"A decade ago, a multimedia artist from The Bronx got a lucky break. She was one of the winners of a lottery - to which over 53,000 people applied - that allowed her to live in one of the 89 affordable apartments in a stately former public school in East Harlem. At the time, she was living in Staten Island, paying for a space that was smaller, more expensive and more difficult for people who wanted to see her art to visit."
"Now, the artist said living among makers of all stripes - musicians, actors, directors, dancers, painters - has enhanced her art, given her a measure of stability and made her part of a supportive community. "This is one of the best places I've ever lived," she said. "There's always an event. There's always an opportunity to engage not only with the people that live in the building, but the external community.""
"No new affordable housing for artists has been built in the five boroughs since then, according to a recent report from the Center for an Urban Future. That reflects a larger trend: Over the past 25 years, New York City built 329 affordable apartments for artists. That's about 5 percent of the more than 5,610 that opened around the country in the same time period, the report said."
A multimedia artist moved into one of 89 affordable units at El Barrio's Artspace PS 109 after winning a highly contested lottery, gaining stability, creative collaboration, and greater public access to her work. El Barrio's Artspace PS 109 opened to residents in 2015 and remains the most recent example of new affordable artist housing built in New York City. Over the past 25 years the city added 329 affordable artist apartments, roughly 5 percent of the 5,610 such units nationwide. Artist employment rose about 35 percent from 2004 to 2019, but declined by more than 4 percent after 2019, signaling risks to the creative economy.
Read at Brownstoner
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]