This digital hub aims to increase local engagement with arts and culture by connecting community members and artists with local arts events and opportunities
The Arty Crowd is the Hamilton Arts Council’s digital hub for connecting artists and community members with arts-related events in the city.
In 2017, a symposium called The Big Picture brought together local artists and arts organizations to examine challenges and opportunities for the community’s arts and culture scene. Out of this event came the idea to create a website housing arts-related resources.
David Huson, artistic director at the Hamilton Arts Council, explained that the process for organizing the website was lengthy. It involved collaboration with the local community through discussion with citizens. The website's creators looked at numerous case studies to learn what content would be relevant and useful for the website to include.
Even the name of the digital resource has a story, according to Hudson. The intent of the name is to take “the arty crowd,” once used disparagingly, and to re-purpose that for the community, giving it a new and more positive meaning.
"Basically there was a bit of uproar in the art scene, and Mayor Lloyd Jackson in 1959 declared. . .I've got the quote here: "The people of this city have made it abundantly clear that they want no part of this modern art. We can't let the arty crowd run things." We've reclaimed that name as The Arty Crowd," said Hudson.
Individual artists, art organizations, art lovers in the community and non-artists in creative industries can all create accounts on the website. The Arty Crowd website is controlled by the account holders themselves, where those who organize the events post their information, keep it updated and manage their general account. Hudson has pointed out that there are over 1,500 account holders.
The website focuses on these areas of content: chances to contribute to creative and artistic events, funding opportunities and employment opportunities. These are mainly posted by the users, but the Hamilton Arts Council does contribute from time to time. The events that are promoted are often local, but the website also promotes events outside of the city for those who have access and might be interested.
The Arty Crowd is a unique database for Hamilton due to its sole focus on the arts and the sense of autonomy for its users.
“I think there are event listings in Hamilton that do encompass some arts events, but they'll also encompass eating out and tourism," said Hudson.
Hudson also pointed out that the reception for the website has been warm and positive. Many arts organizations and artists have been taking advantage of the site and the support from the community has made it a successful endeavour.
Students should check out the website if they are interested in the arts community and would like to get involved with more events. Hudson also encouraged those who might not consider themselves to be artists, but who are creatively inspired, to get involved and still be able to contribute in some way, stressing that membership for artists and creatives is completely free.
“It's a portal to get connected with the arts in any way, whether it's just to attend and watch or whether it's to get involved or get connected. I encourage people, if you are an artist or creative or you contribute to the arts landscape, to set up an account, set up a profile and add your content,” said Hudson.
It's a portal to get connected with the arts in any way. . .I encourage people, if you are an artist or creative or you contribute to the arts landscape, to set up an account, set up a profile and add your content.
David Hudson, Artistic Director, Hamilton Arts Council
Hudson added that they are currently working on adding a new feature to the website for artists to look at spaces to show their work. Those who want to rent out a space will be able to look at profiles on the website and find their best fit.
The Arty Crowd is also currently running a TV show live on Cable 14 called The Arty Crowd Out Loud! where monthly episodes showcase local arts venues and events to build support and audience for the website’s purpose and the city’s art scene. The show can also be seen on demand here.
If any students are interested in attending arts events or would like to become more involved with the arts in Hamilton, The Arty Crowd is a great digital resource for locating these opportunities.
Local artists and cultural workers express their concerns about gentrification and the housing crisis in Hamilton
C/O Hamilton Artists Organizing
The arts and artists have long been associated with the gentrification of inner-city neighbourhoods, the displacement of vulnerable groups and working-class communities. With increasing focus on creativity in urban development, artists and cultural workers have become a vital part of city revitalization projects.
Yet their creativity has become highly valued not so much for their innovation, artistry or vision, but more for its power to attract investors and wealthier residents. This has caused real estate values to rise, residents to be pushed out and poverty conditions to intensify. Hamilton is no exception to this trend of art-stimulated gentrification.
Walking down James Street North, you may have seen the slogan, “Art is the New Steel”, on public art, t-shirts and posters. The emerging arts districts in Hamilton have brought social and economic changes, leading to the recent dramatic shifts in housing costs and migration of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour groups to more marginalized neighbourhoods.
Walking down James Street North, you may have seen the slogan, “Art is the New Steel”, on public art, t-shirts and posters. The emerging arts districts in Hamilton have brought social and economic changes, leading to the recent dramatic shifts in housing costs and migration of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour groups to more marginalized neighbourhoods.
Reports from the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton in 2019 revealed that about 45 per cent of residents spend a disproportionate amount of their income on their rent. Furthermore, between June 2019 and June 2020, the city’s rents experienced the highest spike in the country, increasing by 33.5 per cent.
The rise in unaffordable housing is one of the seven urgent issues highlighted by Hamilton Artists Organizing in a letter to Mayor Fred Eisenberger and the city council. HAO is a loose collective of artists, musicians, writers and cultural workers mobilizing against gentrification in the city.
The rise in unaffordable housing is one of the seven urgent issues highlighted by Hamilton Artists Organizing in a letter to Mayor Fred Eisenberger and the city council. HAO is a loose collective of artists, musicians, writers and cultural workers mobilizing against gentrification in the city.
The group formally formed in 2019 and began drafting the letter prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, a larger group of local artists, including current members of HAO, have been assembling and discussing the involvement of the arts in gentrification for some time.
They have engaged in conferences such as Gathering on Art, Gentrification and Economic Development at McMaster and Pressure Points: Gentrification and the Arts in Hamilton at Hamilton Artists Inc. art gallery. Sparked by these conversations, the collective ultimately formed to take direct action and break the cycle of art-powered gentrification.
“The fact is that artwashing and these kinds of vanguard behaviours by artists to move into communities and gentrify them is a historical relationship that needs to be interrupted,” said Derek Jenkins, a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and member of HAO.
The letter was written as a group, with perspectives and contributions from artists who are new to the issue and by those who have been researching the issue for a long time.
In addition to rental costs, the letter questions and demands the current plan of action with regards to the shortage of adequate social housing; class-based disparities between neighbourhoods; poverty; homelessness and loss of service providers; with references to impacts of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Until the Hamilton city council responds and meets these demands, the group and supporters have promised to withhold their services and focus more on highlighting the actions, or the lack of actions, from the city.
Since being published in January of this year, the letter has garnered more than 580 signatures from community artists and cultural workers. There have also been overwhelming inquiries from local artists to join HAO.
HAO believes the purpose of the letter is two-fold: it is aimed at both the city counsellors and artists. Artists are in a unique position in that they are at both ends of the gentrification cycle. They not only help fuel it, but they are often part of the group that experiences displacement due to redevelopment.
It is easy for artists to become ensnared in a vicious cycle of moving to a cheaper area and then being forced out due to their creative activities that raise the economic potential and property cost of the neighbourhood. Take Barton Village as an example.
It’s considered one of the cheaper neighbourhoods in Hamilton; however, it has seen a recent boom of cafés, expensive restaurants and art spaces due to the high saturation of artists in the area who help raise civic interest.
As an artist, it can be challenging to not be complicit with gentrification.
“Many artists are precariously employed and many are experiencing the housing crisis as well. It can become a very difficult problem for artists to weigh the costs of opportunities that may adversely affect their living situations,” explained Jenkins.
“Many artists are precariously employed and many are experiencing the housing crisis as well. It can become a very difficult problem for artists to weigh the costs of opportunities that may adversely affect their living situations,” explained Jenkins.
However, it is often these city and corporate-funded work with less community-minded interests, such as painting a mural in a derelict area, that fuel the cycle.
Members and supporters of HAO hope the letter and their continuous work will help raise more awareness about the power of the arts in gentrification.
“I hope that the artist community can lend our support in ways that we can. As part of our practices, we have all of these skills that we can offer in various contexts. I think it would be really exciting to see how artists can support local organizing,” said Danica Evering, writer, sound artist and member of HAO.
In the coming months, HAO is planning to have general meetings to continue the conversation around gentrification and expand the collective’s network. They encourage student-artists and activists to join.
In the words of Hayden King, an Anishinaabe writer and educator: “Artists must recognize that they're an active player in gentrification and if they are committed to social justice, they should devote their energies to ensuring that people are not being displaced.”
In the words of Hayden King, an Anishinaabe writer and educator: “Artists must recognize that they're an active player in gentrification and if they are committed to social justice, they should devote their energies to ensuring that people are not being displaced.”
It is these words that drive Jenkins, Evering, HAO and the artist community to continue raising their voices against the housing crisis in Hamilton.
