Nice piece by the Times about people relocating from New York to Detroit to open businesses here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/fa...smtyp=cur&_r=1
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Nice piece by the Times about people relocating from New York to Detroit to open businesses here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/fa...smtyp=cur&_r=1
Good article... When influential artists and taste-makers continue to come to Detroit, others follow. But Detroit is starting to sound like an artistic gold-rush boom-town. I hope the excitement can continue.
One area where Detroit has a competitive advantage is among people who need a lot of space in an at least somewhat urban environment. Many artists fit into that category.
Art can be outsourced to Detroit from NYC for exactly the same reason cars can be imported from abroad.
You no longer need to be that close to your customer. We now have the internet and next day delivery.
I agree. It basically boils down to, where does the artist want to make his or her art? Where can they survive doing it? There's a balance in there somewhere.
Besides talent and dedication the things artists need most are time to create and a space to create in. The first two requirements must come from the artist him or herself. But Detroit is a great place for the third and fourth. New York isn't.
Two things,
1. Detroit likely has logistical advantages that Montana and Kansas don't offer.
2. Artists need inspiration. The types of artists who found pre-gentrification Brooklyn inspiring likely wouldn't get that from Montana or Kansas. But they could from Detroit.
That said, the people moving from New York to Detroit tend to be creative and entrepreneurial, which are the qualities that probably led them to New York in the first place, but they're not all artists. Meanwhile, one thing I've never heard of [[yet) is someone born and raised in New York who has recently sought to pursue a career in Detroit. But that's just fine. Detroit isn't for everyone.
Alphabet City in many ways led the creative renaissance that happened in NYC during the 80's. Look familiar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vkxFs7Q84c. And of course, you should see it today: https://goo.gl/maps/MFejV.
I do fully agree artists find their inspiration all sorts of places, and some artists find theirs in the solace of the countryside. However ones seeking solace in wide open spaces are far less likely to be the types to inspire the creative communities I think people get excited that many other types of artists create. That's not to say certain types of artists are better than others. Just that, more specifically, certain types are better at creating communities that can extend far beyond themselves.
Yeah that makes sense. It is possible that Detroit could become one of those types of communities on a small scale but the pure mass of people and the money in NY make an art scene like Brooklyn possible and without those elements something that Detroit will most likely never become in our lifetimes.
I guess I look at this from a more optimistic perspective. And I'm by no means so enamored by Brooklyn, or its art scene any more. And I know it very well.
It's both a blessing and a curse so much money shoots around NY these days. It makes landlords exceedingly greedy, and negligent. It destroys communities as fast as it creates them, and lately, it's not just killing old ones, it's killing new ones before they fully take root.
It's still a great place to sell your work, but the demographics of the people who produce it there more and more have one thing in common: they're rich. That has profound effects on the idiom.
I propose Detroit has an opportunity, and indeed a necessity, to proceed at a much more manageable and organic pace, with an opportunity for a great deal more input from the pre-existing community, and in a way it won't so quickly lose its soul. I'm optimistic the people moving to Detroit are drawn in large part by its history, and that's another reason why compared to Kansas or Montana, it appeals.
That is why God created art dealers. The dealers are the ones with the main relationships with the customers, and typically the ones doing the promotion. The artist only has to show up occasionally.
However, you are somewhat right. You have to sell yourself to a dealer, and that is easier if you are hanging out where the dealers are, which is a major reason why artists do go to New York. But most artists don't sell that much wherever they are, so they may be better off being where it is easier to work on their art. A lot depends on their priorities. And it isn't that hard to get to New York. You can go to New York a lot for the difference in rents on a 6000 foot space.
I see that this article is now one of thee top ten most emailed articles from the NYT today.
I see that the "respect the people who lived here through the 'bad times' crowd" is celebrated in the article.
“One thing anyone moving here needs to know is you have to come into Detroit respecting the people who have been living here through all the city’s struggles,” Ms. Cassells said.
But can anyone please tell me what this actually means, in real day-to-day life here in Detroit? What aren't you supposed to say? What are you supposed to do to demonstrate this nebulous respect for exactly who? How will people know if they have been respected or not respected?
I think this concept is not fleshed out enough.
Well, you can get to New York a lot easier from Newark than you can from Detroit, and Newark is also a lot less expensive than New York.
Granted, I'm not an artist and there is probably a lot of qualitative reasoning that goes into where the artists end up. But I'm just a skeptic that there is, or will ever be, a substantial movement of New York based artists to Detroit.