Since 2011, the arts nonprofit The Creatives Project (TCP) has provided housing and studio spaces to artists, who in turn teach art in local schools.
But the organization has had to re-think their model as affordable housing becomes more scarce in the city.
“There is just a lack of inventory of single family homes. So we’ve shifted our model to work with developers,” explained TCP’s founder Neda Abghari in an interview with Lois Reitzes.
She found a partner in Atticus LeBlanc, the co-founder of Stryant Investments, a development firm that focused on affordable housing since 2008. The result of this partnership will be an art, community and living space in Adair Park that will include 35 small units of affordable housing, artists studios, creative office space and a coffee shop
“From a very early stage, we wanted to make sure it was something that is accessible to the general public in addition to being residences,” said LeBlanc. “This is an old school building that was the center of the Adair Park neighborhood for many years…we looked at the arts to create interactions and collisions within the community. Art has a way of doing that that would not otherwise be as possible.”
