What motivates
artist-entrepreneurs
to relocate and invest in
rural upstate New York
communities?
Susan Monagan and Barbara Tefft
Researchers
Susan Monagan
 Manager of Audience Development & Special Projects in
Department of Theatre Arts at Ithaca College
 Conducted open-ended interviews with six subjects for
Cornell MPS thesis in Community and Rural Development,
2005, “The Artists as Active Agent: Six Portraits.”
 Conducted 33 in-depth, openended interviews on campuscommunity arts-based
connections for the upstate
creative economy research
team at Cornell University.
Barbara Tefft
 Conducted interviews with medical clinicians and researchers
while pursuing an MFA in Medical Illustration at RIT
 Conducted interviews at Cornell Vet College
on scientific and academic topics toward
creation of recruitment, publication and
presentation materials
 Barbara and her husband have been artistentrepreneurs, owning a wholesale/retail
craft production business, allowing contact
with other artist-entrepreneurs, such as the
proposed subjects of this study
Why this study…
 To uncover the artist-entrepreneur’s motivation for
relocation and investment, and examine the factors
involved in that decision-making process.
 To connect this research with previous research that
investigates the connection between arts-based
activities and regional economic health.
 To share our results with those around the state who
seek to develop the potential of upstate New York’s
“creative economy.”
Operational Definitions
 Rural
 Artist / arts-entrepreneur
 Upstate New York
 Creative economy
Literature Review
“Artists, like firms, have locational preferences
and gravitate toward certain regional economies.”
Ann Markusen, University of Minnesota
“The relocation of visual artists is driven to some extent by a
strong attachment to natural landscapes…”
Mitchell, Bunting, Piccioni, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
“Rural communities…have an opportunity to embrace the
principles of sustainable development, to create a new future at
the leading edge of global change - but they need help…”
Maureen Rogers, Australia
Method
In spring of 2008, the researchers:
 Created interview questions
 Recruited four artist-entrepreneurs
 Recorded hour-long interviews in person or by phone
 Each researcher transcribed own interviews
 Provided transcripts to interviewees for response
 Independently examined the data, looking for broad,
common themes, highlighting areas of salient text
 Collaborated on establishing themes
 Clustered quotes under themes
 Counted matches of highlighted text areas
Subjects
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Limited to four subjects because of time constraint
Used personal and professional networks to recruit
Strangers, friends and acquaintances
Did not guarantee anonymity, allowed “off-record”
comments
 Prior to interviews, intentions to publicize results
were disclosed
Who was studied
Billie Bauman
Earthworks Gallery
Penn Yan, Yates County
Suzanne Farley
Artizanns
Naples, Ontario County
Patti Lockwood-Blais
Earlville Opera House
Earlville, Madison County
Bill Troxell
Strong Stone Pottery &
Gallery 3 2 1
Oxford, Chenango County
Patti Lockwood-Blais
Director
Earlville Opera House
Earlville, New York
Earlville Opera House
Earlville is a small town five miles from
Hamilton, NY, home of Colgate University
Bill Troxell
Co-owner, with wife Dianne of
Strong Stone Pottery and Gallery 3 2 1
Oxford, New York
Strong Stone Pottery
Bill & Dianne Troxell
Artistic functional and custom pottery
Oxford, New York
Gallery 3 2 1
Bill & Dianne Troxell
Oxford is a small town in very rural Chenango County,
an area known for its scenic rolling hills, remaining
dairy farms and an emerging agricultural renaissance.
Artizanns
“Affordable gifts with a personal touch - conceived in the heart and crafted by hand.”
Susanne Farley
Naples, New York
Artizanns
Naples is located at the southern end of
Canandaigua Lake in the dramatic Bristol Hills
region. Naples is known for its annual fall
Grape Festival and craft show.
Earth Works
Penn Yan, NY
Established in the fall of 2004 by Billie
Bauman, the Earth Works Art Gallery is a
place for celebrating the arts; a way of
bringing all cultures and people together,
to offer the opportunity to awaken, to
know and resonate with your inner source
There are actually two galleries, one in
Penn Yan, NY and one in Geneva, NY.
She hopes to open a third gallery in
Ireland in 2009.
Penn Yan is located in rural Yates County at the northern end of Keuka
Lake. The lake is entirely ringed by seasonal cottages. The area is known
for its vineyards, wineries and Amish farms. Keuka College is on the lake
shore five miles south of the village.
Themes
Watercolor by Jim Perkins, Earthworks Art Gallery & Studio
Choosing Rural
I really needed to be here family wise and I needed to have a space where I
could develop the pottery studio first and… then develop the rest of the place.
Bill Troxell
I felt pretty isolated. … so I pulled into myself and tended not to express the
kind of opinions that I might have expressed in Ithaca readily and easily.
Patti Lockwood-Blais
I can’t tell you how many people took bets. I didn’t know this, they told me later,
of course, that we’d be closed in six months.
Billie Bauman
… but I chose it (Naples) because I know the people here support the arts a
lot. Suzanne Farley
“We are one” - Billie
So Earthworks’ name is, basically, “the earth works.” All part of the earth
works and all cultures, everything really fits we just need to understand it
better we need to have more knowledge and more exposure to it… The
purpose is to share the cultures the traditions from other countries, other
groups of people and to understand those by studying their arts.
Billie Bauman
We have a rural audience that we are trying to introduce to contemporary
art and some of the work is challenging. Normally, we get pretty positive
responses, but we do still have people coming in saying "I don't understand
this. What is this.”
Patti Lockwood-Blais
… it's made here and… the money stays in this flow, stays here and
doesn't leave... And we represent people from all over the United States
but we have a lot of local and New York State people… all of these people
make something.
Bill Troxell
A Beautiful Place
…being a resort is what makes it helpful and being a seasonal resort is what makes it
most difficult.
Billie Bauman
I think because this region is so absolutely breathtaking that a lot of our fine artists
came here many years ago… they came here [and] were engrossed with the beauty of
these hills. … That’s why we are such a rich art cultural community because there’s the
inspiration of our environment.
Suzanne Farley
We are kind of a destination for family tourism, family vacations - "Oh what a cute town
we gotta see this place!" and all that sort of stuff. Then they're like "What are you doin'
here?! Wow, how do you survive?! Where do people come from? How do you do this
where you are? This is as good as anyplace we've ever seen.”
Bill Troxell
The off months, meaning from mid-January all the way through April? Those are the
slowest months. I’m open every day, year round, so that’s the biggest challenge I have.
Suzanne Farley
The “limits” of local
…you can’t rely just on a small community to totally support what I’m doing,
the value of work that I’m doing. But though they are supportive, I could never
pay the bills with what this small rural community could support.
Suzanne Farley
…we've made it work. We've had to go outside of here to do that.
Bill Troxell
That year that we had 25% of our people coming in from tourism there were
some cult bands… that people knew about these artists… across the whole
state. … I had people coming from PA and OH and Canada for those shows
because they found out about it by the artists link.
Patti Lockwood-Blais
…people actually call us from Buffalo or New York City and ask what’s going
on... What I’m finding is once city people find out about us they make trips to
us because the prices can be so much less. Because of our location.
Billie Bauman
“Fairy Godmother”
"Fairy Godmother" I'd like that job, but this is the closest thing I think you
can do that's in the real world like that. You kind of make things happen
that I think are enriching people's lives and their souls on some level…
Patti Lockwood-Blais
…it’s a joy to watch the artists it’s a joy to be around their work and
primarily it’s a joy to see a customer walk out with a piece that they’re
thrilled about…
Suzanne Farley
…almost an arrogance, an ego that just said it won't fail.
Bill Troxell
You know, I’m a high risk taker. I think to do anything like this, you have to
be like 8 or above out of ten, and I’m a 12.
Billie Bauman
Why it matters
 Involved, engaged leaders
 Contribute to economic vitality
 Ways to attract, celebrate and connect
 Lower bars to participation
 Access to the wider world, ideas
 Further values of tolerance and inclusion
Further study
 Further defining obstacles and what has helped
alleviate their effects
i.e., problem solving
 Effects of public policy:
what could help, what really hurts
ie: taxes, FLCC entrepreneur program
 More specific questions, probing
 More interviewees
 More thorough case study
i.e., how the interviewees’ experience fits within the context of a
county or region’s changing economic and demographic profile.
Strengths and Limitations
 Interviews were not uniform, neither in context or delivery (some face to
face, some via phone, some with friends, some with strangers, nature of
question asking changed depending on constraints of situation). May
have changed intimacy and candidness of responses?
 Changed definitions because of challenges with finding participants.
 Looking at these results may have changed script (comparing, first
pass)?
 Acknowledged biases - we are advocates, we support this work NOT
disinterested observers.
 Cross researcher themes still emerged uniformly through transcription
process.
The Kaleidoscope: The Qualitative Paradigm
 The researchers understand reality to be constructed
– negotiated by the participants within a specific time
and place.
 Method of in-depth interview is qualitative and
appropriate for gathering the data needed to answer
the research question.
Cresswell (1994) "A qualitative study is defined as an inquiry
process of understanding a social or human problem, based on
building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting
detailed views of informants, and conducted in a natural setting.”
Living the Dream
Suzanne
Patti
Billie
Bill