Arts-based Community & Economic Redevelopment: Artist Relocation Programs

image credit: Noah Adams, NPR <p>How can we build on our existing assets to revitalize our downtown? How can we attract new residents and entrepreneurs into distressed areas? How can we encourage the kind of culture and vitality that keeps young professionals in our downtown? Many North Carolina towns are asking themselves these questions in the wake of an evolving rural economy, the recession, and a changing political infrastructure. In the search for innovative redevelopment strategies, several post-industrial communities have relied on Artist Relocation Programs (ARPs) as a tool for promoting place-based revitalization.</p> <p>Previous blog posts have highlighted the arts and culture industry’s positive impact on local economies. Artist Relocation Programs offer a more targeted approach to creative placemaking. The term Artist Relocation Program (ARP) describes any initiative that involves an intentional effort to attract professional artists into disinvested areas through the provision of residential and/or studio space. Artists are attracted to an area through a variety of planning tools and recruitment incentives, including flexible zoning that allows for live/work spaces, downtown studio space at below market rents, financing to rehabilitate historic homes, free marketing and professional services. In some communities, ARPs have resulted in the rehabilitation of deteriorating housing stock, an enhanced tax base, and reinvestment in downtown through the establishment of a more vibrant and diverse arts community.</p> <p>The Development Finance Initiative (DFI) at the UNC School of Government conducted interviews with three exemplary ARPs (Oil City, Pennsylvania, Paducah, Kentucky, and Alleghany County, Maryland) that might provide North Carolina communities with ideas as to how [...]</p>