The Changes of Street Art in the Face of Gentrification

"Urban theorist Richard Florida hypothesizes that city authorities must distinguish their sites both visually and recreationally to entice the “creative class” to move into lower-income areas. The target demographic, the “bohemians” or the “hipsters,” consists of upper-class, college-educated, white adults, who form the basis of a post-industrial working-class. Consequently, developers commission artists to create murals on the sides of buildings in order to reel in the creative class."

"The use of murals as a tool of gentrification is both clever and deceptive: as an inherently transgressive art form, the presence of street art can create the illusion of insurgence and rebellion, while being created only at the mercy of developers and city planners. It constructs itself as hip and bohemian, yet it has severed itself from its radical roots by imposing on communities that already exist, each with their own historical and cultural significance."

Read the rest of the article here:

https://frescocollective.org/articles/2019/1/11/changes-street-art-gentrification?fbclid=IwAR3V5ftecWKyIZNUirApmk5b07c10Ht-B4RrRetE8tv5nR7BXeGu8iu_ypY