The importance of clusters of arts, like PLACEs WAV community, the worlds first sustainable artist community, to economic development is becoming clearer and clearer. The journal of Urban Studies released a scholarly piece examining the effects of arts clusters. L.A. scored the highest in terms of high levels of highly concentrated arts employment. We could have told them that. When PLACE performed an artist market study for the City of Ventura in 2004, the Los Angeles region had the highest percentage of artists who were able to earn their living from their art of any regional market we had ever studied. Good for them. But arts clusters create economic development anywhere you put them. Thats not to say that there is no strategy involved. There is. You can certainly leverage the spinoff effects of arts clusters with careful integrated planning. More and more cities are catching on. PLACE is planning a large live/work community for creatives in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Given access to well-designed, affordable live/work space, affordable transit options, onsite employment, access to nutritious food grown onsite, and affordable green energy, these creatives will start businesses and launch creative enterprises that will spin off into the region. Not to mention you get affordable housing in the bargain. Those cities paying attention to the trends, will be well positioned in the 21st century to host a creative and nimble population. Ultimately, the Urban Studies research notes that while arts are not a silver bullet for cities, their role in urban economic development is, in the authors’ words, “highly underestimated.”
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 01:46:59 +0000
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