New York City will be devoting resources to the creation of 150 live/work spaces a year for low-income creatives over the span of the next ten years. Resulting in a total of 1,500 units, this announcement comes as a result of increased cost of living numbers which has hurt New York’s unique artist culture.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said during his state of the city address “We know that New York is the city it is today in part because of the contributions from generations of artistic visionaries who at one point struggled to make ends meet.” An important realization by the local government, we can only hope that more cities follow in NYC’s footsteps.
Our Canadian neighbors to the north are notorious for providing grants and additional funding to artists, especially musicians. Hopefully the US will continue upon a path which leads us in the direction of increased promotion of the arts as well.
Despite public schools nationwide cutting creative programming, I believe that the wealth of knowledge available freely on the internet is inspiring the millennial generation to teach themselves in the ways of the arts. The announcement of housing for low-income creatives out of “The Big Apple” only encourages my beliefs in this regard.
“We just can’t allow artists to be priced out of New York City, they’re important for the soul of the city, they’re important for neighborhoods, they’re really important for the economy.”
-Tom Finkelpearl, commissioner of New York’s Department of Cultural Affairs
H/T: Consequence of Sound / WNYC
