(2016)…..”Let’s make this the next Wynwood”, neighbor business owner. Little did they know I had just returned from Miami a few weeks ago. I had stumbled upon the remnants of what appeared to be an industrial, working class neighborhood turned art party funded by huge wealth connected to BMW, UBS and the deep pockets of blue chip galleries. A year before that I had started reading about the relationship between artists and gentrification. I had just spent the past 8 years spending much of my time on my hands and knees setting tile in the mcmansions on the east side to pour all my income in the creating a sustainable art space.
(2017)…Homewise purchases 500 2nd SW The space had been run for decades by artist Martha Trolin. It was studios, performance space and low income apartments. The following years all the studios and apartments have been vacated. Fueled by the City of Albuquerque and deeply funded by federal housing orgs this “non profit” has now purchased all of the dyi artspaces in the oldest neighborhood in Albuquerque, Barelas. A strategic planning for the organization was leaked to the director of STF. The organization described how they could leverage art and artists to make the public more comfortable in this historic neighborhood. This non-profit org had taken a page right out of for profit playbooks. As property values soar–artists and generations of families in Barelas will no longer be able to afford to purchase a home or studio in this area.