Does café culture drive artistic enclaves?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Café culture is emerging as a global phenomenon. While the café has been a social venue for artists throughout history, research has not paid much attention to the relation between cafés and artists in cultural settings. In this paper, we conceptualize and quantify three types of café and art scenes: bohemian, corporate, and communal. Using the Yellow Pages and US Census data, our statistical analyses assess the role of cafés in the clustering of artists in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The results show that the presence of cafés is significantly associated with clusters of artists, all else being equal. In the entire metropolitan statistical areas, cafés in bohemian or communal settings attract artists, although they are highly present in corporate culture as well. Case studies also suggest that pedestrian streetscape, interactive store design, building conversion programs, and access to transit draw artists to cafés.