Night life in the Lower East Side is very lively. Ludlow Street, Orchard and Rivington quickly fill on weekend nights with young, trendy folk that don’t clear out until the early hours of the morning. With a variety of bars, the selection in the Lower East Side is hardly limited. Some places include Max Fish, Cake Shop, and Fat Baby. Playful names and decor keep the area fresh and young. I plan on looking into how this loud night life affects the older residents of the Lower East Side next time I come around.
Tag Archives: vc116736
Protected: Amanda Burden Post
Protected: Response to “Deadly Choices at Memorial”
Con Artist: Connected Artists with a Connected Vision
Two years ago, the ambiguity of Lower East Side’s “Con Artist” left entering passersby a bit confused. Vintage clothes hung all about the room, records filled the corners, and a funky array of trinkets were scattered upon every flat surface. The place seemed to be solely defined as a store. And yet, just past this eyeful, artists filtered in and out on a daily basis as they worked, collaborated and displayed their art in the space’s back room. Brian Shevlin, owner and founder of Con Artist, was not okay with this disconnection. “The store was taking away from our vision,” Shevlin said, “A lot of people just thought we were a thrift store, but we’re more about our artists’ collective. Our concept has always been to create, build and prosper and that just wasn’t getting communicated.”
After much revamping, Con Artist has finally molded into its intended form: an artist workshop and gallery. The workshop is any young artist’s dream. With plenty of supplies, space, storage, 24/7 access, and most importantly variety, Con Artist has virtually all the tools a budding artist needs to hone their craft and explore others, or as Shevlin put it, “play around.”
While the idea of a space where artists can gather and work on their craft within a community is not exactly a new one, Con Artist definitely has its unique perks. For one, the space is not dedicated solely to one type of art medium, such as pottery, or printmaking. The range of tools and equipment available to members of the collective is expansive and virtually all-inclusive. “When you’re a creative person you’re not usually like ‘Oh I only like to paint and I hate doing anything else creative.’ It’s usually just one of the many things you do,” Shevlin explained. In addition to providing tools and space, Con Artist provides a business aspect to the operation, one that apparently is often overlooked by other similar locales. At Con Artist, members of the collective are given opportunities to gain something back from their creative process besides their pieces. Frequent gallery showings and participation in artisan fleas allow guests to purchase art as well as any other miscellaneous objects the artist wishes to sell. Essentially this is the “prosper” of the “create, build, and prosper” idea, and with Con Artist’s small commission of 20% for each sale, it seems like a generous one.
Shevlin’s vision of an affordable artist space and business model stemmed from his own frustrations as an art student. “Basically art is a constant expense until you’ve made it,” he said. Over the years, he came to realize that in order to make ends meet, he (and other young artists in general) usually had to work in a completely different field to make extra money, something he felt unfairly detracted from an artist’s creative focus. With this reality in mind, Shevlin set the price for monthly use of the workshop at a generously low price of 180 dollars per month, the collective membership price at fifty dollars, and storage price ranging from twenty to forty dollars per use. Most other art spaces charge upwards of three to four hundred dollars in total for such amenities.
Even in a struggling economy however, Con Artist’s price is hardly their only allure. Their growing group of seventy gains much more than money, they gain an incomparable atmosphere of mutual respect and non-stop inspiration. Even with the constant ebb and flow of people, it’s evident that problems between members are minimal. Managerial duties pertain more to the intricacies of event planning and smooth processing than to crowd control or scuffles between members. In fact, even those who are not active within the workshop anymore, still pay the collective membership price to stay connected to their fellow artistic peers. How does such a large group of creative people with a variety of different tastes work so harmoniously you might ask? Shevlin attributes the harmony directly to the ambience. “In a shared space such as our workshop, everyone is exposed. It’s like being naked on a stage. No one’s got anything to lose.”
Protected: Reporting Notes: Lower East Side
Backgrounder: Lower East Side
The Lower East Side is defined as the area below Houston, above Delancey, and east of Bowery (NYbits). Less than a decade ago, the area was considered to be a “seedy” part of New York; gritty, and far from glamorous. While it still does not have the completely polished look of Soho, it has definitely shaped up. The Lower East Side is now the home of countless artsy boutiques, bars, restaurants and galleries (NYbits). These changes may be due to the significant shifts in the area’s demographics during the last 12 years. According to the online magazine Bowery Boogie, “On the Lower East Side, whites now make up more than a quarter of the population. Hispanics accounted for 44.4% of the population in 2000. Now, they account for a little more than a third.” The picture along with the article is of a stop sign, with the word ‘gentrification’ under ‘stop.’ I think the collision of these two groups is a definite conflict story, especially considering the booming night life found in this area (more on that in my Reporter’s Notes).
The male to female ratio in the area is 1:1, and the percent of married couples are 50% (Areavibes). Based on the place of birth by citizenship, 47% of the people in the L.E.S are considered foreign. 37% are in state residents, 8% are out of state residents, and the other 8% are out of the United States residents. The median household income is around $46,000, most people gathering this money directly from their salary, as opposed to social security which comes in 2nd as a source of income. These incomes directly correlate with the price of rent, which is an average of $1,600. The apartments in the Lower East Side vary. Some are brownstones, but most do not have the most glamorous outer appearance. However, as explained on NYBits, the outside of apartments are among the last things to get renovated. So, while many apartments in the Lower East Side are undergoing renovations and becoming more refined and modern, this fact is not always reflected on street-level.
Protected: Protected: Lower East Side: Neighborhood Faces Query
Neighborhood of Choice: Lower East Side
The Lower East Side is an under appreciated New York treasure. Tucked between Soho and Williamsburg, the area (with the except of Katz Delicatessen) is below the tourist radar. At a glance it can almost be mistaken as just another street off Delancey, crammed with bodegas and cheap apartments. Lucky native New Yorkers, including myself, know this to be far from true. A potpourri of cool, the area brims with culture and can satisfy any explorer for days. Along any block one can find an array of boutiques, earthy cafes, grungy hole-in-wall shops, specialty eateries, and most importantly: plenty of people lounging on stoops (most likely smoking cigarettes). The Lower East Side does not have the somewhat prissy attitude of Soho, or the hipster vibe of Williamsburg. It’s a mix of the swanky and the rustic, and a meeting point between modern and vintage style. As a former resident of the dorms that once resided on Ludlow Street, I spent my first year in Manhattan exploring this neighborhood. The people are approachable. The variety is there. And I do not doubt that with a bit of digging, conflict will reveal itself. What’s great about the Lower East Side is that it doesn’t have a specific crowd. The urban spot ranges from the young and style-hungry, to resident corner dwellers who have drifted a few block from Avenue D. This range allows for an unbiased view of the neighborhood, as well as plenty of material to compare and contrast the crowds that collect.