Art And Gentrification

“Even with good intentions our work can still cause harm, so before you explore how your creative skills can save the world, examine your objectives and your relationship to the problem, check in with the community affected, and remember that there are plenty of ways to contribute.”

Art is central to thriving and healthy communities, offering limitless potential and power to catalyze transformative change at individual, collective, and structural levels. Therefore, examining the relationships artists, art facilitators, -curators, and -educators have to a space and community is foundational to an ethical and justice-oriented creative practice. Recognizing that art—particularly when it functions as an institution—is not absolved from conversations about power, access, and commodification is a critical aspect of building a more culturally conscious and equitable art world. 

In cities across the United States, the nexus between art and gentrification is becoming more apparent. Gentrification describes the racialized legacy of displacement and spatial dispossession of deep-rooted residents through “urban renewal” and “revitalization” projects that predicate the erasure of history, culture, and people. As the neighborhood cultural landscape shifts, attracting and catering to white-affluent sensibilities and aesthetics, property prices increase, effectively pushing out long-standing lower-income residents. The rising real estate values are also reflected in the arts market, which consequently create an arts ecosystem that cares more about profit than its social value, connectivity, and depth. In Los Angeles, several grassroots initiatives and coalitions grew out of Boyle Heights to resist the influx of art galleries that began to dominate public spaces in historically Black, Latinx, immigrant, and working-class neighborhoods. Concurrently, Latinx artists and muralists have struggled to preserve their artwork, with around 60% of historic LA murals disappearing due to negligence, censorship, or whitewashing, probing further questions about who has access to art spaces? 

Who Has Access to Art Spaces

The well-documented role of museums as agents of social and cultural exclusion, oftentimes prioritizing a eurocentric western canon, means few art spaces exist that showcase and center the work, stories, and narratives of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) outside of the white gaze. Out of hundreds of galleries, museums, and venues in a dense and diverse city like Los Angeles, only around 23 are Black-owned, as reported by Curate LA, an arts discovery platform. 

BIPOC are still highly underrepresented in various art industries due to systemic barriers to entry. A 2018 survey by the Mellon Foundation found that BIPOC account for 28% of all museum staff across the country, but only 20% hold some form of an intellectual leadership position (conservation, curatorial, education and museum leadership). For starters, the lack of compensated opportunities at museums and galleries prevent lower income youth from gaining experience in relevant art sectors, reinforcing the racial wealth gap. In 2016, white households had ten times the wealth of Black and Latinx households. Moreover, a 2021 report by the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture found a county-wide racial pay. On average, white entry-level art administrators earn 35% more than their BIPOC counterparts.  

It's important to keep in mind that diversifying art spaces is insufficient without institutional changes and infrastructures of support, as it places BIPOC in harmful and toxic work environments that can have a significant long-term impact on their mental health and wellbeing.

Newfields

Newfields, once known as the Indianapolis Museum of Art, is one of the only places that offers contemporary art in my hometown in Indiana. However, in February of 2021, the museum posted a job description for a director position that would maintain its, “traditional, core, white art audience.” A year earlier, Dr. Kelli Morgan, a former curator, resigned because of the museum’s toxic and discriminatory culture. Coupled with the fact that the museum has drastically raised its admission prices over the years, these recent events are part of a long and intentional history to exclude BIPOC from the museum. While Newfields sits near a predominantly Black neighborhood, the museum's visitors are overwhelmingly white and wealthy, illustrating how arts-based gentrification, exclusionary policies, and racist hiring practices further promote white supremacy; in a way that is not uncommon for museums country-wide.

Social Justice-oriented Creative Approaches 

These issues are part of broader discussions about the intersection between art and social justice. The ability to move in and out of spaces without regard to already established communities is directly tied to inequity and is an extension of white supremacy. 

In 2017, community organizers in Los Angeles developed, “An Artists’ Guide to Not Being Complicit with Gentrification,” providing actionable steps for artists and art institutions, including a commitment to housing justice, radical education, restorative justice practices, self-interrogation, and prioritizing the dismantling of oppressive structures. 

In addition, one of my favorite resources is an article by Omayeli Arenyeka, a programmer and artist based in San Francisco. In “How to think differently about doing good as a creative person,” Arenyeka states:

 “Even with good intentions our work can still cause harm, so before you explore how your creative skills can save the world, examine your objectives and your relationship to the problem, check in with the community affected, and remember that there are plenty of ways to contribute.”

Specifically, Arenyeka cautions against approaching activism with a “white savior complex,” instead recommending:

  • Engaging in mutual aid efforts, such as donating to organizations or specific causes 

  • Protesting 

  • Creating social impact projects utilizing your skills in the arts 

  • Interrogating your objectives in participating in social impact projects 

  • Questioning what your relationship is with the community you want to serve and help 

  • Ensuring that you have a thorough understanding of the problem 

  • Assessing that your abilities and personal contributions are in line with the project's objectives and efforts 

  • Measuring if the objectives are matching the outcomes 

In Summary: Art, Space, and Belonging 

Art carries the histories, narratives, and memories of people, and places, while also proving to be a powerful source and tool for social change. For these reasons, it is critical to recognize that oppressive power structures also implicate who gets to make art and where. The anti-gentrification protests occuring in cities across the U.S. are a call to action for arts and art institutions to uproot their vestiges to white supremacy and relinquish their roles as gatekeepers to art.