In the last year I have posted about businesses encouraging the presence of artists in Philadelphia and London as a strategy for filling empty store fronts and infusing vitality into neighborhoods. I also wrote about artists taking advantage of obscenely low real estate prices in Detroit to purchase properties and establish a little artist colony in that city.
So I read with some interest a Guardian story about an cultural organization in London which is, though they reject the term, squatting in the high rent commercial district. The aim of the group, The Oubliette, is “to support the arts without the need for public or private sector funding.” (Appropriating involuntary in-kind donations of space from the private sector doesn’t seem to be a problem, however.)
The group does a little work prior to “moving in,” generating a business plan and proposal which highlights, among other things, the security they bring to the empty property.
They even have a sort of business plan, which they plan to tout around the capital’s wealthy property magnates. The goal? To persuade the rich to lend their empty properties to the Oubliette to use for exhibitions, concerts and plays. “It’s an alternative way of offering extraordinarily wealthy people a way to contribute to the arts without an enormous pecuniary investment,” according to the erudite Simon.
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In terms of floor space, their new gaff would be the envy of nearly every arts centre in the country. It is so big, in fact, that last Friday’s event, a collaboration with homelessness charity The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, only used parts of the ground and first floors. There was an art exhibition, featuring work by homeless people, as well as the Oubliette’s artist-in-residence, Philip Firsov, and a number of different classical music groups staged mini-concerts in some of the building’s many rooms.
The event was one of many unusual partnerships the Oubliette are trying to forge in an attempt to turn squatting into a legitimate way of showcasing the arts without the taxpayer’s help, while disassociating themselves from wilder, less well organised squatters in other London mansions.
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The group is currently in the process of preparing PowerPoint presentations to give to the owners of empty buildings – both commercial and residential – to persuade them to allow the Oubliette to use their spaces as arts platforms. A draft pitch, seen by the Guardian, attempts to sell squatting as a way of providing free security, preventing property devaluation and adding value to the community.
Twenty-four-hour security costs £7,500 per guard per month, claims the pitch, adding that a derelict property can “result in a loss of up to 18% value on neighbouring property prices”. What’s more, the Oubliette pledge to improve empty buildings. “Our dedicated team includes certified workers in electrics, plumbing and construction,” they say, promising to “return the property back to the owner clean and functional within 28 days’ written notice of wanting the property back”.
The Oubliette is based around a “live-in core” of eight people with distinct roles, including “IT guru”, “PR operative”, “graphic designer”, “legal adviser” (a trainee barrister), “artist-in-residence” and “copywriter”. They have grand plans, according to Simon, who until 2002 was an IT worker living in Chelsea. “Our long-term strategic ambition is to negotiate for consent with an owner of a suitable empty premise for leave to remain,” he said. “Occupying properties in high-profile locations allows us to raise public awareness and garner support, whilst also furthering the organisational aspects of our project and pitch to proprietors.”
He is confident of success, and claims to have successfully negotiated consent to squat in eight properties in London in the past seven years.
While I don’t really condone squatting. I am pleased that they commit to improving a location rather than conforming to the stereotype of artists for whom mundane concerns like maintaining their environment interferes with the connection with their muse. Part of me hopes their presence helps drive real estate prices up. We all know that the arts can lead to the gentrification of run down areas. Usually the artists are priced out of the area before they can contribute to the gentrification of an already gentrified area. No one knows what the ceiling for economic stimulation by the arts might be.