Hard Times for Big City Artists

Michael Fallon writes that while artists are facing hard times in big art cities like New York and Los Angeles, other cities are rushing in to fill the void:

"Where can artists find arms welcoming enough to provide a chance to sustain their careers? Well, as it happens, perhaps sensing an opportunity in the leveled fields of the current economy several of America's bleakest, and most economically depressed, cities-Detroit, Baltimore, and Cleveland, among others-have begun making their case to become the next American artistic epicenter. All of these places have begun offering incentives like housing allowances (or otherwise cheap housing options), grants and other competitive awards, and other support to artists, even as they promise at least some of the cultural amenities-museums, arts events, and the like-that one can find in the Big Cities."