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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


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  1. I just don’t get the “absurdity” of the juxtapositoning. The aesthetic is ultimately simple, just as the the apartments of the original dwellers were no doubt simple.

    And all of this aside, the bathrooms are really really perfect. B’stoner, can you post those?

    Did anyone go to the open house?

  2. Relax, 9:52. It’s post-modern in that it absurdly juxtaposes elements in unexpected ways. An 18th century religious aesthetic in a modern condo in the midst of a formerly decaying New York neighborhood.

  3. The Shakers were one of the oldest and most successful religious communal sects in the United States and, with one minor exception, the only one composed of native-born Americans of varying ethnic and religious backgrounds. “Tis the gift to be simple,” sings one of the Shakers’ rhythmic songs. Simplicity, hard work, and the love of God formed the very core of the Shakers’ existence. They were gentle, peace loving people who believed in racial and sexual equality.

    Maybe this makes sense for Bed-Stuy as aesthetic and religious inspiration.

  4. Have you seen the Shaker condos? They are beautiful. And why can’t Shaker style influence design in Bed-Stuy? It’s a point of departure. I’d love an explanation of how this is post-modern exactly. What definition are you using? I’m assuming you see irony here? If so, explain that 9:42.

  5. God forbid Columbia advocate revising zoning laws to allow for easier, higher density development in order to alleviate this housing crisis. And the very rent regulations they claim help the rent controlled lifer “artists” is what makes it impossible for new artists to come to this city. We’re still living with the failed, 1970s generation of artists living in $300 a month apartments. They will live here until they die.

    Also, I don’t have much sympathy for the artists. They can still get a loft in the South Bronx for cheap or an even cheaper place out in the Flatlands of Brooklyn.

  6. Most of the Artists I have seen are rich. with a nice house in the hamptons and cool loft downtown. Get over it this has been happening for 30 years. Move, You do not have to make art here to make it here, Geez we do live in the 21 st century. Most of these young poor artists will quite making art anyway once they realize what a pain in the ass it is if you do not make it. And most of their art is not worth the crap it is made of.I know I speak from experience I have A MFA degree.

  7. Maybe some artists can move to Flatbush, since it is so ‘cheap’ there. And aren’t there other neighborhoods further into Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx that none of us monied, gentrified, snob-type peole have heard of that are inexpensive? The artists-can’t-afford-to-live-here claim is limited to ‘desirable’ neighborhoods (downtown Manhattan, formerly Dumbo, now Gowanus). Artists are like money-snobs: they want to live in the cool neighborhoods too.

    On another note, the advert for ‘Shaker House’ condos that appears on this site is truly post-modern: a shaker-inspire modern condo in Bed-Stuy. You can’t make this stuff up.

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