The City of Cleveland, Urban Land Institute Cleveland, and Assembly for the Arts recently hosted the Art in Public program, Connecting Art + Real Estate, at the Dunham Tavern Gardens and Museum. Dozens of residents, cultural dignitaries, philanthropy administrators, artists, real estate developers, and city officials were there to discuss artists and real estate in the Hough neighborhood.
Instead, the conversation focused on real estate development along the Euclid Ave corridor, from Cedar Ave to Chester Ave, E30 Street to University Circle, excluding the central tract of land in the Hough neighborhood, with almost no discussion on the area north of Chester Ave or within AsiaTown.
Adam Saurwein, Partner at Benesch Law and ULI Cleveland Outreach Committee Co-Chair showed several examples of real estate development and artist collaboration projects in HingeTown, including Church + State and the Collinwood and Hough neighborhoods, where murals decorate public spaces. He said the Art in Place grants bring artists together with real estate developers to “amplify community voices in creative placemaking.”
The Urban Land Institute, or ULI, originally incorporated under the name of the National Real Estate Foundation, is described as a global non-profit research and education organization to help its members and their partners build equitable, sustainable, healthy, and resilient communities. ULI Cleveland is one of eight cities in the world to receive Art in Place, which will be collected and used as a case study for future programs. Community listening sessions will be held again on August 30 from 5:30-7:30PM at the Baseball Heritage Museum, and the results will culminate in a technical assistant panel scheduled for October.
“I used to live in the Tremont neighborhood twenty years ago, and when I moved in, it was full of artists and galleries,” said Saurwein. “Restaurants and real estate developers moved in and, unfortunately, artists and galleries have moved out, a victim of real estate success. We want to use this grant to understand lessons to learn.”
Lauren Murray (Hansgen), Executive Director, Dunham Tavern Museum & Gardens, was introduced. Joyce Pan Huang, the City of Cleveland Director of Planning, followed by adding that art-making and developing real estate have parallels. Rhonda Brown, the City of Cleveland senior strategist for arts, culture, and the creative economy, read from a prepared statement thanking the city for the opportunity to return home.
“In many ways, real estate developers, at the beginning of their process, have to consider the same thing artists do,” said Brown.
MidTown Cleveland presented their neighborhood vision with an overview of developing housing along Euclid Avenue. There was no mention of using existing housing and warehouse stock, which is plentiful in AsiaTown and Hough neighborhoods, or references to the dozens of artists that live and work there.
“Whether it is more murals or beautifying public crosswalks, we focus on the arts,” said Sophie Mueller, Economic Development Manager at MidTown. “We want to elevate the cultural patchwork of the neighborhood and amplify local artists, giving them a platform for their work.”
As introductions concluded, the breakout session began. Saurwein was the moderator at our table. He sat down with a clipboard and pen in hand and asked, “What are some of the considerations artists and developers consider when creating or planning?”
J. Shorey said that when his project, The Foundry Project Arts and Tech Incubator, located on E71st and Platt Ave, is complete, artists will manage the building. Shorey has been the subject of numerous articles surrounding the project, which recently received $670,000 from the state of Ohio’s brownfield remediation program. He plans to rent space to recent art graduates and emerging tech professionals. He purchased the building from the Cuyahoga land bank in 2015.
Sean Watterson wants to see a broader policy position that includes more grant money from the current cigarette tax, with artists currently receiving only 2% of a multimillion-dollar Cuyahoga Arts and Culture program; universal basic income for artists was also mentioned.
Kim Scott, Planner at the City of Cleveland planning, asked about critical mass and if there were enough artists regionally to absorb the new living spaces proposed along Euclid Ave or the Foundry Project with its 72,000 square foot facility. No one had the answer. Real estate investors are betting on artists to move to MidTown for housing opportunities, studios, workspaces, galleries, and retail, which they plan to provide. In 2020, the population of Cleveland was the lowest total since 1890. It has declined by over 3% since 2020. Cleveland is among the fastest-shrinking cities in America.
Saourwein was optimistic but cautious. “Artists are not necessarily the type of people that will sign a ten-year lease with three five-year renewals,” he said, suggesting traditional lease agreements may need to be revised. Hough may be the next artistic hot spot, with wide streets, plenty of empty warehouse space, and proximity between downtown and the University but MoCA relocated uptown, and SPACES moved further into Ohio City, leaving behind the opportunity to grow MidTown into a thriving community of artists.
Housing for artists? Better ask them first. Dozens of artists already live and work in the Hough neighborhood. There was no mention of them.
The meeting missed an opportunity to talk about neighborhoods that have grown organically, like Tremont, Gordon Square, and Collinwood. Real estate developers did not build apartments and studios for the artists. Artists renovated, and repaired old structures, built new ones and made them their own. Investors and real estate developers that plan to build housing for artists with their financial bottom line and profit in mind might be disappointed.
Build it, and the artists might not come.
Bruce Checefsky is a filmmaker and photographer, and published writer. He is the recipient of three Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, a Creative Workforce Fellowship, and four CEC ArtsLink Fellowships.
One Response to “REPORT: Artist’s Housing? Maybe You Should Ask Them”
Liz Maugans
Which comes first the developer or the artists? It’s a hard to think that developers are listening- there are some like Neil Viny, J. shorey, Rick Foran, Dan Bush. They have put in some serious thought, integrity and $ to support artists. The Hough neighborhood has already had some out of town developers who don’t even want to invest in art for the hallways. That’s very depressing. Artists will build where they feel they can have a quality of life. Talk to the artists in the neighborhood and what they need are the same tax incentives ypu give to developers! Support Hough residents first through low income loans and other projects that the residents of Hough want.