3/8/2024 0 Comments Jessica gee bushwick brooklynFor him, other US cities with strong artistic scenes- such as Seattle, Portland and Minneapolis - have remained regional.įor all its costs, New York still has qualities that few other cities can match - it has world-class scenes across musical genres including classical and jazz and is the premier hub for the record industry. He voiced hope that Detroit could become a "national mixing chamber" like New York. "Simply put, New York City has become too expensive to continue incubating young artists," Robert Elmes, executive director of the Galapagos Art Space, said in announcing the move. Last month, Galapagos Arts Space said it was moving out of New York altogether - to Detroit, whose affordable housing after years of industrial decline has attracted a burgeoning number of artists also drawn to the city's culturally rich past. Galapagos Art Space, which opened in Williamsburg in 1995 in a harbinger of the neighborhood's new culture, moved 12 years later to a larger venue in Brooklyn's former manufacturing area of Dumbo. Recently closed Williamsburg venues such as Glasslands have been looking to reopen in New York areas that - for now - remain less expensive such as Bushwick, a neighborhood deeper into Brooklyn that is increasingly popular among creative types.īut some see a brighter, cheaper future elsewhere. The changes in Williamsburg mirror an earlier transition across the East River in Manhattan's once-dodgy Lower East Side, which turned fashionable for artists and non-artists alike - and still has plenty of music venues - after punk clubs such as CBGB opened in the 1970s. Williamsburg, even with the hipster influx, remains a major center for Hasidic Jews, Poles, Puerto Ricans and other communities. New York is famous for its neighborhoods' ebbs and flows. "If young, emerging talent of all types can't find a foothold in this city then it will be a city closer to Hong Kong or Abu Dhabi than to the rich fertile place it has historically been," he wrote. Talking Heads legend David Byrne said in 2013 that New York was "still the most stimulating and exciting place in the world to live and work" but that the cultural life "has been usurped by the top one percent." "You can't really have people in a band if you can't afford to pay your rent," she said. There will be no easy match for that era in Williamsburg, when artists and casual fans alike could walk to multiple shows each night to see both new and established talent, she said. "When I got here, I felt like the door was wide open with what was possible," Hamilton told AFP before playing one of the final shows at Glasslands, an eight-year-old Williamsburg venue that closed on New Year's Eve. Widowspeak recorded its second album in a century-old barn in upstate New York, and Hamilton decided to stay in that area.īrooklyn, where the average monthly rent now tops $3,000, has simply become too expensive for a full-time musician, she said. Molly Hamilton, singer and guitarist for the band Widowspeak, which has won acclaim for its dreamy guitar rock, grew up in Tacoma, Washington, but settled in Brooklyn in 2008 - drawn, she said, by a music scene that produced bands as diverse as Grizzly Bear, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV on the Radio. In 2014, at least five music venues in Williamsburg or nearby Brooklyn neighborhoods shut down or announced plans to move, leading a growing number of musicians to wonder whether they should take their careers elsewhere. (New York-AFP) - The young and the creative flocked to Brooklyn in the 1990s, transforming the New York borough into arguably the world's foremost breeding ground for emerging rock bands.īut now the same factors that made Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood a hipster haven - the short distance from Manhattan and a vibrant nightlife - have sent rents soaring and increasingly cast questions on the future of the music scene.
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