My friend Ian used to say that “Punk kids are the shock troops of gentrification” meaning that these were people who were less afraid to go into a neighborhood and begin it’s transitioning into a different neighborhood. This could be viewed as good or bad depending on where you are in that chain of cultural demographic shifting. I think for the most part though – he’s right. The “Punk” scene is often made up of the disenfranchised – be it gay, mixed raced, artists, punks, grifters, and cheapskates or a little bit of all of that.<\/p>\n
Do you remember when Dupont circle was a great place to go? I do and I miss that. these days it seems to be crappy shopping from emerging mainstream international brands and the flavor that “The Circle” used to have is pretty much gone.<\/p>\n
In the paper recently there have been articles about artists leaving New York – not for Brooklyn but for Cleveland. I’m hearing more and more about cities courting the creative class and Cleveland has been hit really hard – artists want space and Cleveland is ripe with cheap spaces and low prices due to it’s economy. A few months ago when I was speaking to Patti Smith, she mentioned that for an art scene to be really successful, a city needs people up and down the economic food chain to develop into a fully realized community that can support the arts. The jury is out on Cleveland and I wish everyone there the best of luck, because they will need for more than that. They will need infrastructure, jobs to come back to Cleveland – we all need jobs to come back to Cleveland because if they do – that means jobs will be coming back everywhere.<\/p>\n
I was speaking to the Artist Austin Thomas (who runs that great space in Bushwick, Pocket Utopia) the other day and we were talking about how I was inspired by Jerry Saltz (she had a great story as well – but that’s her story) – and I know that a few eyebrows will go up when I say that I was inspired by Jerry, however you get inspired where and when you do and in my case it was at Art Basel Miami Beach. Saltz had a brief presentation about money leaving the market – so what are we doing now?<\/p>\n
He laid it out in a way that made a ton of sense in a way that was the direct opposite of everyone else. Bottom line was this – we are artists, we make art. What are we going to do stop? That’s almost laughable. If your Going to Cleveland, Oil City Pennsylvania, Plattsburg or Paduchah, I wish you the best. I think we all do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My friend Ian used to say that “Punk kids are the shock troops of gentrification” meaning that these were people who were less afraid to go into a neighborhood and begin it’s transitioning into a different neighborhood. This could be viewed as good or bad depending on where you are in that chain of cultural demographic shifting. I think for the most part though – he’s right. The “Punk” scene is often made up of the disenfranchised – be it gay, mixed raced, artists, punks, grifters, and cheapskates or a little bit of all of that. Do you remember when…<\/p>\n