In September 2002, the Board of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA) released the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Action Plan (AAP). That plan outlined the next 15 years of what would become the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.
The fourth page of the 162-page document contains a particularly striking paragraph — one that feels relevant now, 24 years later.
“The unusual thing about Northeast Minneapolis is that it has not undertaken the daunting task of providing long-term stable spaces for artists in order to boost the local economy,” the Plan’s writers wrote. “The Plan’s central aim is to support both artists and economic strength, without exploiting or sacrificing one in favor of the other.”
It’s a canny argument for the plan to make. By tying economic development, artistic well-being and housing to each other, they argued that a rising tide truly could lift all boats.
In the years since, some of that has borne out. Community involvement in the Arts District, as outlined in a piece in this edition of the Northeaster, has swelled from roughly 300 people to about 1,200 — a roughly 300% increase. For a few days each year, Art-A-Whirl® sees streets and studios flooded with locals and tourists alike. By most metrics, the AAP was a success.
That said, it’s worth zooming out and considering that quote again. In 2002, NEMAA wrote that Northeast Minneapolis had not worked on providing “long-term stable spaces for artists.” This could mean studios, but it could mean housing, too. If its three-part argument — art, economy, community — is to be taken fully seriously, that means art, capital, and individuals all need spaces to grow.
In 2019, the University of Minnesota published a study exploring gentrification in the Twin Cities. Of Northeast Minneapolis, they wrote that “prices have gone up and if you cannot compete you are on the proverbial chopping block. In short, the act of creative placemaking” — defined here as the work of practicing arts in studios — “has driven Northeast Minneapolis’ unique form of gentrification in the Twin Cities.”
The authors also point out “high demand for housing,” saying the market had “very little if any” availability for prospective buyers. “Every residential stakeholder interviewed” faced challenges in “seeking artist workspace and residential housing, leaving many questioning their future in Northeast Minneapolis.”
The study’s authors look at Art-A-Whirl, too: “Our interviewees in Northeast Minneapolis cited the commercial commodification of the annual Art-A-Whirl event as a sure sign that Northeast has gentrified.”
This was all in 2019 but the points stand: Housing has hardly gotten cheaper since then, and Minneapolis’ population has not exactly shrunk.
One person’s success may be another person’s gentrification, but the point stands. The prices in Northeast are going up, and the ease of access is going down.
In the face of all this — a rocky-but-stabilizing housing market, a populated Arts District and rising costs of living — the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District Board (which is separate from NEMAA) has commenced work on a second AAP.
If the first is anything to go by, the second plan may reckon with a changed environment in many ways: Artists engage with their community differently than they did in 2002, studios are at a premium and the District features vastly different spaces to then.
However, some things have stayed the same. The first plan proposed that economy and culture were fundamentally inseparable, an idea that is both intuitively and demonstrably correct. That is still the case: In order for an artist to devote their working life to their craft, they will likely need to sell something, and that requires a willing market — ideally one that isn’t spending the majority of their paycheck on rent and mortgages.
No district lives in a vacuum, whether filled with studios or high-rises. Any plan put forward by the Arts District would likely be most successful if paired with a serious look at the area’s economics. Without that, any effort to bolster the area, no matter how forward-looking, will likely face some serious headwinds.