The development of affordable spaces for artists to live and/or work is certainly an important matter for artists, but it can also be an important issue for people concerned with a range of social issues, including eco-nomic development, civic engagement, community collective action, and community quality of life. Intended to provide anyone interested in pursuing artists space development (ASD) projects with informa-tion about things to consider in making the case for artist space, this report discusses:

• How artist space developments have been positioned and the arguments made to garner support for them;
• The advocacy strategies pursued; and
• The impacts claimed and/or anticipated.

This report was commissioned by Leveraging Investments in Creativity (linc), a national initiative dedicated to support for artists and is one of two reports focused on artist space development; the other report focusing on financing and development processes.

The material presented here is based primarily on research conducted in 2005 on 30 projects in seven U.S. cities–Detroit, MI; New Orleans, LA; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Providence, RI; Seattle, WA; and Tucson, AZ. Of these 27 initiatives, 23 provide examples of instances when the case for artist space development had to be made to a range of gatekeepers. Those 23 initiatives are the focus of this report. This research was not an exhaustive examination of all artist spaces in these cities. Rather, we focused primarily on prominent developments that could serve as examples of a range of approaches. The report is also informed by previous research on environments of support for artists around the country. [Executive Summary, p. 7]

The development of affordable spaces for artists to live and/or work is certainly an important matter for artists, but it can also be an important issue for people concerned with a range of social issues, including economic development, civic engagement, community collective action and community quality of life. This report considers how artist space developments have been positioned and the arguments made to garner support for them, the advocacy strategies used, and the impacts claimed or anticipated.