Artist Housing Is a 'Pathway to Prosperity'

Increasing numbers of mayors and city planners are staking their cities' economic development on innovation, collaboration, and the value the arts and cultural sector can add to a community. 

The cost of housing and studio space, rather than performance spaces, venues, or galleries, is hampering the relationship between real estate and artists most, Curbed reports, adding that the constant need to find new spaces makes it harder to create artistic communities, which can negatively impact the surrounding city's economic development. “Cost is an issue, obviously, but instability is negatively affecting how communities organically grow," says Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hyperallergic. 

Nashville, a longtime center of the music industry and a city that’s seen a real estate and tourism boom in recent years, introduced a program targeted toward creative professionals to help them access low-interest loans to purchase property. In Indianapolis, the Big Car Collaborative created a new housing model that subsidizes artist housing via a local land trust, and asks artists to contribute time and effort to community-revitalization efforts.

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