Last week, SPIN published “A Cultural Shock To The System: The Rise And Fall Of Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Avant-Garde Music Scene.” It’s an interview with author Cisco Bradley to promote their book covering the topic. I moved to Brooklyn at the end of 2011, so I caught the tail-end of the end of Williamsburg.
Reading the interview, I remembered how common it was for a slate of live music programming (usually DJ’s, and whatever was going on with dance-y blogosphere bands) to include experimental jazz: upright bass, oboes, clarinets were so common to hear sprinkled into an evening. I wish I’d understood just how open the DIY of it all was, how spoiled we all were, or could’ve been if we’d paid enough attention. This is the type of stuff that literally makes my heart ache to read. Live events (performance art was also involved, not only music acts) all happened organically because it was truthful representation of the community, not a key performance indicator on some corporate slideshow benefitting a mega venue.
It’s crucial we practice awareness about how money moves to nonprofits and arts and how money gets into the hands of deserving artists. I am currently undereducated in this area, but Bradley’s passion for the topic is a good reminder to keep these themes top of mind, in hopes we’ll have better awareness the next time things are being encroached upon for dirty (financial gain for the wrong communities) reasons.
We all knew that when VICE bought the buildings that legendary DIY venues were housed in it was bad. “Williamsburg’s over! Thanks, VICE!” we all joked in our lame, millennial humor ways. BUT HOLY SHIT. I didn’t know it would get SO bad SO fast. All the bank branches out there, the soulless, Instagram aesthetic places, the freshly widened sidewalks that make you really think it’s Times Square, the entire crowd of locals who live there now (collar up bros), hotels, condo after condo. Utter hollowness! Made into physical storefronts. It’s THE WORST PLACE IN NYC. It’s hard to swallow the whole truth of its decline in the length of one interview. Crushing truths such as:
Commercial venues have been in decline, so non-profit institutions have moved in to fill the gap. They sustain the scene to a degree and contribute tremendously. But I’d say the other trend since the 1990s has been that working-class artists have left the city. Few artists can survive here now without family support.
Will there ever be a scene like this again in New York City?
NYC is losing its position as a music and art center, and if the trends continue, at some point we may be referring to NYC as a post-cultural space, a label that could already be applied for much of Manhattan and north Brooklyn. Also, since this is driven by economics, we must also admit that working-class perspectives in art have already been eradicated in NYC, more or less.
So, “if the trend continues,” what will art spaces in cities have left to offer us? Can anyone recommend further reading on the topic of art/art spaces and economics of it all? What can be done to bolster the arts communities in need?