New York needs to build 5,000 new homes for artists in the next five years or risk losing its reputation as the heart of the art world, according to a new report.
The Center for an Urban Future's Creative New York review found its resident artist population fell by 4.4% since 2019 and identified "more than two dozen galleries that have shuttered in just the past two years".
Its report, published today, also said "small museums are buckling under economic pressures" with the number of museum jobs down 8.6% in the last six years.
Citing cost-of-living pressures as a major reason for the decline, researchers quoted Kahlil Robert Irving as an example of artists being driven out of the city.
The sculptor, whose work has been shown at the Walker Art Center and the Museum of Modern Art, left in 2020 to move to St. Louis, Missouri, where he could afford a 13,000-square-foot warehouse studio.
He said: "Trying to survive and sustain in New York, the hustle gets complicated. How much of yourself may you have to lose just to continue to participate?"
Among the solutions proposed by the report is a call for New York's parks, described as its "largest art gallery", to commission more work and for the city to "commit to building or designating 5,000 artist-preference units by 2030".
It concludes the next administration, led by incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani whose wife Rama Duwaji is a working artist, "will need to act boldly" to prevent further decline.
