Our cultural infrastructure in cities across America – the spaces where creative people and professionals live, work, make, rehearse, present, and perform – is under threat. Even before the pandemic, museums, artist and recording studios, rehearsal spaces, and independent music venues and theaters have been feeling the squeeze of growing development pressure and restrictive planning policy, rising rents, and changing business and revenue models across the creative industries. And while the pandemic has had a profound impact across the economy, it has been uniquely brutal for cities’ creative economy and cultural sectors. Due to these sectors’ dependence on in-person events, many cultural venues saw revenue losses of up to 90 percent, and some of our cities’ most beloved cultural spaces have closed permanently. The thought of a post-pandemic without the arts and cultural ecosystems that gives our cities their sense of place and community is a bleak on
Our cultural infrastructure in cities across America – the spaces where creative people and professionals live, work, make, rehearse, present, and perform – is under threat. Even before the pandemic, museums, artist and recording studios, rehearsal spaces, and independent music venues and theaters have been feeling the squeeze of growing development pressure and restrictive planning policy, rising rents, and changing business and revenue models across the creative industries. And while the pandemic has had a profound impact across the economy, it has been uniquely brutal for cities’ creative economy and cultural sectors. Due to these sectors’ dependence on in-person events, many cultural venues saw revenue losses of up to 90 percent, and some of our cities’ most beloved cultural spaces have closed permanently. The thought of a post-pandemic without the arts and cultural ecosystems that gives our cities their sense of place and community is a bleak on