Artist garret as growth machine? Local policy and artist housing in U.S. cities

While artists have always lived in cities, never before have city governments so actively sought to court artists, most notably by supporting the development of subsidized artist housing. This article relies on a survey of municipal officials, interviews, and secondary sources to document the spread of publicly supported artist housing. The article argues that artist housing programs can be found even in cities not known as cultural cities. It further demonstrates that in most cities, artist housing programs are considered part of an economic development agenda. It concludes that the unique class position of artists ren-der them well suited in the eyes of public officials to play a transformative role in urban neighborhoods. Keywords artist housing, economic development policy, creative economy, subsidized municipal housing, urban development About ten years ago, officials in Paducah, Kentucky, desperate to revive their struggling Ohio River city of twenty-five thousand, placed ads in art magazines urging artists to relo-cate to their historic Lowertown district. The city altered its zoning to encourage a mix of residential and commercial activities and offered packages of loans and grants to in