Living as an Artist in the Empire.

It must have been a slow news day today...

On my routine trip to work this morning I got a sight at a few surprising words on the cover of AM New York. The title read "Starving For Artists: Pricey city forcing out creative talent". For such a superficial and widely circulated paper, it was unusual to see (what I would deem) such a marginal concern for this city.

While the article was very short, as in no more space for content than they made for the picture on the front page, it did lend some interesting facts about artists' economic contribution ($21.1 billion) as well as taxes, wages, accelerating costs of rent, etc. Even though there is this small monetary contribution from artists, the article states that an artist's main gift to his residence is "relevant culture". Without creative types, New York will be "dramatically less interesting".

I can't argue with the stance made by the writer, David Freelander. So why did I say this was a marginal concern for this city? The answer is, "too little, too late" Over a decade ago artists were getting pushed out of Manhattan proper. Since they settled in areas like Williamsburg, they were still close enough to the skyscrapers of Manhattan to not feel too far away from their old homes. However, over the years, developers naturally went where artists went. New York artists were like an Urban Bedouin tribe. It's unfortunately just gotten to the point of being ridiculous.

As I've been looking to other cities to call home and get a more-friendly arts atmosphere, I don't view this metropolitan exodus with the same fright as the paper does. Freelander is writing as a cultural representative of the city, where I and most artists just feel like self contained representatives of ourselves. Our identities are not fixed to any single geography, at least not like they were in Montmartre when Apollinaire was alive. Where ever we go, there we are.

This could be an amazing thing for the American landscape. Creative folks from big cities are moving to small areas which may not get often that kind of exposure. New communities can form and grow which were previously stunted by financial oppression. In a world seemingly spinning out of control, perhaps the most positive thing I see in the future is this expansive geographic network of artists. Creative types no longer see city life as the end-all-be-all of cultural growth and stabilization.