Chapter 9 - Place matters
In chapter 1 we viewed the phrase “Art Works” in two ways: (1) Creative work is work, and (2) The arts are effective.
“Place Matters” also has two meanings here: (1) Where you live does make a difference to your arts career, and (2) Building up the physical community, where you are, is one of the most important roles of the arts and artists.
Place matters
There’s an old adage that goes something like: “There are only three important things in real estate: Location, location, location.”
The same could be said about the arts, depending on what you do. Do you have to move to New York City, Los Angeles, or Nashville to have a career in the arts? No, absolutely not. But you might need to, to have certain types of careers in the arts.
You’re probably not going to have a full-time, paid career as a cinematographer or theatre actor in a small town. But you could have a full-time, paid career as a video editor or voice actor in a small town.
The two things to think about are (1) what you want to do and (2) how you want to live. Also bear in mind that, for most of us, these two things change a lot over the course of our lives, so you might want to stay flexible on both, and on where you live. When I was living in New York City, I’d hear artists talk about leaving NYC like it was a sign of failure. The song “New York, New York” says “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere” but what it doesn’t say is that if you don’t “make it” in a major market city — or if you don’t even want to try — it doesn’t mean there’s no life for you in the arts anywhere. It just might not be the right kind of place for the way you want to live and work.
I’ve lived in and worked in the arts in a major market (NYC), a large city (Atlanta), and a small-to-medium-sized city (Waco, TX). These are some of the things I’ve observed and heard from others about working in the arts and day-to-day living in the different-sized markets.
Major arts markets
In the US, these cities are New York City (all industries), Los Angeles (especially film/tv), and Nashville (especially music). Outside of the US, London is a major English-speaking arts market in all industries. What makes a city a “major” market is that many industry headquarters and the most influential institutions are there. There are going to be some types of work you can only do and some levels of professional status you can only attain in a major market.
In addition to the opportunities for work in a major arts market, an artist can see and hear the best creative work in their discipline. This experience is irreplaceable in an artist’s development. Where else can you rub shoulders with the top talent and be where history is being made in your industry?
The artistic products being made in these major markets are being distributed around the world; plus the city’s residents are more engaged in those art forms and tourists come there specifically for the cultural offerings. So the major market cities can support larger arts businesses, venues, and attractions, which create leadership and support roles within the industry there as well as creative roles.
But lots of folks coming to these markets to work in the arts also means lots of competition for that work — and in fact the amount of competition exceeds the amount of opportunity. Getting the gig becomes a bigger task than actually doing the gig once you get it. I knew actors in NYC who said that their “job” was auditioning — playing the role once they got a job was like going on vacation. To be competitive in getting work in a major market, an artist needs experience and connections that can take years to acquire. They may not be getting paid for that time of growth, and are likely even paying through taking classes or lessons, which are great opportunities for networking as well as for creative growth.
So artists need to support themselves while building their careers to the point that they can get hired for the more lucrative, higher-level work that they came to the city to do. Now add that they’re needing to support themselves in expensive places to live.
These major market cities are places where people working in the arts and entertainment industries (and many other industries) have to live, and where many other people in addition to artists want to live (in large part because of the city’s cultural life). A basic economic principle is that the more demand there is for something, the more it’s going to cost. People will pay more for something they want more. This benefits artists when their work is in demand, because they can charge more for their time or products. But when the place itself is in demand because a lot of people want or need to live there, housing and other daily living costs go up. (Nashville has remained much less expensive than NYC and LA, although the cost of living there is rising rapidly.)
So now our artist who moved to NYC to make it big is living an hour’s subway ride from Manhattan so they can afford the rent (lower demand = lower cost), they’re working a day job or several non-arts gigs to pay their bills, and they’re doing their creative work for free or next-to-nothing and paying for classes or lessons to build their skills and their network. If the artist finds that life invigorating, and they see progress in their career and growth in their creative work, it’s an amazing way to live. But if they don’t enjoy the lifestyle and aren’t seeing progress, the downsides can be a recipe for discouragement and burnout.
Large-to-medium-sized cities
There will be quibbles about what is “large” and what is “medium-sized” so I’m lumping them together here because, without the unique features found in the major market cities, the differences between large and medium cities will generally scale to their size.
This tier of city might be industry-specific. Santa Fe is a “large” market for painters and other visual artists; some would call it the third largest visual art market in the country after NYC and LA. But it’s not a large city, and it’s not a large market for any other arts disciplines. Austin is the “live music capital of the world,” but not for jazz or classical music. Niche markets can also shift more than the major markets do. Atlanta and New Orleans have a lot of film and TV work as I write this, but that’s largely due to financial incentives which could go away and drive all that work back to LA and NYC.
Other large cities, like Chicago and Boston, act more like slightly-smaller versions of the major arts markets. They might not have the “headquarters” of Music Row, Hollywood, Broadway, etc., and all of the businesses that come along with them, but they are large enough to support big institutions of their own. There are enough artists across disciplines to have active scenes and cross-pollination between them, and enough local audiences, tourists, and government funding to support them, so they may be thriving in their own right. The exciting, scrappy Chicago theatre scene is a famous example of what can happen when not living in the shadow of an institution like Broadway.
In a large city (or a large market in a smaller city), the opportunities for networking and for creative and professional growth might come close to what you’d find in a major market. Developing a prolific and visible career in a large city/market can lead to being “discovered” by a major market. Many artists who are now internationally famous were first locally famous. Digital has also allowed the public to experience creative work they’d never see or hear in person. Depending on what you do, you could have a lucrative arts career while bypassing major markets entirely.
In addition to opportunity, “scale” will also affect cost of living and competition. San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Miami, San Diego, and Washington D.C. regularly end up in “most expensive cities in the US” lists alongside New York City and the Los Angeles area, so you’re not necessarily gaining ground economically in every large-vs.-major-market city. Locating in a smaller-but-more-affordable city may open up more time and energy to pursue your creative work than if you were having to hustle a lot harder just to pay your bills. A smaller city may have less opportunity for creative growth, networking, and financial sustainability; or more opportunity to be entrepreneurial and start something where competition doesn’t already exist.
If you’re considering starting your career in a large-to-medium city/market, be sure to do industry-specific research and be honest with yourself about your lifestyle preferences. This size could be the best of both worlds for you — or the worst. It will vary from location to location, and will matter more for some types of creative work than others.
Small town or rural area
Since so much of professional life has moved to the internet, it’s possible now to attain a sustainable level of income creating some kinds of art in a small town or rural area, while benefiting from the much lower cost of living than you’d find in a larger place. For example, musicians now have home studios where they record their parts and submit them online to be mixed into an album. They can do that as well in Eagleville, Tennessee (population 629), as in Nashville, as long as they have a good recording setup and a reliable broadband internet connection.
Affordable and accessible transportation also allows people to live outside of major and large market areas, but get to them easily when they need to. I knew people who came to Manhattan regularly for their creative work but lived in small towns two hours outside of the city. They could use the train ride productively and their reduced housing costs more than made up for the time and expense of getting to the city. And, as we learned during the COVID pandemic, much of what we thought had to be done in person can actually be done remotely.
The financial advantages aren’t the only reason to consider a small town or rural area. Life is about a lot more than work and money. A slower pace, connection to the land, more stable relationships, and the opportunity to pursue other interests can be advantages of living in a smaller place, along with avoiding what the artist might not enjoy about living in a city.
But a small place or rural area can’t offer the critical mass of people and infrastructure necessary to do some kinds of creative work there. If you’re a contemporary dance choreographer, will there be enough skilled dancers in a small town to make the kind of work you want to make? Is there a suitable performance space? Are there enough people who would purchase tickets to make it financially sustainable or worthwhile?
I’ve never lived in a small town or rural area, but it seems to me that the artists I’ve talked to who live in those places have felt specifically called to them. Their art by nature, or as they’ve adapted it, works in a smaller place. Whereas the difference from major to large to medium-sized markets is mostly a matter of scale, living in a small town or rural area is an entirely different experience. It renounces the idea of “success” as we might define it through being visible at “the top of the heap” (however big that heap may be) and makes room for a more missional experience of life as an artist in a community made mostly of non-artists.
An artist living in a small town or rural area could actually have more impact than in a larger place. Their work might not be getting seen or heard by thousands or millions of people, but in God’s scheme of things is that really more important than having deep, rich relationships — artistic and otherwise — with a hundred people? Keep that in mind as we move to the next way of thinking about “place” in your creative work.
Place matters
The alternative to asking “What can this place do for me?” is asking “What can I do for this place?” Artists and the arts have powerful ways of reviving — bringing life to — places and communities.
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah predicted the impact God’s people would have on their cities:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations. (Isaiah 61:1-4)
Christians believe that the speaker (through Isaiah) is Jesus, who “was, is, and is to come.” Jesus came, and is coming, for the poor and brokenhearted, for captives and prisoners, for mourners and grievers — all of us, basically — to give us beauty, joy, and praise instead of despair. Those Christ has rescued will reflect God’s glory as we rebuild, restore, and renew the places around us. Artists are equipped for it in particularly compelling ways.
The most important new movement in the arts in my lifetime is the idea of “creative placemaking.” It’s been happening all along, but two researchers, Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa, identified it and coined the term in 2010 for a paper they wrote for The Mayors’ Institute on City Design. The Executive Summary of the paper begins:
In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, non-profit, and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and cultural activities. Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired.
In turn, these creative locales foster entrepreneurs and cultural industries that generate jobs and income, spin off new products and services, and attract and retain unrelated businesses and skilled workers. Together, creative placemaking’s livability and economic development outcomes have the potential to radically change the future of American towns and cities.
[https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/CreativePlacemaking-Paper.pdf]
Sounds like rebuilding, restoring, and renewing to me.
Note two important things from that description: Creative placemaking is about (1) quality of life for all of a community’s members, and (2) economic impact on communities. Creative placemaking recognizes that the arts are good for people and good for business.
More recently, creative placemaking as a concept has been expanded to “community development through the arts.” These initiatives are sometimes more connected to “communities” as people groups than as physical locations. [I need to expand on this concept — will depend on what I’ve already said in the “Public art and community-engaged art” spotlight page in chapter 3, which I haven’t yet researched and written.]
Visual artists and designers can create “public art” like murals, outdoor sculptures, or pocket parks. Arts fairs and festivals are popular ways of bringing the community together, and might invite artists to perform or display their work. Local organizations often get grants to fund those community-based opportunities and pay artists from them or artists might be welcome to sell their work, often paying a booth fee. Sometimes artists might be asked to donate their time, which they can choose to do if it’s a cause they believe in or if they think the visibility might result in future paid work or sales.
Spotlight page - Excerpt from Placemaking and the Arts: Cultivating the Christian Life by Jennifer Allen Craft
Applying your creative gifts to placemaking and community development is a great way to express your love for God as you, in his reflection, “rebuild the ruined cities.” It’s also a great way to love your neighbor. As a resident of the community, you directly see and experience how your art improves the quality of life for everyone and contributes to economic strength.
You don’t have to choose between working in placemaking/community development or in traditional art-making in the market of your choice; they’re two different types of gigs, although you’ll need to shift your mindset as you move between them. The beneficiaries could be a hundred individuals who pay to download your song or a hundred people who come to a neighborhood arts festival and stop by your concert, which was free for them because it was paid for by a city grant.
Here are some practices that will help you tune into where you’re living now, consider where you might want or need to live, and avoid the pitfall of not being intentional about where you live.
Look around you. What’s going on in your creative discipline where you’re living now — outside of your school campus? Is there a particular part of town where the arts and artists concentrate? What people and organizations are influential? If your art form is (or isn’t) well-represented where you’re living now, ask around to understand why that might be.
Research how your industry works in the three different market sizes. Select a few places that are of interest to you and start following what’s going on there in your field. Plan a visit, being intentional about learning what it would be like to live there as an artist. What’s the cost of living like? How does transportation work? Where do people your age gather and socialize?
Consider what you’re passionate about outside of your creative work. Is there potential to develop or become part of creative placemaking or community development through the arts that addresses needs, problems, or inequities in these other areas you’re interested in? Research creative placemaking/community development projects at the intersection of your creative work and other passions, both where you live now and in other places. You might get a great idea for something you could start working on and making a difference with, now.
Thoughts from Artists and Others
Christ John Otto — The old centers of media are shifting, in part due to the technological advances that allow you to film, record, or create on the web. New York is not the center of the art world at the moment (even though New Yorkers haven't realized it yet). But I think we all need to go to where our particular craft is strongest for a season. I think every actor or theatre person needs to go to New York or London as part of their education. I think every film person needs to go to Hollywood or Toronto for a season. Etc, etc, depending on your craft. Whether you stay there is another story. There is something to be said for being a big fish in a small pond, and it is often really good to move to a provincial location in order to form your life as an artist.
Cole Matson — There are trade-offs to moving to a major arts market. The benefits are access to top-notch training, first-class art, and, most importantly, other young professionals who are striving to make great art and build a career. The gamechangers of art are usually a small group of friends who regularly meet together to share their work, help each become better artists, help produce each other’s work, and recommend each other’s work to others. You can more easily find your people in a major arts market. You can also gain more visibility and jump rungs in your career, as well as gain “career capital” you can use elsewhere. For example, it’s very difficult, nigh impossible, to make it to the top rungs of the acting profession if you’ve never been on Broadway or in Hollywood. That’s where casting takes place. If you want to work the professional regional theatre circuit, you have to live in NyLaChi (New York, LA, Chicago), because those are the cities regional theatres use for their casting pool. And you don’t get cast on Broadway as an unknown if you’re not in New York auditioning.
On the other hand, it’s extremely expensive to live in these cities, and you run the risk of spending all your time waiting tables and no time auditioning or making art. You have to find a way to make it work. There’s also not a great standard of living if you’re sharing a 1-bathroom apartment with 5 guys, living in the former pantry in order to keep costs down (my actual situation for two years).
Decide what your goals are. Do you want to be on Broadway? Move to New York. Do you want to be in major Hollywood films? Move to LA. Do you want to be on Saturday Night Live? Either of those cities will work, as will Chicago, which is home to some of the greatest standup, sketch comedy, and improv groups in the world. Do you want to make theatre or films in your hometown? Then stay in your hometown and make them while developing a relationship with (or forming) an ensemble company, or seeking out national and international distribution opportunities, as well as submitting your work to high-profile festivals. You can make a living as an artist anywhere. It’s simply a question of deciding what your highest priority is, and acting accordingly.
Ebi Baralaye — Depending on what you’d do, you have to go where your market is. The important thing is to know who your market is. Don’t assume you need the masses in the city; you might do very well or better with a more niche following of supporters in smaller region. Also, so many creatives are able to leverage the internet market and social media to reach and be successful with an audience that’s accessible anywhere.
James Kearny — The young artist should beware of an attraction to the big markets because of the desire for recognition. To follow Christ means to die to self. This means death to seeking significance in man’s estimation. There was a time when I desired to be a big star in Hollywood, justifying my goal as seeking a platform from which I could proclaim Jesus. I did this in all the innocence and ignorance of youth. In looking back over the past 50 years since I was first stage-struck, I see my greatest significance came from my experiences of greatest humiliation, not a star’s journey.
Joe Frost — There are ways of building success and making the “big time” play by your rules, but most of the time it comes after years of “playing the game”. In defining success by living in a community you love and are in communion with, and building a career in that environment, you may not become world-famous, but you can be richly blessed.
Laura Bergquist — Bloom where you are planted! Not everyone does well in a larger city, not because they don’t have the skill set, but just because city life doesn’t agree with them. Also, a lot of folks don’t succeed in a larger market because they don’t move to a new place with enough financial resources to really pursue their art and end up working just to survive. Before long the reason they moved isn’t even possible. In addition, your particular skill set may be just the needed skill to succeed in a smaller market because there are more opportunities for you. I know dozens of artists who have had wonderful and full-time careers in smaller markets. The potential is there for a lower cost of living and a higher quality of life.
Michael Markham — I know a lot of wonderful artists who live and work in smaller markets. It all depends on what kind of career you are pursuing. Going to a big market can swallow you. But it can also elevate you and make you shine. Sometimes moderate success in a big market can translate into wild success in smaller markets that you might never find if you don’t first go to the big market. The paths are myriad. Follow God’s call and He will be faithful. He always is.
Ryann Cooley — NYC is an amazing city. Do you need to move there? No. Do you need to visit? Absolutely! Many of the major cities are home to much of the best art in the world.
Sean Oswald — I think you can be an artist anywhere, but every place will have varying types of opportunities. I think this comes down to lifestyle preferences and personality. In my 20’s I really wanted to live in the city, but now in my mid 30’s I’m much more drawn to the country. I know artists who live in Brooklyn NY, Nashville, LA, Austin, Seattle, and any other trendy city you can think of. I also know artists who live in small towns, cities, and in the country all over the US. It’s possible anywhere.
Terry Greene — Living in a city like NYC helps for sure. Palm trees don’t grow in NYC, they grow in California. Similarly, the art that you wish to be involved in is usually where you should be based. Otherwise, get a tentmaking job that will allow you to travel to the places where the opportunities are, OR you ask God to help you make opportunities for yourself. It’s also possible to start in a major city and then branch out to other places where your gift is less common, which makes you more attractive.