TOW #5 - Article: "The Culture Paradox" by Gina Bellafante

New York Times journalist Gina Bellafante examines the shifting importance of the arts in Manhattan in the article, "The Culture Paradox of 21st-Century New York." Bellafante covers the changes passing through New York's boroughs of Manhattan, once the cultural apex of the US, now inhabited by the 1%, contrasted against Brooklyn, a haven for the arts in the 21st century. Immediately,  Bellafante alludes to an essay written by singer-songwriter David Byrne, criticizing modern day New York for succumbing to Wall Street and dampening creativity through its over-expensive culture. Byrne reminisces the 70's, when New York sustained young, striving artists with no money and in turn produced masterpieces. Bellafante then brings light to the culturally blossoming borough, Brooklyn. The author provides evidence of Mayor Bloomberg's commitment to the arts through donating 10's of millions of dollars to the arts in New York. The author then establishes a counter-argument to Byrne's essay: Brooklyn is the new Manhattan. Culturally, Brooklyn has been thriving. The BRIC House, a large gallery building with space for readings, screenings and lectures, has sprouted in the midst of Brooklyn. With inexpensive ticket prices, the BRIC House provides a space for new artists to flourish and display their work. The mention of this cultural sanctuary is a metaphor of New York in the 70's, a place where young artists moved to "make it" in the art world. Classes are offered at dance centers for young children and visual media in Brooklyn for nothing or little to nothing. Thus attempting to prove her the author's purpose that the center for culture in New York has shifted boroughs: Manhattan to Brooklyn. Even though the New York of the 70's remains, the same type of "Urban Chaos," as stated by Bellafante, remains in the boroughs.