- Research Question:
Within the terms of gentrification, artists significantly contribute to the value of the resided neighborhoods and society. How can artists’ contribution to gentrification and rejuvenating neighborhoods be supported and made more sustainable?
- A Working Title
Art and Gentrification: Real Estate Developers and Land Lords Are Not to Be the Only Ones Benefiting From This Symbiosis.
- Short Description
This paper does not only explain the phenomenon of art-based gentrification and the changes it entails in the modern urban society lifestyle, but raises the issue of making artists' contribution to rejuvenating the neighborhood more supported and sustainable. Gentrification is often called a double-edged sword mainly for the controversial impact it has on rejuvenation and revitalization of residents and neighborhoods. Interaction between art and neighborhood can have both positive and negative outcomes, and these are widely studied and researched. While some of the positive impacts of art-based gentrification are said to be the increased value of the neighborhood, suburban stretch, and transformed interest in urban life, these macro-level economic consequences may not be in favor of the artists who directly contribute to them. Real estate developers, landlords and politicians mainly benefit from gentrification, while the status of artists remains silenced down. This paper aims to analyze how art and culture can be sustained and receive more support and reviews the academic sources devoted to this issue.
- Review of Existing Literature
Richard Florida, an American urban theorist, in his book The Rise of the Creative Class: Revisited (New York: Basic Books, 2012. Print) calls creativity the fundamental source of economic growth (p. xxiii). The source, just like other works by Florida, provides a detailed insight into the phenomenon of the rise of creative class, which proves that the role of artists in making a physical cityscape in which creative class resides an attractive living area cannot be underrated. Lance Freeman, describing the key driving factors of gentrification in There Goes the 'Hood:Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up (London: Temple University: 2006. Print), however, excludes the creative class residing a neighborhood and focuses more on good investment opportunities, superior real estate projects, lower crime rates and employment opportunities. Chris Hamnet in The Blind Men and the Elephant: The Explanation of Gentrification classifies different causes of gentrification, explaining the phenomenon of social movements by stating that individuals, encouraged by successful residents, are likely to move into the same urban area. Evidently, such tendency speaks in favor of artists, who attract more population into the area by creating a certain Bohemian society many are willing to evolve in. Unfortunately, as Rosalyn Deutsche states, financial institutes and landlords are the ones who benefit from the process of revitalization, not the artists who contribute to it. Therefore, close collaboration with the creative class and legitimate support of their contribution needs to be more sustainable, as, in the wake of globalization and shifts in people’s daily lifestyle, gentrification can be beneficial on many levels. There has not been much researches on the question of sustainability and support of art-based gentrification up-to-date. Nevertheless, David Ley ("Gentrification and the politics of the new middle class". Environment and Planning Society and Space 12: 53–74. 2004) studied gentrification policies and the governmental support of the same, which presents a strong data for further research on urban restructure and gentrification.
- Outline:
- Introduction: Apart from art-based gentrification benefits received by the neighborhoods and communities, artists who directly contribute to rejuvenation and population displacement should receive proper support.
- Gentrification has become a common tendency nowadays
- Phenomenon of art-based gentrification
- The consequences of art-based gentrification
- Artists’ direct contribution to benefits yield from gentrification
- More sustainable and supported approach to art-based gentrification is needed
- Means of providing rightful support and ensuring sustainability
- Benefits of making art-based gentrification more sustainable
- Ensuring status of important contributors to neighborhood’s development
- Opportunities and threats of this idea
- Artists’ own views and potential on the subject
- Conclusion and recommendations for further research
- References
