Debtfair

Yes, of course. When the land lord of my studio raises the rent it has a huge impact on my bottom line as it would with any business. The same buildings that couldn't hold on to tenants in industrial neighborhoods in Brooklyn are not transforming the zoning for manufacturing buildings into art studios and then when the neighborhood is good and gentrified, they are transformed into market rate apartments and condominiums. I had a friend who had a studio in a building and the landlord wanted them out so one day she came to the studio and all the windows where smashed out. It was January for gods sake! The economic reality of debt and high rents impacts not only artists. It impacts the people who once worked in the factories that moved to Mexico. It impacts three galleries that I have worked with all of whom lost their spaces due to rising rents, or aggressive landlords. It affects me when I go to apply for an exhibition, competition or event to apply to teach in a job and they ask for unreasonable application fees. Why in gods name would an application have to pay to apply for a job?