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| Artwashing: the new watchword for anti-gentrification protesters | Artwashing: the new watchword for anti-gentrification protesters |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| When you hear the word culture, do you reach for your copy of Das Kapital? | When you hear the word culture, do you reach for your copy of Das Kapital? |
| Some anti-gentrification protesters do. In one of the daftest and most perverse logics of the modern left, campaigners in the Boyle Heights neighbourhood of Los Angeles say that while they are “not against art and culture”, they see the art galleries opening in their streets as part of the problem. According to activist Maga Miranda, “the art galleries are part of a broader effort by planners and politicians and developers who want to artwash gentrification.” | Some anti-gentrification protesters do. In one of the daftest and most perverse logics of the modern left, campaigners in the Boyle Heights neighbourhood of Los Angeles say that while they are “not against art and culture”, they see the art galleries opening in their streets as part of the problem. According to activist Maga Miranda, “the art galleries are part of a broader effort by planners and politicians and developers who want to artwash gentrification.” |
| Artwashing. What a great new political watchword. As in, watch out that your neighbourhood doesn’t get “artwashed” too. Just look how Tate Modern has wrecked London and how the Guggenheim trashed Bilbao. Get away, ye galleries! Let’s keep urban wastelands as bleak as they already are! | Artwashing. What a great new political watchword. As in, watch out that your neighbourhood doesn’t get “artwashed” too. Just look how Tate Modern has wrecked London and how the Guggenheim trashed Bilbao. Get away, ye galleries! Let’s keep urban wastelands as bleak as they already are! |
| It’s a neat reversal of the thinking that has seen cities all over the world embrace art galleries, museums and biennials in pursuit of regeneration. The wisdom of the 1990s, epitomised by the building of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim on the rundown industrial riverside of Bilbao, was that art and architecture attracts tourism, business, hotels and restaurants, and can give a city new life, new hope. | It’s a neat reversal of the thinking that has seen cities all over the world embrace art galleries, museums and biennials in pursuit of regeneration. The wisdom of the 1990s, epitomised by the building of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim on the rundown industrial riverside of Bilbao, was that art and architecture attracts tourism, business, hotels and restaurants, and can give a city new life, new hope. |
| Was it all an illusion? When galleries move into a neighbourhood are they simply “artwashing” the inegalitarian processes of gentrification? What nonsense. The optimistic liberal scenario that art can revivify a neighbourhood is more grounded in human reality than this radical idea that it cloaks inequality. | Was it all an illusion? When galleries move into a neighbourhood are they simply “artwashing” the inegalitarian processes of gentrification? What nonsense. The optimistic liberal scenario that art can revivify a neighbourhood is more grounded in human reality than this radical idea that it cloaks inequality. |
| There is such a thing as civilisation – and it looks a bit like gentrification | There is such a thing as civilisation – and it looks a bit like gentrification |
| The use of the word “gentrification” as social critique is itself intellectually flakey. It is widely used to mean a process that drives out the original inhabitants of a neighbourhood by sending up property prices. This is why art galleries, not to mention new cafes, restaurants and shops, can be accused of aiding gentrification – they all make a place nicer to live in and, so the theory goes, a more desirable home for the (white) rich. Unfortunately, this argument results in the nonsensical rejection of things that actually do make urban living better, not just for “elites”, but for everyone: culture. | The use of the word “gentrification” as social critique is itself intellectually flakey. It is widely used to mean a process that drives out the original inhabitants of a neighbourhood by sending up property prices. This is why art galleries, not to mention new cafes, restaurants and shops, can be accused of aiding gentrification – they all make a place nicer to live in and, so the theory goes, a more desirable home for the (white) rich. Unfortunately, this argument results in the nonsensical rejection of things that actually do make urban living better, not just for “elites”, but for everyone: culture. |
| The ideology feeding into Boyle Heights’ “artwashing” fears is similar to what led London protesters to single out the Cereal Killer cafe in Shoreditch last year. But it is a destructive logic. Art, culture and, yes, cafes are not weapons of corporate capital. And even if they do add value to property, that is not all they do. There is such a thing as civilisation – and it has a way of looking a bit like “gentrification”. All over the world, the most enjoyable, exciting parts of cities are the districts where galleries and bars flourish and where, as a result, hugely diverse crowds congregate in cultural enjoyment, collective pleasure, and community. | The ideology feeding into Boyle Heights’ “artwashing” fears is similar to what led London protesters to single out the Cereal Killer cafe in Shoreditch last year. But it is a destructive logic. Art, culture and, yes, cafes are not weapons of corporate capital. And even if they do add value to property, that is not all they do. There is such a thing as civilisation – and it has a way of looking a bit like “gentrification”. All over the world, the most enjoyable, exciting parts of cities are the districts where galleries and bars flourish and where, as a result, hugely diverse crowds congregate in cultural enjoyment, collective pleasure, and community. |
| Some academics argue that instead of driving out the poor to make way for the rich, gentrification can diversify a neighbourhood, improving facilities for everyone while breaking down racial and social divisions. To me this squares with common sense. I would even argue that cities need more gentrification, not less – it is the most socially and economical mixed cities that are the best places for all. Cities such as Johannesburg and Los Angeles, where rich and poor districts are totally separate and racial segregation is a stark geographical reality are the urban dystopias of our time. | Some academics argue that instead of driving out the poor to make way for the rich, gentrification can diversify a neighbourhood, improving facilities for everyone while breaking down racial and social divisions. To me this squares with common sense. I would even argue that cities need more gentrification, not less – it is the most socially and economical mixed cities that are the best places for all. Cities such as Johannesburg and Los Angeles, where rich and poor districts are totally separate and racial segregation is a stark geographical reality are the urban dystopias of our time. |
| They need to change. Is it really good for the rich white Angelenos to seclude themselves far away from the city’s downtown districts? Wouldn’t the best thing Hollywood liberals could do for LA be to move into areas like Boyle Heights? | They need to change. Is it really good for the rich white Angelenos to seclude themselves far away from the city’s downtown districts? Wouldn’t the best thing Hollywood liberals could do for LA be to move into areas like Boyle Heights? |
| The most moving artistic vision of urban hope I know of towers up in one of the poorest parts of LA. Simon Rodia was not a “gentrifier”, but an Italian immigrant who in the 1920s started to build a set of fantastical towers out of wire and glass and found materials in Watts. The Watts Towers still stand at the heart of a very deprived part of this city. They are LA’s greatest public art work – but have not caused their surroundings to gentrify. When I visited there were no cafes, no boutiques and no expensive apartments anywhere near the Watts Towers. | The most moving artistic vision of urban hope I know of towers up in one of the poorest parts of LA. Simon Rodia was not a “gentrifier”, but an Italian immigrant who in the 1920s started to build a set of fantastical towers out of wire and glass and found materials in Watts. The Watts Towers still stand at the heart of a very deprived part of this city. They are LA’s greatest public art work – but have not caused their surroundings to gentrify. When I visited there were no cafes, no boutiques and no expensive apartments anywhere near the Watts Towers. |
| Proof, if you want to find it, that art need not gentrify a neighbourhood – no one could accuse Watts of being “artwashed”. But isn’t it sad that no such regeneration has happened? What Watts needs is a big art museum by Frank Gehry to celebrate its beautiful towers and bring in crowds of visitors. It needs the restaurants and bars that would follow. It needs some of LA’s rich to live there. | Proof, if you want to find it, that art need not gentrify a neighbourhood – no one could accuse Watts of being “artwashed”. But isn’t it sad that no such regeneration has happened? What Watts needs is a big art museum by Frank Gehry to celebrate its beautiful towers and bring in crowds of visitors. It needs the restaurants and bars that would follow. It needs some of LA’s rich to live there. |
| Attacking the creative forces that can save cities is a tragic and destructive folly. | Attacking the creative forces that can save cities is a tragic and destructive folly. |
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