As pandemic closes New York stores, artists move in

Artists are taking over New York storefronts made empty by the coronavirus pandemic, receiving invaluable free exposure and breathing life into depressed shopping streets.

Thousands of shops and restaurants have closed this year as the virus ravages the Big Apple's economy, and artists are now getting some of them as studios and exhibition space.

"Sometimes they say tragedy brings an opportunity. So this is an opportunity," says the artist known as Sir Shadow, performing his signature one-stroke drawings in a former furniture store in Manhattan.

The 70-something is helped by Chashama, a 25-year-old New York non-profit that persuades property owners to temporarily donate unused units to struggling artists to use as studios and to display their work.

With landlords struggling to fill vacated lots, Chashama is upping its efforts amid the pandemic and plans to add 100 spaces within the next year to the 150 studios it already operates.

"There are definitely a lot more spaces available and a lot more that people are willing to give us at the moment," founder and artistic director Anita Durst told AFP.

Artists receive the space for free and take home all money made from any sales, a godsend in New York where retail space is prohibitively expensive and galleries customarily take a cut.

The arrangement - which sees artists move out again after the unit has been leased - also works well for the property owners.

"We make the space look nice. We're there to open the doors for the brokers. So, in that way, we try to help lease it," said Durst.

A similar initiative is happening in the Upper West Side area of Manhattan where vacant storefronts on the prominent Columbus Avenue thoroughfare are prominently displaying...