The Creative Instinct

Around 200 creative people have been kicked out of their home and creative workspaces, possibly permanently, in a building ‘evacuation’ in New York.

One of the perennial barriers to fulfilling our creative potential is the problem of finding and then keeping a place to practise our own creative work. Musicians need rehearsal rooms, artists need studios, actors and dancers need performance space.

I posted last week about the difficulty my wife was having finding local studio space. What I didn’t say was that the reason she and other artists are looking is because their current studio space, First Circle Studios, is basically falling apart and is closed on health and safety grounds.

Magnify by 10

But what’s happening in Sheffield, UK, is far, far worse at 475 Kent, New York. There an amazing community of 200 successfully creative people: artists, musicians, writers, photographers, video artists, sculptors – were thrown out of their homes and the place they make their living, onto the New York streets on one of the coldest days of the winter.

Make Some Noise

It’s easy for the greater creative community to feel helpless in situations like this, but we can put pressure on the New York authorities by making some noise about it. One thing that’s very easy to do is to add your name to this petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/475Kent/petition.html

Sign it, pass on the link and let everyone in your creative world know about this. If you have a website or blog of your own, then let your audience know. The more pressure, the more internet buzz, the harder it will be for the New York Authorities to let this slide.

You can read the New York Times article about the evacuation of 475 Kent here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/nyregion/10building.html?pagewanted=1 Be sure to read the second page, which looks at ongoing threats to buildings like these and describes a creative community of rare cohesion and vision. Although the creative community at 475 Kent is working to get back into their homes and workspaces, there is a real and present danger they could permanently lose this wonderful facility.

Please sign the petition and help the people of 475 Kent reclaim their homes and creative community.