Critical Distance

The Atlantic has been repeatedly reporting on the growing numbers of low income residents in the suburbs, as well as the lack of services available to low income suburban and rural residents.  Policy makers should be working more diligently towards plans that protect urban residents at risk of displacement, and the lack of support infrastructure outside of urban centers makes regional cooperation on this trend all the more urgent. - Cevan Castle

"The Arts are already in the real estate business- they just aren't being rewarded for it."

"[In the move from Brooklyn to Detroit] the challenge for us was to find a meaningful density of real estate that can be protected over time, ensuring that the artists benefit from the value they create by their presence and activity, and that they aren’t simply priced out of the real estate because of their own efforts."  

- Robert Elmes, Founder, Galapagos Art Space, on his new model of financial independence for artists and arts organizations. 

See the full outline here:

The Brookings Institute has released a brief on the potential for smart gentrification and income diversification in areas of concentrated poverty.  The short analysis focuses exclusively on issues of poverty, generalizing the condition of being poor as "obviously bad."  It does not suggest how gentrification- a population movement that is spurred by motivations of opportunity, both financial and geographic-  can be made "smart" or pro-social. - Cevan Castle

For decades, academia was a significant employer in the arts, providing income stability, health benefits, and long-term employment to artist-faculty members.  Today, faculty are more likely to be adjunct professors with no more than a three month employment contract, without benefits, and very little pay- below the federal poverty level- despite the high costs of entry to the field.

Tuition costs, meanwhile, are skyrocketing. 

Should the costs of higher education reflect the savings being achieved through  the reduction of faculty employment costs?  Can employment practices be made more equitable, despite the current shift towards contingent labor?          - Cevan Castle

New podcast available!

The second podcast in the series, "If it's not work it must be PLAY: discussions on the state of work in the arts" is now available.  Hear actor and AFSG President Ben Graney discuss how the Support Group came to be, recommendations for managing a budget on an erratic income, solutions that they've discovered along the way, student loan debt, and how the AFSG is working with young art students to start off on a stronger financial path.

Ben Davis's recent article in HuffPost Arts & Culture ("Why I Believe the New York Art Scene is Doomed" of 01/13/2015) on gentrification, artists, and the challenge of maintaining a New York residence references a trend that is, by now, well documented.  Quoting Robert Elmes, the director of the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, now famously relocating operations to Detroit, "The white-hot real estate market [in NYC] burning through affordable cultural habitat is no longer a crisis, it's a conclusion."

Of particular interest is Davis's view that the move of NYC artists and art businesses to affordable cities like Detroit is but a temporary solution.  Real estate values continue to rise in urban markets, suburban residents are re-establishing homes in city centers, and suburban neighborhoods are declining in appeal and value.  Artists pursuing inexpensive real estate may confront a reversal of affordability: cities are now the domain of the affluent. In fact, the prevalent notion of the artist as urbanite may soon give way to a different picture: artists and their rural enclaves.

Writer Marcia G. Yerman reviewed the CUE Art Foundation series, "If it's not work it must be PLAY: discussions on the state of work in the arts."  

Read her coverage of the series here:

Podcast now available!

On December 5th, 2014, the CUE Art Foundation hosted feminist labor economists Deborah M. Figart, Ellen Mutari, and Cathy Mulder, for the first event in the series, "If it's not work it must be PLAY: discussions on the state of work in the arts."

The labor economists each spoke from their area of research expertise on the issue of under-compensation of labor in the arts and humanities.  Each shared parallels from other labor areas and gave actionable ideas to improve economic circumstances for visual artists.  Emphasizing their use of a feminist lens on the valuation of creative labor, they made it clear that low or non-existent compensation is far from a fair or inevitable practice.

Click below for the audio file:

Can artist compensation be regulated? http://www.wageforwork.com/

#wageforwork speaks at CUE on Thursday, December 11th at 6:30pm

From the article: