Saturday, October 22 07pm to 09pm
Artists Space Books and Talks
55 Walker St, New York, New York 10013
Please join Artists Space, Chinatown Art Brigade and Decolonize This Place for a town hall discussion that will bring together local residents, activists, gallery owners and artists for a candid dialogue about the growing impact of art galleries in Chinatown.
With gentrification accelerating citywide, over 100 galleries have opened in Chinatown. Approximately 60% of these have arrived in the last three years. Rents have risen to an all time high and low-income Chinatown tenants and small business owners are being pushed out. Hyper-development—in the form of luxury condos, hotels and galleries—is putting the lives and livelihoods of long-term residents at risk.
Gentrification is often the result of many overlapping social and economic factors. Yet, as evidenced in SoHo, Chelsea and, more recently, Bushwick, art galleries tend to be among the first businesses to gentrify working class or industrial districts. How, accordingly, might we speak to the complicity of art and artists within this process? Can artists be an ally in the struggle against gentrification and displacement? What, if any, are the points of unity between artists, galleries and the local community?
This discussion, the second in a series of public conversations presented by Chinatown Art Brigade following “Chinatown: New York’s Newest Gallery Scene?” at Wing on Wo & Co. in July, will explore the role that artists can play in preserving, protecting and fighting for our neighborhoods. Central to the discussion will be a working document promoting ways in which artists, galleries and other cultural institutions can show their solidarity with longtime Chinatown residents.
Free admission. http://artistsspace.org