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| Whitney Museum new building New York City, New York whitney.org |
The role of arts in urban life is a hot topic among urbanist. In his CityLab article, "The Connection Between the Arts and Neighborhood Diversity," Richard Florida writes, "I have long argued that street-level arts and cultural signal the diversity and economic vibrancy of cities." Mr. Florida's own Bohemian Index (http://www.creativeclass.com) has connected artists of all genres and entertainers to innovation and the high tech industries, and has frequently "highlighted the connection between vibrant music scenes and startup cultures in cities and urban neighborhoods." However, not every one agrees with Mr. Florida, positing "that arts and culture simply flourish in already wealthy places." Others argue that arts have a more perverse impact, eventually leading to higher property values, gentrification, and displacement of the working class and low-income residents. However, a new study suggests that locating nonprofits arts organizations in racially diverse and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods may be beneficial.
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| Studio Musem entry plaza Adjaye Associates/Cooper, Robertson & Associates New York City, New York nytimes.com |
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| "Total New Arts Organization Established In 2000-2010 In NYC" citylab.com |
The map on the left tracks the location of more than 250 new nonprofit arts organizations established in New York City between 2000 and 2010. No real surprise, the Manhattan Borough has the highest concentration neighborhoods with 6-10 x or 11-20 organizations. Mr. Florida observes, "The map is in line with existing research that says that the arts tend to cluster in wealthy neighborhoods-in this case, predominantly located in Manhattan." The obvious reason why this borough, rather than Queens or Staten Island, is the economic and financial center of one of the world's most powerful cities and is home to the majority of the city's creative industries.
Manhattan certainly is the place to be if someone is looking for opportunities in the creative industries but there are those that say that Manhattan has become so expensive that artist, galleries, and arts organization have been priced out. Speaking of Queens and Brooklyn, each has a mix of 1-2 or 3-5 organizations per neighborhood. The is far greater than the boroughs of the Bronx and Staten Island, which have small pockets of neighborhoods with few organizations.
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| "Total Number of Arts Organizations" citylab.com |
The New York arts scene has been the fabled place of artistic dreams. The New York art scene of the seventies is getting its due with an upcoming retrospective of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. However, what does the New York art scene look like today? The chart on the left presents the location of new nonprofits based on economic advantage and disadvantage, as well as neighborhood diversity based on race, income, and industry. Mr. Florida writes, "As the chart shows, the majority of these nonprofit organizations are located in neighborhoods with relatively low levels of disadvantage, moderate racial diversity, high diversity of income, and a high diversity of industries."
Further, about two-thirds of new nonprofit organizations are found in communities with moderate to high levels of racial and income diversity, according to one of the findings of the study. Richard Florida observes, "Interestingly enough, although more of these organizations prefer neighborhoods with lower levels of disadvantage, the preference for disadvantage was fairly evenly distributed from 'least' to 'high.'" Additionally, approximately three-quarters of new non profit organizations are found in neighborhoods with a broad industrial mix alongside urban amenities.
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| Ghost Ship (2005) Benoit Pailley/New Museum observer.com |
The above conclusion would help explain the large concentration of nonprofit organization in Manhattan. In addition to being the most affluent borough (sorry Brooklyn) and the metropolitan's economic, Manhattan offers easier access to cultural amenities such as: museums, theaters, and performance spaces. Thus, it is logical that nonprofit arts organizations would want to set up shop there.
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| Grace Bench Gallery Photograph by Emily Berl New York City, New York nytimes.com |
The second thing the study considers is the impact of nonprofit organizations on their immediate surroundings. "How do arts organizations ultimately affect the diversity or economic conditions of the neighborhoods they are located in, if at all?"
To find out the answer to this question, the study conducted a regression analysis of the connections between nonprofit organizations, neighborhood diversity, and changes in the economic conditions of the neighborhoods. The analysis included measures of talent, concentrated poverty, levels of immigration, and variety of housing. Next, the study examined how two types of nonprofit organizations-locally focused and those focused on broad national or international audiences-are associated to neighborhood diversity and economic conditions. The conclusion was these types of nonprofit arts organizations have different results on their neighborhoods. On one side, nonprofit organizations that cater to a greater audience are associate with lower levels of economic disadvantage, but only in places that already racially diverse. On the other side, when the authors factored in income, they discovered that "local-serving organizations help to reduce economic disadvantage in neighborhoods with the least diverse incomes (which also number the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods).
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| Twyla Tharp dancing texasperfomringarts.com |
The important thing is that the study concluded that locally-focused organizations can be very beneficial to areas of concentrated poverty. To wit, "From 2000 to 2010, over 75 percent of diverse, low-income, highly disadvantage neighborhoods with new local-serving organizations saw reductions in their levels of disadvantage." (Ibid)
A focus on diverse, disadvantage neighborhoods
Bottom line, Neighborhood Diversity, Economic Health, and The Role Of The Arts concluded that nonprofit arts organization gravitate toward relatively advantaged neighborhoods with a melange of creative, finance, tech, and media industries and have moderate levels of racial diversity. Yet, these nonprofit organizations are the most beneficial in disadvantage, more diverse neighborhood that are bereft of this types of industry mix. The study also suggests that New York could benefit from creating all manner of incentives for nonprofit arts organizations to locate outside the center of Manhattan into more racially diverse, moderate- and low-income neighborhoods. Richard Florida punctuates this points, "In fact, it's precisely these diverse, disadvantaged communities where art and and artists contribute the most to the city' economic social fabric by building community, bolstering neighborhood identity, and spurring innovation and economic development."
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