Live/work: How the housing shortage threatens Providence’s identity as the ‘creative capital’

The old mill buildings of the Olneyville and Valley neighborhoods in Providence were once the home to hundreds of artists. Back in the 1990s, space was cheap in the old mills and many artists were happy to live and work in these run-down post-industrial spaces. But starting in the early aughts, artists faced evictions as many of those buildings were torn down or converted to luxury loft apartments or condos.

For many creatives, live/work spaces are hard to come by. But some artists have found a home for their studio/work space in some of the remaining mill buildings. One of those buildings is on Hathaway Street near the Cranston line. Giaco Catucci is the managing partner of Hathaway Realty which owns the building. He said he likes to rent to artists. “You know, the best paying tenants are the artists, okay? Of the write-offs that we’ve had in the last decade, they’ve almost all been commercial businesses that went out after months of bankruptcy, etc., and leaving large rent bills behind,” Catucci said.

Giaco’s son, Daniel Catucci, is the building and rental manager at Hathaway. “I think we’re able to make our spaces relatively affordable, in part because we’re not, you know, pursuing these ambitious kinds of renovations or fancying everything up,” he said. “I mean, the space is what it is. And part of that makes it appropriate for artists. They can be messy and they can be loud and they can inhabit their spaces.”

The Partnership for Creative Industrial Space is another company that manages several old mill buildings in the Valley neighborhood with studios for artists and small businesses. Erik Bright is the co-founder of the partnership – and in the 90s he made ceramics and lived in one of the many old mill buildings in Eagle Square. After graduating from RISD in 1991, he said, “then I drank from the fountain in front of the Athenaeum. So I’m stuck here.”

Bright’s company owns a couple of buildings and holds a master lease for others, which allows them to sublet smaller portions. “And then we go in and build them out, and offer spaces anywhere from, you know, 150 square feet to a thousand square feet,” he said. “So we have over 70 studios, and within those studios we have over 130 small creative businesses and artists.” Those include textiles, printmakers, fine artists, several woodworking shops, and a kombucha maker.

Bright said he knows first-hand how important it can be for creatives to have spaces like these. “When we came out of RISD … I would say half the class stayed in Providence because of the affordable commercial space that was here. And we had a real thriving arts community. And that’s been, that’s changed a lot,” he said.

That’s why, Bright said, it’s so important to provide spaces like this for artists, local makers and other creative small businesses. “Wanting to keep the art and creative community alive in our capital is probably the biggest impetus, and allowing opportunities for other kids who are not, you know, startups – people coming out of their basements and garages and having a place to start their business is important. If we don’t have that, we’re going to lose the long-term economic growth of the city.” 

The raw mill spaces on Hathaway or in the Valley are work spaces only. So any of the artists who work there have to pay a second rent for their homes as well – and that’s in a housing market with skyrocketing prices. The city’s affordable artist live/work spaces are almost gone. But one exception is AS220, a nonprofit arts organization founded in 1985. It’s known for its unjuried, uncensored and accessible approach to the arts.

Jonesy Mann is the operations director at AS220. “I think right from the beginning, there was a strong understanding that a lot of artists are in vulnerable housing situations,” he said. “And you can’t have a thriving arts scene or arts community if people don’t have stable places to live.”

In the early 1990s, AS220 moved into its main building on Empire Street, which has a performance space, a bar and restaurant on the first floor, and workshops and studio spaces above. It also has a living space for artists. “From the very beginning the third floor was artist housing, and we still have a communal floor on that third floor where 11 people live, sharing kitchen space, bathrooms, laundry,” Mann said.

In the late aughts and early 2010s, AS220 bought a couple more buildings downtown: the Dreyfus and the Mercantile Block. Now those buildings have retail and restaurant space on the first floor and artist live/work spaces above. 

“We have 47 units. Thirty-nine of them are government-designated affordable housing,” Mann told me. “That is, we have received money from the government to provide affordable housing and are able to offer reduced rent because of that government support. We advertise them all as live/work studios … and so a lot of people do have, especially a lot of visual artists, have their art practices there.”

I talked with one of the residents who lives in an AS220 market-rate apartment, who goes by Teiko. He grew up in Philadelphia and came to Providence to study at Johnson & Wales. While in school, he started going to events and workshops at AS220. “I always had like this professional, let’s say crush on AS220. And like always just seeing them around and seeing all the cool stuff that they’re doing,” he said. “I was like, this is where I have to be. Like this is the only place I’d want to be, honestly, because it’s like, I love Providence and I love, you know, the independence and the memories I’ve made here.”

Teiko works in the restaurant industry and makes paintings, drawings, etchings and prints. Having some sort of creative practice and contributing to the creative life of AS220 is an important requirement for living there. In other words, you have to be an artist of some sort, but AS220 has a very broad definition of artistic practice and doesn’t make a qualitative judgment about their residents’ artistic worth.

Teiko was very excited to finally move into his apartment. “The place is a little big and I wasn’t expecting it when Jonesy first sent me the video,” he said. “It truly is the apartment of my dreams. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen ‘The Lego Movie,’ – the little character comes home every day to his apartment and he’s like, ‘hello apartment!’ And I do that almost every day. It’s too good still.”

His unit is one of the market-rate apartments, meaning the rent is not subsidized and AS220 could charge whatever the market would bear. Teiko told me what his rent is and it’s about $1,000/month less than what you might see listed at a building around the corner. And with his job in the restaurant industry, he’s able to afford it. 

But AS220 is just one organization, with just 47 units.

A big part of why affordable live/work housing for artists has become so rare, is just because there’s less affordable housing in general. Providence has seen some of the highest rent increases in the country in recent years. So when housing is so scarce for everyone, why is it important to have affordable spaces for artists to live and create? 

I put that question to Xander Marro, a multimedia artist and a co-founder of The Dirt Palace, a feminist art organization with residencies and exhibition spaces. “I think there are some real outcomes that I think Providence should anticipate if there is not a real investment or a real thinking, a forward thinking around affordable housing for artists over the next 10 years,” she said. “And one is that there are fewer artists living and working in the city, with a noticeable decline among populations of younger artists, there’s decreased potential for artists of moderate means to piece together a way of making ends meet – and following from this a less economically, culturally and racially diverse artists community. And then there’s also increased pressure on other types of affordable housing.”

The city’s – and the state’s – affordable housing crisis is a threat to Providence’s culture and identity as the “creative capital.” For now, there’s still a steady influx of artists who come here to work and live. The question is, how long can they stay?

This story is the second in a two-part series, Live/work, on how the affordable housing shortage in Providence is impacting the city’s artists. Click here to read the first part of the series, exploring how old mill buildings shaped Providence’s 90s art renaissance.

Thanks to Micah Salkind for the use of his essay “Scale, Sociality and Serendipity in Providence, Rhode Island’s Post-Industrial Renaissance” as a reference for this series. Thanks also to the many artists who took the time to speak with me about the work spaces they are able to find.