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Authenticity and legitimacy are complex issues for a community of artists, especially in the context of gentrification. In an effort to understand the relationship between artistic identity and commodified redevelopment, this paper examines the identity narrative of Boston's Fort Point Arts Community from its initial golden age through its subsequent decline and current struggle with branded ... read moregentrification. Through 15 interviews and 10 fieldwork visits, this thesis finds that artists initially resisted gentrification as a contaminating symbol and an extension of society's devaluation of artists. I argue, however, that the field of gentrification - and its emphasis on rhetoric and appropriation - have compelled Fort Point's artists to reorient their notion of artist in order to enact a more strategic identity. Through this more deliberately marketable identity concept, Fort Point's artists reconceptualize themselves as potential partners in the construction of an urban brand.read less
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