone like Koren could hope to sign a $12-per-square-foot lease would be in an industrial space in East New York.
“Industry City is worth $30 to 32 a foot if you can get it,” Havens said. “You might see space like that for $2,500 in Red Hook. Every once in a while there’s something in Red Hook. ”
The Center for an Urban Future noted in its recent Creative New York Report that the expansion of the tech industry and the residential rezoning of formerly industrial neighborhoods is having a significant impact on available artist space in the city.
The question isn’t whether or not artists are getting pushed out of affordable studio space, but rather what — if anything — should be done about it.
Priced out of Brooklyn, a Sculptor Seeks a New Studio to Rent [NY Times]
Creative Job Stats Every Brooklynite Should Know [Brownstoner]
If you were moved by her plight please act! Gabriel Koren has set up a GoFundMe page. Please donate and share this link: https://www.gofundme.com/2355f5s4
I’m an artist who owns a house. I didn’t earn the money to buy it; it came from my family.
I encourage fellow artists to tell their families to buy NYC property for them to live in. Artists make excellent homeowners. They are often home most of the time, aren’t afraid to do maintenance, will live in neighborhoods pre-gentrification, and are willing to stay in NYC through the ups and downs of the market. The artist gets a place to live. The family gets a return on their investment.
A friend of mine is an artist. His family bought a house in PLG for next to nothing. Nobody wanted to live there. He did basic maintenance, lived there, got them another artist for a tenant. Now its landmarked and worth 4x what they paid for it.
BTW there are still a lot of unused or underused industrial buildings floating around Brooklyn, say, adjacent to Greenwood cemetery, or in Flatbush near the Kings Theater. I would like to see a well-funded organization take the initiative to provide spaces. Couldn’t the Met buy one of these? or MOMA? or the Ballet, who perform in the Koch theater? The money is there. It makes sense. Artists used to have cheap studios in Carnegie hall, after all.
New York City is not for Artists anymore. Even those that took the opportunity and bought their buildings/spaces when they were cheap are leaving. Not because they are cashing in on the appreciated Real Estate values, but because the spirit is gone from the City. It is not conducive to real creativity anymore.
There is no live & let live anymore; neighbors do not speak to each other anymore, everyone is an anonymous critic. You cannot take a walk at 2.00 am to clear your head without being bothered, you cannot mix a paint…someone will be calling 311 to complain about a smell… heaven forbid you make a “strange” sound or look a little “bedraggled” or keep an erratic schedule…..
I had a rent controlled tenant in one of my buildings; a wonderful painter/musician, she up and left….because someone in the neighborhood kept call the health department to have her committed, because she “was a danger to herself”. She was NOT, she was eccentric, but wonderful and she certainly was not a danger to herself or others….she just wanted to be left alone.
I miss her.
The City is no longer conducive to real humane living.
Is there a list she can get on for a Westbeth studio?
Are you saying that Gabriel Koren is unsuccessful? Have you seen her work?? Artist success should never be measured in dollars and cents. By all accounts, Gabriel Koren is a successful artist. I hope that she can find suitable space here in Brooklyn.