NYC’s artists are running out of affordable studio space

Rising rents are increasingly driving artists into remote neighborhoods

Industry City in Sunset Park
Industry City in Sunset Park

WEEKENDEDITION New York City artists are used to losing their studio space to the forces of gentrification, whether it be in Soho or Greenpoint. But with the redevelopment of Industry City in Sunset Park — an unglamorous Brooklyn factory, turned artists’ studio complex, turned Brooklyn Nets training facility – many displaced artists say that they can no longer find affordable studio space.

“All I can see is going further out, then having to move again,” Richard Castellana, a 73-year-old painter who has moved studios 10 times in 40 years, told the New York Times. “I just can’t take it anymore.”

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Even the few hubs of affordable artistic activity left in the city — neighborhoods such as Mott Haven in the Bronx, Ridgewood in Queens and St. George on Staten Island — are beginning to feel the strain of rising rents. And artists report that landlords are increasing unwilling to grant short-term leases.

“Nobody has any hopes about being able to rent affordable spaces,” Tamara Zahaykevich, who helped start the Artist Studio Affordability Project, said. “On top of that, my community is so dispersed now.” [NYT]Christopher Cameron