As developers turn more and more to Queens, artists who fled the prohibitively high prices of Manhattan are again struggling to stay in neighborhoods they helped make desirable, such as Long Island City and Astoria.High housing prices drive artists out of Astoria
[Caron] Atlas worried about how [a developer-artist] partnership would affect the way planners and developers perceive the function of artists. She said some developers forge short-term agreements with artists' groups.
"So the value of their work is to gentrify the neighborhood and then they leave?" she asked.
"Then the question becomes, as an art organization, how willing are you to be exploited?" said Susan Chin, assistant commissioner for capital projects at the city Department of Consumer Affairs.
7 comments:
Irving Poy is a pig from way back.....
a developer's stooge....first for Shulman
and now for Marshall!
Ask Julia Harrison about him....
he used to work for her
before he became a turncoat.
His suggestion that artists
converse with the developers
at the early planning stages of a project
is a pipe dream and a subterfuge!
Artists are basically WEAKLINGS
and NO MATCH
for the power of a developer's money.
As far as the Queens Council on The Arts
is concerned....
they're basically, just a jerk-off group
that sucks up public funds
and delivers little beyond patent hype/tripe!
It's a home for patronage jobs bestowed upon
the non talented who can't make it on their own
on the outside!
Are they to become the arbiters of taste....
to decide who will qualify for subsidized artists
live in lofts? BAH !!!
I prefer a lottery drawing if it comes to this!
Getting back to developers....
they will make space for an artist,
like one makes a cozy corner
for a prized pedigree pet poodle,
only if it enhances his project
and brings him more money!
Developer/scum aren't interested
in providing artistic welfare
if it doesn't benefit their bank accounts.
Being an artist myself,
I've learned to have little respect
for their naivety and almost childlike approaches
when it comes to their own self preservation!
Anyone who comes to an area to "HIDE OUT"
won't be hiding out for long if they
haven't made any good provisions for their
financial future .
The developer is, unfortunately, the HUNTER
and the artist is his PREY!
That's the Darwinian order of things
unless our "creative geniuses"
learn to shoot straight....
and I don't mean with a firearm....
I mean with earning power!
They will continue to be pushed around
like Gypsies unless the value
of their works of art can climb
and command higher prices so they can afford
to keep their loft spaces.
It's called "making a living"folks....
because you'll DIE if you can't.
Picasso and Warhol, for example, knew this
and took some precautionary measures....
whether you approve of them or not.
They promoted themselves as the center
of their own worlds....artistic demagogues maybe....
but never art slaves.
If all of this sounds to harsh
for any tender ears out there....be warned....
WE MUST ALL WORK HARD to provide for our art
as a MOTHER & FATHER PROVIDES
for their family.
Art, on it's own in the early infant stages,
can be a fragile product....
before it ultimately winds up at the end of its life
at a Sotheby's auction!
The artist footprint in Astoria was always faint: no stores that sells stuff catering to their trade, and a handful of hangout places, and certainly no impression on a community whose night life ranges from Middle Eastern hookahs, Mediterranean Eurotrash, Croation clubs full of sullen men, Mexican daylaborer cantinas, and Bangladeshi catering halls.
Yes indeed. Astoria is where I want to sink money for investments.
Trying to be an artist while holding a full-time job is really difficult. I've been doing this myself for the last 10 years and feel barely alive by this point due to all the sacrifices I've had to make to free up some time, like cutting off contact with friends. Hopefully I will "make it" soon and be able to get my life back, before I crack from loneliness.
Poor pussy!
I held a full time job
in the advertising/graphic design field
for almost 20 years.
That's where I did my art
and won awards while I was doing it.....
and also did my painting etc. on the side!
Sorry, I can sympathize with you only so far.
If you haven't made it in 10 years
you really have to ask the blunt question
of yourself.....
"Am I good enough"?
I'm now 66 years old and doing my art full time
and selling it in dribs and drabs......but the mortgage
is paid off.
That's called sacrifice old buddy....
the kind you have to make willingly for art
with less thoughts about "feeling barely alive".
That will only weigh you down.
Life surely sucks for us creative souls.....
but we try to endure !
Good luck....sincerely!
As Oscar Wilde once said,
"I put all of my talent into art and
all of my art into living".
Even he realized that art can be highly over-rated.
Don't forget to live!
Thanks for the encouragement and sound words of advice.
Long ago I realized I had no talent for art but was too mule-headed and stubborn to give it up. So here I am, still plying away at the cursed craft, determined to make it yet, even if it kills me, which it surely will, when factoring in my monotonous 9-5 job.
But at least I'll go out knowing I gave it my all up until the last. And of course there's always an infinitesimally minute possibility that I might yet succeed...
(That's great you had such a rewarding career. Consider yourself very lucky! I'm sure you'll realize many more triumphs in coming years.)
My ad/art/design career wasn't 100% rewarding.
I would have loved to sculpt full time instead.
But , of course, in my older age
I'm bound to have some regrets.
Don't take that artist/samurai view of things.....
going out trying.....c'mon.
You WILL accomplish what you want.....
I can sense your determination
through your reply......and NEVER
be unsure of your own talent!
I wish that art..... which is what any society gets remembered for.....was more highly prized by
the SOB real estate industry
that's maintaining a choke hold on our city.
In Patterson, N.J......
there are some older industrial buildings
that were set aside and partially subsidized
by the city for habitation by artists
to be used as their live in work lofts.
It would be nice if NYC would be so kind.
Keep it up and don't give up!
I just wanted to kick your butt a little
to wake you up.....sorry.
Those 9 to 5 hours can truly make one barely feel alive sometimes....those were my hours also....
and sometimes even much later !
But I'm still here, G-d willing, still painting
and drop-kicking.
Art is my true religion.....and so be it !
All the best!
And I'll drink to that. Here! Here!
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