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How To Retire Without Money
By Bob Belmont
CHAPTER 6
AMERICA'S ART COLONIES
Page 2 of 9
I've seen
this happen more than once. Greenwich Village, in New York
City, is far from cheap any more and you have to really dig
around to find a real artist there. Woodstock, up in the
Cats-kills, is another example—a far cry from the days when
Harvey White and his friends first started it. Taos, New
Mexico, once the bargain paradise so loved by D. H. Lawrence,
is now in the way of becoming a tourist trap, although it's
still not too bad if you get out of town a ways. There are
many other examples of art colonies that have gone to seed.
The Vieux Carre in New Orleans, the beloved French Quarter,
once the cheapest part of town and by far the most
picturesque, is now a combination of honky tonks, tourist
traps, and souvenir stores. And, above all, it's become so
expensive that few artists can afford to live there.
Laguna Beach
and Carmel, in California; Provincetown on Cape Cod in
Massachusetts; Boothbay Harbor, Maine; all in their time were
ultra-economical beauty spots that attracted the artists by
droves. And now they're prohibitively expensive tourist
centers, the streets full of gawking visitors hoping to catch
sight of a "real Bohemian," whatever that is.
But the
artist has a defense against all this. He can always move on
to another place, form a new colony. And that's what usually
happens. Few art colonies last more than ten or twenty years
from the time they are first founded.
Today a great
many of our painters, writers and the others are streaming
abroad to such art colonies as San Miguel Allende and Ajijic,
in Mexico, Torremolinos in Spain, and Positano in Italy,
although Italy is by no means inexpensive these days.
But in spite
of this trend to move abroad, there are still a good many art
colonies in the United States and in every section of the
country from Cape Cod in New England to Sarasota in Florida
and from Colorado Springs and Taos in the Rockies to Laguna
Beach and Carmel on the Pacific. If not every State then
certainly every section of the country has its art colony.
Some of them will support literally hundreds of artists,
genuine as well as the psuedo variety; some will have no more
than a dozen or so.
What is the
advantage in living in an art colony? Of retiring in such a
place?
There are
various advantages for some types of people.
If you are
interested in the arts yourself and particularly if you have
ambitions along this line, the advantages are obvious. You
will find others to help you, give you pointers, instruct you.
But even though you have no desire to practice any of the arts
yourself, you might still find enjoyment in the atmosphere
that prevails in an art colony.
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CHAPTER 6
AMERICA'S ART COLONIES Page 3
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