Artists as property owners and small-scale developers

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis 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.