David J. Goodwin, ’00, is the author of “Left Bank of the Hudson: Jersey City and the Artists of 111 1st Street.”
In the late 1980s, a handful of artists priced out of Manhattan and desperately needing affordable studio space discovered 111 1st Street, a former P. Lorillard Tobacco Company warehouse. Over the next two decades, an eclectic collection of painters, sculptors, musicians, photographers, filmmakers, and writers dreamt and toiled within the building’s labyrinthine halls. The local arts scene flourished, igniting hope that Jersey City would emerge as the next grassroots center of the art world. However, a rising real estate market coupled with a provincial political establishment threatened the community.
The artists found themselves entangled in a long, complicated, and vicious fight for their place in the building and for the physical survival of 111 1st Street itself.
“Left Bank of the Hudson” offers a window into the demographic, political, and socio-economic changes experienced by Jersey City during the last 30 years. Documenting the narrative of 111 1st Street as an act of cultural preservation, Goodwin, a Jersey City resident, addresses the question of the role of artists in economically improving cities.
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