A piece in the New York Times describes two initiatives in Manhattan connecting working artists with vacant commercial office space. Both Chashama’s A.R.E.A. program and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space serve as brokers between landlords with extra space and artists or arts groups in desperate need of the same.
Landlords benefit by positive PR, interesting tenants that add something different to the building culture, and the benefit of activity (it’s often easier to show and lease a space that’s already in use, not completely empty). Artists get prime real estate of a size and quality that they couldn’t normally afford, if perhaps only for a short time.
Funders and advocates often talk about capacity-building in the nonprofit arts. But they almost always focus that energy on building the capacity of individual organizations (new office technology, staff training, specific infrastructure investments, endowments). These programs remind us that finding and releasing dormant capacity within a wider system (between and beyond the nonprofit arts) can often be even more effective than adding more.
For example, how many corporate training sessions in town have an empty seat or two that might be filled by nonprofit arts staff? How many arts organizations manage their own ticketing with a system that could handle 10 times the volume (while others have none)?
There’s capacity in the cracks, at the edges, in the corners. A clever arts community finds a way to set that capacity free for creative use.
