Las Vegas wants to bring art back to its Arts District
The city of Las Vegas wants to bring art back to its Arts District. She has commissioned a feasibility study to build new affordable housing for artists to live and work in the inner city, which she calls 18b.
Las Vegas plans to partner with ArtSpace, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that operates 57 properties across the U.S. as affordable housing for artists, with 13 more in the pipeline. About 60% of the projects are renovation projects and 40% are new construction projects.
artheating
It’s probably not news when another city allows rent increases to drive its artists out of the neighborhoods they’ve revitalized. But when a city tries to reverse this inevitable trend—when its actions show that it cares both about the quality of its neighborhoods and the amount of tax revenue it can raise by selling all its buildings to the highest bidder—that’s news .
“I know people in town are more business-oriented, but they work with the residents, so we can’t always say they don’t care, because they do,” said Becky Miller, president of 18b. “I think the city just wants to be a bigger better city.”
The city's study examined potential locations, funding and funding for new housing projects. The preliminary news is good. Now, the city and ArtSpace are hosting town halls and focus groups with artists, creatives and cultural organizations to gather community input.
“The Arts District has exploded,” Las Vegas Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Director Maggie Plaster said at last week’s town hall meeting. "Everyone wants to be there. Restaurants and bars have moved in, but it's pushing artists and creative people out of the area."
Art Imitation Argument
Everyone "thinks" they want to live where artists live, but that's not the case. Artists rent lofts in drug- and crime-ridden neighborhoods to pursue their dreams—because those neighborhoods are all they can afford, and because they value their dreams more than their safety.
When the city of Las Vegas created 18b (named for its 18 blocks) in 1998 to promote the arts and artists, the streets were lined with abandoned drug needles and charity hotels.
After about five years, as is typical in most arts districts, rents began to rise along with the neighborhood. That attracted real estate developers, who built apartments for the wealthy and converted former art galleries into breweries and gastropubs, charging $20 per entry.
Mixed media artist Thirry Harlin said: "This happens to anyone who is actually out there doing anything worthwhile, except for people who just agree to do it because they think it will Gives them some clear advantages." Worked at Studio 18b until being kicked out in 2015. "But ultimately it doesn't help any of them unless they also buy a property - and no one wants that property until we work hard to make it valuable."
By 2021, there are now 10 breweries in what Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman calls 18b's "Brewery Row," but few artists can anymore I can afford it. Many simply rent one of the Art Factory Collective’s 30 work-only rooms or the 16 in the Art Plaza.
"Of course the owners will try to sell as much as they can," Miller said. "You can't blame them. But there are still a lot of people who have a heart and a desire to preserve art and promote it in the area."
Once ArtSpace gathers input from the new artist community, it will make recommendations for the city’s next steps. The entire process can take up to 10 years.
"I don't think it's a panacea," Miller said. "I don't think just renovating a building is going to attract artists, but we have to start somewhere. If we don't start somewhere, we're never going to get to where we want to be."
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