CITIES BENEFIT FROM USING
THE ARTS AS AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL
Minneapolis- based Artspace has developed affordable artist live-work spaces in dozens of cities across America.
The national non-profit developer arose out of an advocacy group trying to protect cheap artist spaces in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
"Finding and retaining affordable live-work space is an age-old problem for artists, painters, sculptors, dancers, and others who require an abundance of well-lit space in which to work.
Many artists gravitate to old warehouses and other industrial buildings, but their very presence in an industrial neighborhood often acts as a catalyst, setting in motion a process of gentrification that drives rents up and forces the artists out," Artspace explains on its website.
Striking the delicate balance of uplifting industrial, warehouse and forgotten areas through the arts -- while not gentrifying working class artists out of the very neighborhoods they pioneered -- is an ongoing challenge.
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