Metropolitics

Teaching Art and the History of Tattoos at Rikers Island: An Interview with Tamara Santibanez

Lisa Jean Moore — 2019-01-22T06:00:00Z

An interview with Tamara Santibanez, who teaches art and the cultural and social history of tattoos to youth offenders at Rikers Island prison, explains how tattoos can help develop visual literacy and explores tattooing's potential to empower inmates both personally and professionally.
Arts programs in jails and prisons support the therapeutic, developmental, and vocational goals of incarcerated persons. Artists are uniquely positioned to help prisoners express their identities, address

- Interviews / United States, New York, art, artist, arts, prison, education, art worlds, art economies, tattoos, youth offenders, Rikers Island

The Happy Few and the Unhappy Many: Endangered Artists in Global Cities

Boris Grésillon & translated by John Barrett — 2017-06-15T07:00:00Z

While participating or having participated in reshaping urban spaces, artists seem to be increasingly driven away from city centers due to steep rents and are forced move farther and farther from the heart of metropolises. Will the global contemporary city, like the mythical figure Cronus devouring his own children, exclude its artists? Boris Grésillon examines the dynamics at work in four metropolitan centers: New York, London, Tokyo, and Paris.
The global city (Sassen 1991) is predominantly

- Essays / gentrification, Paris, London, New York, art, downtown, city centre, Tokyo, rental, right to the city, artist, arts, rent, global cities

The Arts as Fundamental—and Fragile—in Community Life

Andrew Zitcer & Julie Hawkins & Neville Vakharia — 2017-02-22T06:00:00Z

Arts funding in America mirrors the inequality found in society more broadly. Yet amid persistent poverty and other challenges, West Philadelphia residents assert that arts access and participation are central to their conception of a life well-lived. Andrew Zitcer, Julie Hawkins and Neville Vakharia discuss their research in West Philadelphia, noting the vibrant cultural production taking place there and maintaining that arts should be considered a fundamental right.
Amid the existential

- Essays / culture, United States, art, artist, arts, community, Philadelphia, community development, community arts

“We Are the Scene”: Alternative Art Economies in Bushwick

Mary Kosut — 2016-09-13T05:00:00Z

Artists and art communities are essential to the cultural life of cities. In New York City, artists have created networks of artist-run galleries in unlikely spaces that are outside the corporate gallery system. Sociologist Mary Kosut explores how artists generate alternative urban art economies within the contemporary New York art world.
Art scenes are integral to urban cultural centers—Berlin, Paris, London, and New York are defined by vibrant artist communities. As an art capital, New York

- From the Field / gentrification, culture, New York, art, culture-based economy, artist, arts, Brooklyn, art worlds, galleries, art economies, Bushwick

Artists and Industry: Friends or Foes?

Paul Parkhill — 2015-11-03T06:00:00Z

Anti-gentrification activists have castigated artists' lofts as the vanguard of gentrification, while cities have heralded them as neighborhood revitalization or affordable housing. Paul Parkhill argues that working artists and manufacturing businesses share common interests in affordable, long-term workspace, and that programs like the Artist Studio Affordability Project can create workspace for artists without disrupting urban industries.
In the spring of 2014, I attended a panel discussion

- Debates / gentrification, real estate, New York, art, artist, Brooklyn