Report: NYC Artists an Endangered Breed
It’s an old story, but let’s hear it again: Up go the rents, out go the artists. A new report from the Research Center for Arts and Culture at Columbia’s Teachers College makes the case that New York real estate values are driving artists to lower-cost cities and that the city’s cultural capital is endangered,…

It’s an old story, but let’s hear it again: Up go the rents, out go the artists. A new report from the Research Center for Arts and Culture at Columbia’s Teachers College makes the case that New York real estate values are driving artists to lower-cost cities and that the city’s cultural capital is endangered, according to an article in today’s Sun. The report, entitled “Above Ground,” is based on interviews with 213 visual artists between the ages of 62 and 97. The artists interviewed earned a median income of $30,000 and 44 percent of them live in rent-regulated apartments. The report recommends that the city recycle buildings for artists to live and work in and designate areas in new condos for galleries run by artists. “New York is at risk if we lose that creative community,” said Theodore Berger, the project director of Urban Arts Initiative. “We risk becoming what Paris has become: filled with wonderful institutions, but with no living, breathing community.” Sacre bleu?
New York in Danger of Losing Its Artists [NY Sun]
Photo by jennpelly
what about the artists that are just starting out, 3:44?
they all have money too?
could you be any more narrow minded…?
i too know a lot of artists with a lot of money. if you are truly talented, the money comes pretty quick.
so many commercial enterprises succeed only by finding people to create content. this is true from interior design to advertising to the music biz to theater. my own stepbrother was making a lot of money prior to even graduating college as a musical theater/opera singer. he got on broadway on his FIRST tryout. good is good people.
if you have no money, that’s a pretty good indication that your art/talent is probably really bad.
i work with photographers and many can market themselves to galleries, magazines and ad agencies. the good ones make excellent money and the not good ones, very little.
writers can supplement income all sorts of ways too including selling their work to hollywood.
don’t buy that we need to subsidize people who are perfectly capable of making a good living.
2:45, no one debates that teachers do an ‘important’ job. but I know lot of teachers who are petchulant, and i know alot of artists who are down to earch. So STFU with your generalizations and get back to your spreadsheets. Or diapaer your baby or whatever the hell it is you do that affords you such a grand view of society.
Most people in New York…3:19 sadly wish New York was more like Akron, Ohio than Paris.
Some really uncultured slobs with a lot of money in this city.
God forbid New York ever become like Paris. Sacré bleu indeed.
Teachers are far more interesting than artists. They do an important job, have more interesting stories, and are more down-to-earth.
Artists, on the other hand, are immature, petulant, and have a grandiose sense of self-importance. Plus, they’re always looking for a handout, either from family or the government. I’d rather have a teacher than an artist as my neighbor any day.
Shit, the bitter MFA person appears to have wifi in their hospital room. Anyhoo, best of luck to ya. Hope the doctors manage to find and extract whatever crawled up your ass and died.
Project much? Who said a damn thing about ‘free housing’?
Oh, wait. you did.
2:10, nowhere in the article linked above, or in anyone’s post did the phrase “free housing” come up. No one expects free housing, no one asked for it. Let’s not throw gasoline on the fire. There is a big difference between affordable housing, for elderly people who happen to be artists, and free housing for anyone. Please.