Au Pierpont: art communities add vibrancy to a city--but are usually the first to be pushed out.

• Author: Biton, Adva
• Position: Business Trends

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Have you ever seen the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painting Au Moulin Rouge? One of the famed post-impressionist artist's best-known works, it depicts, and was painted at, the then-new Paris cabaret Moulin Rouge in the mid-1890s. Artists have long brought color, intrigue and vibrancy to the seedier portions of town, often elevating them to the interest of higher socio-economic classes--and sometimes, out of their own ability to remain there.

So it was in the Belle Epoque, and so it remains now. Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Brooklyn have all had their turns in New York City; San Francisco and Oakland are now experiencing the same thing. Artist communities are still often considered the first step of a gentrification process that is both good and bad, depending on where you stand.

"Unfortunately, it's kind of a natural progression. Artists go into these communities because the rent is low, but they make them cool, they make them livable, they make them safe," says Angela Brown, executive editor of SLUG magazine. "We come into these areas because it's so affordable, then it's a matter of time before that secret gets out and people take note. I've noticed it happening here in Salt Lake City over a long period of time."

Pierpont Avenue

A recent example of the artist-led gentrification process can be found in downtown Salt Lake City on Pierpont Avenue between 300 and 400 West. The area--a walkable avenue with a signature dock--had been a curated artists' space since Artspace founder Stephen Goldsmith leased the area in the early 1980s. In 2008 that lease expired, and Artspace went on to nurture other communities elsewhere. The owners of the area hiked up rent for the first time, and then, still unable to get what they wanted out of the space, sold to a Seattle-based developer.

"It was very affordable here for a lot of years. The first time we saw an increase, it weeded out people then, but there were people that could still afford the rent increases and it was still home to a lot of artists," says Brown, whose magazine has been headquartered at Pierpont Avenue for over a decade. "They sold it as an investment for someone out of state. It's not a community decision. It's a business decision. Which we understand--but there are pros and cons."

The cons are obvious, says Brown: A huge percentage of the community was priced out of the neighborhood and dispersed. Photographers moved out of their studios, seamstresses like D'Antii...