Artists as property owners and small-scale developers

ABSTRACT

This paper interrogates the role of artists as city builders by critically examining the relationship between artists, property ownership, and development. The ebb and flow of arts-led property development along one downtown arterial corridor, James Street North, in the mid-sized, post-industrial city of Hamilton, Ontario offers insight into the role of artists in the social context of property development processes. An analysis of the locally contingent responses of individual artists as property actors – their motivations, actions, and strategies – reveals how urban development processes are socially framed. This examination of property development conditions challenges current popular assumptions concerning the relations of artists and property and the assumed relative powerlessness of artists in city building. Small-scale artist-developers in this mid-sized city are pivotal, yet underappreciated, agents in the real estate sector, with the power to collectively impact upon both the city’s built form and the spatial stickiness of its local art scene.

KEYWORDS:

• Artists
• developers
• property ownership
• real estate development
• art scene

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Gerda Wekerle and Don Leffers for their recommendations of readings and detailed feedback on an earlier draft of this paper. I also appreciate the thoughtful comments provided by the anonymous reviewers and their suggestions of additional useful sources.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Interviews with Hamilton artists were conducted in person between August 2013 and July 2014 and with city officials and non-artist residents between September 2015 and March 2016. The interviews were recorded on a digital voice recorder and selectively transcribed.

2. I did not have access to the property assessment database for the City of Hamilton. These data are expensive and have only been made available (following lengthy negotiations) to individual researchers to date for residential and not commercial properties.

3. Of approximately 112 buildings between King Street and Murray Street on James Street North, 20% of ground floor storefront usage is cultural (both profit and non-profit) and 30% is restaurants, cafés, and bars.

4. With thanks to an anonymous reviewer for this insight.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a research grant from the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University.