There's a whole bunch of buzz concerning all the Cape Town galleries moving into the Woodstock area. A shift of power, people say, into a new neighbourhood. But I wander what power balances are really in the equation. It is well known that the full gentrification (gentrification from gentry, meaning the people of gentle birth, good breeding, or high social position) of a neighbourhood is preceded by the arrival of artists, then galleries. Basically, as I understand it the process works like this: artists are a class with a predilection for urban living, but in a relatively low income group for middle class people. Their search for low-cost studio and living spaces, compounded by their desire for authenticity and grit, make them to move into poor areas. In a post-industrial city, like Cape Town is rapidly becoming, these poor areas are inner city where there is less work for people not engaged in service industries. As the artists raise the profile and 'authenticity' of a neighbourhood, the galleries move in, followed by more middle class young professionals and creatives who because they are late marrying childless people for whom the normal downsides of low income areas (crime, lack of amenities, lack of good schools) affect less. This process continues as more wealthy professionals searching for their innate creativity and an urban lifestyle move in, the buildings are renovated and improved. Amenities arrive, etc. This all sounds good, a neighbourhood is brought out of squalor. The problem is the hidden cost to the poor (and eventually the artists too) who are displaced by the rising prices. Instead of really changing the quality of a city, it just compounds the problems in other poor neighbourhoods.

In a country like South Africa, where our poor people have continually been put out of sight by the whites, this development is worrying, and unethical. Moving a problem to improve your lifestyle is not a solution. As artists, and gallerist, etc, we need to think about what the consequences of our production is. And yes we are all implicated.
Read some interesting case studies here and here.
Wikipedia overview here.
Galleries moving to/ in Woodstock: Bell-Roberts, Michael Stevenson, Whatiftheworld, Goodman

Labels: gentrification, woodstock