After reading a guest post on chrisbrogan.com by Amrita Chandra titled “What Artists Can Teach Everyone About Social Media”. I started thinking about how/why artists are important.
I came to the conclusion that good artists will always be willing to try the “new” things, be it technology or a breaking topic that needs to be discussed in visual way. That is why in the way that urban renewal works is that usually in an economically depressed neighborhood the artists will start to move in. I think its because it’s cheap and artists don’t really mind the rough neighborhood because no one really messes with them.
The next step is that artists start to add some different views on everything, start making things look different/interesting. A few little boutique shops move in, such as a coffee shop, a small clothing shop, some new bars, and some little diners. Things start happening and its catches the eye of a local lifestyle paper.
All of a sudden the galleries start doing ok, and the gay community start frequenting the area and moving in. Well the gay community start living there and cleaning things up, all the while pumping money into community stimulating the micro-economy of the neighborhood.
Things are going really well, and the the young executives catch wind of this new prospering neighborhood and since they have a “real” paycheck they come in and start buying real-estate and hanging out in the community. Well what that also does is it starts raising the price of living there, so what happens is that the artists can’t afford to live there any more and move to other places to start the cycle again.
These are just some very general observations I have made thinking about my own situation as I have just graduated college with a degree in Fine Arts, and search for a place to live for a while. Currently this is happening in a part of Cincinnati called Over the Rhine. But if you look at New York, in New York you have Chelsea and Williamsburg. Then there is Portland, Or.
Christian McLean 