PORTSMOUTH — Members of the city’s Arts and Cultural Commission pushed for city leaders to address a lack of affordable space for artists to live and work.
Both in a lengthy report the commission submitted to the city, and comments made at the Oct. 6 City Council meeting, commission members pointed to the ongoing struggle.
The report from the Arts & Cultural Commission stated its “overarching goal is to keep Portsmouth a destination for artists by addressing rising costs and the lack of affordable live/work housing, both of which threaten the sector’s sustainability.”
A call to invest in Portsmouth’s vibrant art scene
The report identifies the creation of affordable artist live/work space “as essential to retaining talent, fostering inclusion, and sustaining public cultural experiences.”
This remains a major issue in Portsmouth, even though the arts economy in the city generates an estimated $70.2 million annually, according to the report.
Emma Stratton of the Portsmouth Historical Society, who co-chairs the Arts & Cultural Commission, told the City Council, “Portsmouth has a real opportunity to be a leader here. There’s a lot of opportunity to look at this across multiple sectors, but to really highlight and support our artist community here in town.”
Supporting the effort to create more artist live/work space in the city “is an investment, not only in our affordable housing issue we have here, but also ensuring we remain a culturally rich, inclusive and economically dynamic community as we move forward,” Stratton said.
Eli Kaynor of the Portsmouth Music and Arts Center, also an Arts & Cultural commission member, said artist live/work space has been “identified as something the city desperately needs.”
The report is “our attempt at kind of giving a blueprint on this issue and what it might look like to start addressing it, even if it’s just baby steps,” he said.
“We want to keep Portsmouth a place that is known for arts and culture,” he said, but acknowledged “with each passing year (it’s) becoming harder and harder to do.”
“More and more artists are finding that it’s just not affordable to live here,” Kaynor told the City Council.
“With some sort of investment in artist live/work space over any amount of time,” city leaders “will be protecting Portsmouth’s cultural identify,” while strengthening the local economy, he said.
Zoning changes could help create housing for artists
Stratton said the Arts & Cultural Commission is seeking the council’s support of a proposed $65,000 feasibility study to look at ways to create artist live/work space.
That proposed item in the city’s capital improvement plan “would assess viability, funding sources and potential sites” for this affordable housing, she said.
The other part of the report “that we really want to highlight is incentivizing off-site affordable artist housing through zoning,” Stratton said.
That would involve, according to the report, updating zoning regulations “to incentivize off-site affordable artist housing by partnering with local nonprofits, offering units at off-site locations managed by nonprofits, provided they meet the definition of artist live/work space.”
City council advances proposal into planning process
City Councilor Kate Cook made a motion, which the council passed unanimously on Oct. 6, “to send the artist live/work report of the Arts and Cultural Commission to the Planning Board for incorporation into the master plan process.
She pointed specifically to the “the recommendation that zoning regulations be updated to include artist live/work space in partnership with nonprofits as part of an affordable housing incentive in our zoning code.”
Cook, who also serves on the commission, noted the report is the “culmination of two years of work.”
The proposed zoning changes to help create affordable artist live/work space “is something that we think is really feasible,” Cook said.
Mayor Deaglan McEachern called the report “really important work.”