What Cities Need Now
Artists and cultural organizations are facing displacement at an alarming rate because of rising real estate values in many urban centers, redevelopment, city planning challenges, natural disasters, and other pressures.
Whether through displacement, development, redevelopment, or gentrification, cultural organizations’ current business models do not provide the capitalization, flexibility, and organizational capacity needed to survive and sustain themselves in a changing real estate marketplace.
64%
The increase in rents since 2010 in the three US cities with the largest number of artists per capita — San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City.
It’s a classic case: Artists arrive in a neighborhood, making it more desirable. So developers move in and prices go up. That squeezes out the artists who put it on the map.
Colorado Public Radio
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Denver’s River North Art District (RiNo) was founded ten years ago by a group of artists who laid the foundation for a thriving cultural community in a largely abandoned area. Today, this neighborhood is booming and rents are soaring, pushing artists out and drawing in entrepreneurs and business developers. As Denver’s fast-growing population of arts and cultural spaces continue to migrate outside the city limits, the need for maintaining RiNo’s artist community through permanently affordable spaces becomes more urgent.
The Katrina Effect
Natural disasters force artists and cultural organizations to relocate and find alternative sources of support.
MoreThe artistic community's importance to New Orleans cannot be overstated. But due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which caused $100 billion in damage, and the rising cost of living, artists have been forced to relocate. Following Katrina, art became a powerful way to assert the enduring creativity of New Orleans and restore communities. Yet artists have been forced to find less expensive housing further away from the numerous art galleries, theaters, and performance spaces in the French Quarter.346
Closures
Number of New York City music venues, galleries, and theaters that have closed since 2011.
The people who blame artists for gentrification imagine artists as white middle-class newcomers to neighborhoods; but there are long-term culture-makers from the underclass that matter. Art comes in all colors…
Rebecca Solnit
Creative Time Reports
68%
Percentage of San Francisco nonprofits that may need to make a decision about moving in the next five years due to rising rents, according to a 2015 survey.
Who’s involved in The Model?
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The Kenneth Rainin Foundation is a family foundation that collaborates with creative thinkers in the Arts, Education, and Health.
At the Rainin Foundation, we believe in taking smart risks to achieve breakthroughs. We support visionary artists in the Bay Area, create opportunities for Oakland’s youngest learners, and fund researchers on the forefront of scientific discoveries. We act as a catalyst for exploring new ideas that enhance life.
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