These Are the Top 5 U.S. Cities for Art Lovers, According to a Study
If a vibrant cultural arts scene is high on your list of priorities, there’s no shortage of U.S. cities you’d probably be happy to call home. But if affordability is also an important factor, one company has done the legwork to discover the top metropolitan areas for arts lovers that won’t totally break the bank.
Design Bundles, a one-stop shop for creative resources from crafting to customizable business templates, wanted to determine which cities might be best suited to arts lovers based on artistic employment, education, and government funding.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Nashville, Tennessee ranked as the top city for the arts, offering the best combination of affordable housing with artistic culture and opportunity. The company’s data cites the median value of owner-occupied housing units at $186,100, which is just over five times the median per capita income of $36,878. Edged out just slightly in second is the Cleveland-Elyria metropolitan area in Ohio. With an average income of $34,200 and a median house value of $161,400, this richly diverse area takes top honors as the most affordable city overall on the list.
Cleveland-Elyria ranked second due to having an overall lower “Arts Vibrancy” score, per data analyzed by the company, who looked at Southern Methodist University’s top 20 most “Arts Vibrant” communities, comparing each area’s affordability by measuring the average income and cost of housing. The combined score between arts vibrancy and housing affordability cemented the ratings.
The third best place in America for arts lovers to live is the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria community spanning Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The New York metropolitan area (including Jersey City, NJ and White Plains in suburban Westchester) received the highest arts vibrancy score in the study, but it also has some of the most expensive housing compared to average local income, with its combined score coming in fourth in the overall rankings. Coming in fifth is Minnesota’s Twin Cities, including Saint Paul and Bloomington.
In a statement, a Design Bundles spokesperson told Apartment Therapy, “Our study shows how regardless of the fame a city or state has, the best places to live while enjoying the most artistic opportunities can be surprising. Nashville and Cleveland might not be considered the artistic centers of the U.S., but they offer rich and vibrant art scenes which — combined with more affordable housing — makes them a very attractive proposition for art lovers compared to the likes of New York or Los Angeles.”