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Creative Space Development & Management

A Guide for Creating and Preserving Affordable Artist Spaces

These pages are designed to help you think through the process of creating and preserving affordable artist spaces. This guide can be applied to a variety of creative spaces such as maker space, incubator space, rehearsal space, communal kitchens, and more. For simplicity’s sake, we refer to all these types of spaces as “artist space”.

The process of real estate acquisition and development is challenging for anyone, even those with years of experience. The following resources will help both novices and experts navigate the many aspects of real estate acquisition, finance, development, and management.

Add An Overline

View of artist housing at dusk on Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown courtyard

Getting Started

Making the case in your community, Is this building right for artists?, Acquisition checklist

Leasing/Owning

Residential and commercial leases, Co-ops and condo structures

Zone, Code & Permitting

An established process for quality control and code compliance

photo of 2 visitors in a gallery. One is standing, the other is in a wheelchair. The art work in front of them includes multiple boxes of color with chalk writing over parts.

Financing

Resources to connect you with existing spaces or to help develop new spaces

Exterior of a historic meetinghouse with people gathered for an event outdoors

Design & Construction

Phases of the design-build process, Working with architects, Builders and the code

Aerial view of Shakespeare & Company's campus

Managing

Marketing, Selling/Leasing space, Subletting, Governance, Taxes


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