Required Reading

Thanks to Simon for this astonishingly well-reasoned article on the befuddling relationship between art and commerce. Since Ithaca recently received kudos for its appeal to the Richard-Florida-invented "creative class" (We're Number Three! We're Number Three!), this is all the more relevant.

Vibrancy is a sort of performance that artists or musicians are expected to put on, either directly or indirectly, for the corporate class. These are the ones we aim to reassure of our city’s vibrancy, so that they never choose to move their millions (of dollars) to some more vibrant burg. An artist who keeps to herself, who works in her room all day, who wears unremarkable clothes and goes without tattoos— by definition she brings almost nothing to this project, adds little to the economic prospects of a given area.

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