I came across a couple recent articles about artists leaving New York City because of crazy high real estate prices. At some point (perhaps it’s already here) the benefits of being in the city will be completely undermined by the cost of living there.
Where will they go? The bigthink article (link below) points out that many artists are choosing Detroit, where real estate prices are not a problem. I’m wondering what the longer-term ramification of this will be on the Midwest. I, personally, think this could be an incredible opportunity for many cities, like Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, or Nashville… not that they don’t already have fantastic museums, galleries and local support for the arts, but maybe now critics, collectors and art writers might take “the great fly over” more seriously as centers of the arts. Artists leaving the Big Apple for less urban areas means, perhaps, more attention (and more money) coming into these smaller markets. I don’t think the art scene in New York is dying, but I think it’s very realistic to think that there are going to be some major shifts in the art world.
While I’m certainly not happy about the described gentrification of New York City, the potential to expand the contemporary art market to the Midwest is an exciting prospect.
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Here are links to the articles I refer to above:
http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/hipster-to-hickster-the-future-of-art-is-rural
Erin Schwartz 