Artist displacement: London's loss is the regions' gain
In the years ahead, interesting art might not be made in the places the art world is used to. Scott Reyburn reflects on how the pandemic, the internet and the cost of living could foster a new spirit of regionalism, and new kinds of art.
"People shooting up in the alleyway here. Lovely. Welcome to Luton,” artist Dominic Allan says on a recent afternoon as he passes two drug users in the town’s rundown former hat-making district.
Luton, about 30 miles north of London, was once famed for its hat industry, but those factories closed long ago. Its current most prominent businesses, an auto plant and an airport, have both been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. And in 2004, it was voted the worst place to live in Britain, according to an unscientific but widely publicised survey.
Yet such towns are exactly the sort of places where hard-up contemporary artists have been gravitating in recent years as unaffordable rents have forced them out of London... Keep reading on the Independent
"People shooting up in the alleyway here. Lovely. Welcome to Luton,” artist Dominic Allan says on a recent afternoon as he passes two drug users in the town’s rundown former hat-making district.
Luton, about 30 miles north of London, was once famed for its hat industry, but those factories closed long ago. Its current most prominent businesses, an auto plant and an airport, have both been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. And in 2004, it was voted the worst place to live in Britain, according to an unscientific but widely publicised survey.
Yet such towns are exactly the sort of places where hard-up contemporary artists have been gravitating in recent years as unaffordable rents have forced them out of London... Keep reading on the Independent