Art Museums and Their Connection to Neighborhood Change: A Case Study of the Portland Art Museum in Oregon.

Abstract

Art museums often occupy highly contested urban space. Following the successes of art museums like the Guggenheim Bilbao, economic development literature has conceptualized art museums as beneficial anchor institutions that stabilize neighborhoods economically and socially, and catalysts that attract new development. However, an art museum’s ability to attract new development and its connection to more privileged groups likely implicate it in the negative processes of gentrification, which include displacement, socio-cultural isolation of, and/or higher housing costs for residents. While many studies have investigated the local economic impact of art museums, few have investigated how art museums might influence socio-economic change in neighborhoods. My dissertation investigates the role of art museums in neighborhood change, particularly socio-economic change, and in creating high quality, inclusive, and economically sustainable neighborhoods.

In my research, I use mixed methods in two distinct analyses to understand the relationship between large-scale art museums and socio-economic and physical change in their neighborhoods. Starting with a quantitative analysis of socio-economic change in 154 neighborhoods adjacent to 59 regional/national art museums in the largest 50 U.S. cities, my dissertation then turns to an in-depth case study of the Portland Art Museum (Oregon) and its surrounding neighborhood between 1890 and 2014 to trace the linkages between the institution and change in its neighborhood.

My research demonstrates that urban economic trajectory and institutional dynamics influence what role an art museum has in neighborhood change. Art museums are more likely to bestow anchoring benefits to their neighborhoods in shrinking economies, as well as are more inclined to support bridging between diverse social groups. Art museums in growing economies, while not linked by the data to significant displacement or increased housing costs in their adjacent neighborhoods, are inclined toward fostering relationships with more privileged groups and improving their status among their institutional peers. Thus, for community groups and planners to realize the benefits of art museums as neighborhood anchors, more public financial and human resource investment should be made in art museum programming, especially in high-growth cities.