The 25 Best Art Neighborhoods in the World

What makes a neighborhood a great "art neighborhood?" Is it the area's commitment to cultural development, the ability of actual artists to live in the area, the access to inspirational cultural institutions, or the actual art economy that flows through the area? Our thought is that it's some combination of the above—the kind of spaces that foster an ideal or a support network that manifests itself in cultural capital. Pondering these thoughts, we've culled The 25 Best Art Neighborhoods in the World together for your perusal—make your travel plans accordingly.

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Location: Boise, ID

Notable Galleries: Woman of Steel, Visual Arts Collective

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Though Boise's up-and-coming cultural development is focused commercially on the Linen District in the city's once-barren southwest, all the weirdo creatives are drawn to the non-Chamber-of-Commerce-sanctioned streets and spaces of Garden City, just West across the Boise river from downtown. The combination of cheap rents, tight-knit communities, and ample opportunity for unfettered dicking around incubates some of the most prolific and edgy artists in the city, and is starting to draw national attention from list-makers like Complex.

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Location: Austin, TX

Notable Galleries: Fisterra Studio, Clayworks

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It's no secret Austin is the cultural capital of the sprawling Southern state of Texas, incubating its own little scene inside a state of And while at one time tourists and locals alike were afraid to venture into this sketchier neighborhood past the freeway, the entire area is reemerging as one of the most exciting artistic enclaves in a city known for its artistic enclaves. Forget Northwest Austin-the renaissance is happening on the East side.

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Location: Providence, RI

Notable Galleries: AS220, New Urban Arts

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Providence has long been known as an artsy community, a waterfront city that houses both the illustrious Rhode Island School of Art and Design and the ivy-slathered slats of Brown University. The combination of the two and their proximity has led to an incubation of artistic activities and galleries in the area known as College Hill. Between the storied weirdos that come out of RISD itself and institutions like AS220-a community-minded nonprofit arts organization that throws parties and arts events just across the river-there's nothing lacking for a spark in Providence.

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Location: Adelaide, Australia

Notable Galleries: Tandanaya, Greenaway Art Gallery

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In one of Australia's least-mentioned cities sits a cluster of galleries that pay homage both to the aboriginal art of the country's natives as well as more cutting-edge works. A cluster of galleries in Kent Town sits dissected by a huge park and Botanical Gardens, making it an ideal neighborhood to just hang around in, maybe sketching, but definitely soaking up the scene.

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Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

Notable Galleries: The Marat Gallery, Galeria Cit, Dom Quo Vadis

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If you want to talk about getting off the beaten path, while still retaining something of a renaissance feel, Bratislava's Old Town neighborhood is marking a significant comeback on the international art scene. This is in part due to the Danubiana, an incredible museum of modern art that juts into the Danube River like bolt. In addition to this museum and a handful of galleries around, there're enough new, hip cafes opening doors in the downtown riverside nabe to kick back in style and relax in.

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Location: Paris

Notable Galleries: Escape Dali, Hotel Des Arts, Syndicat Initiative Montmarte, Galerie Montmarte

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Montmarte was a storied neighborhood in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, where the working artist thrived in the neighborhood during their most prolific periods: Dali, Van Gogh, Picasso, Mondrian, Modigliani, Urtillo, and composer Erik Satie, to name a few. The area houses a gallery devoted to Dali, a museum dedicated to the area-the Musee de Montmarte-in the former house of Urtillo, and numerous other, lower-end galleries. Still home to many working artists and abutting the red light district of Pigalle provides ample opportunity for inspiration and exploration.

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Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Notable Galleries: Jaski, Amsterdam Outsider Art, Torch

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Who can say why art burgeons in the central neighborhood of Amsterdam? Maybe it's something in the water? Whatever it is, in Amsterdam's hexagonal downtown district, there are nearly as many galleries per capita as in New York' Chelsea neighborhood.

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Location: Montreal

Notable Galleries: Galerie NuEdge, Galerie D'art Yves Laroche, PHI Centre

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Come for the world-class food, suffer the yuppies, stay for one of the most expansive art markets in the world. The Plateau, the most gentrified of the Le Plateau-Mont-Royal neighborhood, suffers not from too much taste: there is no lack for multimedia, fine art, sculpture, low-brow, outsider art--whatever it is you're looking for, it's bound to be found on The Plateau.

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Location: New York

Notable Galleries: Secret Project Robot, Robert Henry Gallery, English Kills, Silent Barn, Signal

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After New York's ultra-hip Williamsburg imploded with culture carnivores, the art-fad exodus made its way east to Bushwick. While many of the art spaces that originally populated Williamsburg's west side have all but disappeared, a few have found new life in Bushwick, particularly the Live With Animals and Secret Project Robot collectives. But it's no secret this is the opportune hood for artistic venture in Brooklyn-a number of brand new galleries have come to the hood for the chance to score cheap rent and show case new talent. It's thought that the Manhattan galleries will be scooping up Bushwick artists for their own purposes any time now.

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Location: Vancouver, British Columbia

Notable Galleries: Gallery Gachet, Catalog, alsoKNOWNas, Baron Gallery

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Gastown is Vancouver's oldest neighborhood, which makes it a perfect candidate for the surge of arts and culture a new crowd has brought to the area. Not only does the neighborhood house some of the most cutting-edge artists that Canada has to offer, at galleries like Gachet, Gastown is home to one of the world's best tattoo shops, Water Street Tattoo, and an inuit art gallery showcasing the heritage of the area.

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Location: Milan, Italy

Notable Galleries: Pinocoteca di Brera

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Many think Milan to be a bit of either a trash heap (this is coming from my native Milano friend) or too glossy to derive any real culture from. But in the city's tight-knit neighborhood of Brera, culture and art thrives through an admittedly slick aesthetic. But it's born from the rich cultural heritage of Italy, rather than an affected pretense (are those the same thing?) The neighborhood houses the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and the Pinocoteca di Brera, a public gallery housing a huge collection of paintings. The neighborhood attracts the glossy, the design-conscious, and those seeking a spark.

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Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Notable Galleries: Rääf Galleri & Ateljé, Puckelm, Konsthantverkarna Stockholm

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Sodermalm has one of the highest-concentration populations in Stockholm, making it an ideal place to rub elbows with painters, writers, and gallerists alike. While there are actually a higher concentration of galleries just across the bridge in Norrmalm to the north, Sodermalm's attraction as grittier have made it stand out among the creative set for the last three years the neighborhood has experienced a cultural boom.

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Location: Seattle

Notable Galleries: Pacific Galleries, Lawrimore Project, Western Bridge

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There's a boom still happening in Seattle's South of Dowtown district, otherwise known as SoDo. A once-thriving industrial area, the neighborhood fell to neglect in the '70s as businesses vacated. But the artists moved in, divvied up the lofts, and took ownership of their surroundings. Rumors are swirling about the possibility of SoDo becoming the center of now-legal marijuana-growing facilities; there's more certainty to a new basketball arena in the area, bringing the Sonics back to Seattle proper. The influx of new money likely spells even more cultural capital for the area.

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Location: Mexico City

Notable Galleries: Galería Hilario Galguera, Yautepec, La Tia

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The huge Marso curatorial space in San Rafael sealed the deal for the neighborhood's artistic upswing, a massive 6.500 square-foot space that acts as a large gallery and studio for many friends of Anuar Maad, the building's sculptor owner. For a couple years prior to the complex's Spring 2012 opening, San Rafael drew artists the world over for its attractive buildings and cheap rents adjacent to gallery spaces brimming with inspiration. Mexico City's own creative class has been pushed out of the nearby Colonia Condesa and Colonia Roma areas by rising prices, making San Rafel's charm a destination for the city's working artist.

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Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Notable Galleries: Galleri Beck-Fischer, Galleri Pi

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In Indre By, Copenhagen's political and historic epicenter, the concentration of art galleries is so high you can barely walk down the street without passing some kind art institution, be it avant-garde gallery like Beck Fisher or something government run, like the National Art Museum. There is no lack for stimulation in this hood-along the Bredgade runs a cluster of galleries so thick it could take all day to parse through them.

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Location: Valparaiso, Chile

Notable Galleries: Museo a Cielo Abierto, Roberto Leon Galeria de Arte, Artesania Galeria

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The most famous resident of Chile's cultural capital was internationally heralded poet Pablo Naruda- he was among many famous artists to draw inspiration from the varied landscape of this city. If the pairing of that history and the environment here doesn't draw you to the coastal city's many hills and winding streets, not much else will-except maybe a boom of of the creative class in recent years that's led to a renewed interest in Bellavista's flat central region as the anchor for an artistic revival.

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Location: Chicago

Notable Galleries: Ugly Step Sister, Anode, Black Cloud, Prospectus

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One of Chicago's southwest neighborhoods, the Pilsen district is home to a government-sanctioned arts district, numerous art shops and galleries, and an artists' colony or two along 18th Street. A few years ago, a company called Podmajersky began converting old factories and warehouses here into cheap artists lofts. Depending on whom you'd ask, this either is leading to accelerated gentrification or a community atmosphere for artists to live and work together. Whatever it is, Pilsen has become The Spot for many artists in the city to work and exhibit.

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Location: Beijing

Notable Galleries: Yuanfen New Media Space, Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery, Beijing Commune, Yan Club Art Center

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When Beijing's avant-garde was looking for a home in the 1950s, the factories of Beijing's Dashanzi District-now known as the 798 Art Zone-were just then being abandoned by the former military contractors who worked there, and no longer needed space. As the government frowned on the creation of such work, the artists decentralized to this area. As the popularity of the 798 Art Zone grew, so did its gentrification. But most exhibitors and businesses in the area found a way to show without charging participants any money: by hosting corporate events and other spectacles. The area has become one of the most artistically productive and storied in the nation.

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Location: Reykajavik

Notable Galleries: i8 Gallery, 101 Gallery, Reykajavik Art Gallery

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101 is the postal code and the nickname of the Icelandic capital's oldest neighborhood, a seaside enclave of winding streets, colorful, sometimes decrepit buildings, and just steps from some of the most wild countryside in the world. That pairing of natural forces and shabby chic has made the neighborhood a destination for artists for a few years now. It's to Reykajavik what Williamsburg briefly was to New York. As many native and ex-pats call the picturesque locale home as do outre celebs, particularly everyone's favorite Icelandic artist, Bjork, and Britain's alt-rock hero, Damon Albarn.

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Location: Detroit

Notable Galleries: Detroit Artists Market, C Pop Gallery

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Patti Smith and David Byrne recently extolled Detroit as the next mecca for artists who want to Get Shit Done. The influx of young people here is happening in Corktown, which is both Detroit's oldest neighborhood and the city's rising star. Abutting the downtown area and the College for Creative Studies, Corktown's tight community is informed by ideas both old and vibrantly new-an explosion of DIY culture has positioned the neighborhood as one of the most-forward thinking in the USA, at a time when the city faces deep economic crises.

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Location: Paris

Notable Galleries: Galerie Dina Vierny, Galerie de Cason, Galerie Berthet-Aittouraes

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With the world-famous Louvre in view just across the Siene, this is one of the most historically rich artistic centers on earth. Besides housing the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts-one of the oldest, most accomplished, prestigious art schools in the world-Saint-Germain-des-Près is home to some of the city's most-storied galleries, where masters showed everything from sculpture to paintings to performance works. This was also one center of the Fluxus movement in the 1970s, a discipline Galerie G-P still champions. Paris is arguably one of the most important artistic centers in the world and this is the timeless creative center of the city.

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Location: Berlin

Notable Galleries: Klosterfeld, Freies Museum Berlin, Arndt, Neue Nationalgalerie

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What once was the seedy underbelly of Berlin, Germany's most boho berg, has reemerged as the center of the city's constantly in-flux art scene. After being severely damaged by allied bombs after World War II, all the artists moved east. The neighborhood, in Berlin's West Tiergarten area, held a couple hundred galleries and art spaces until then. As the economic swing of desire swings back the other direction, more galleries are finding cheap, clandestine space to open along the Potsdamer Strasse--most galleries remain out of immediate street view, behind tacky clothing shops and Turkish cafes.

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Location: Hong Kong

Notable Galleries: 10 Chancery Lane, Gagosian, Hanart TZ

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Hong Kong's government has been criticized openly and-not-so-openly for its years of not allowing cultural institutions to flourish there. But in the years since sovereignty of the highly populated region moved hands from the British back to the Chinese, major international art dealers have set up shop alongside more avant-garde spaces in the region's Central district. Most notable of these is without Hanart TZ, a Hong Kong stalwart since the early 1980s that recently found its way to Central, alongside heavy-hitters like Simon Lee. The artistic influence of the gallerists in the area has even moved toward more municipal projects--the government recently approved plans to reform the Central Police Station and the Police Married Quarters here into cultural institutions.

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Location: London

Notable Galleries: Whitechapel Gallery, White Cube, Nelly Duff

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Like most neighborhoods on this list, Hoxton and Shoreditch-or is it Hoxditch? Shorton?-was once a run-down area that's now experiencing a cultural resurgence. Some of the best street art in the city is in this East London neighborhood, where social, cultural, and educational fronts collide to make what many of the area's residents call a rich fabric of life, one rich in spirit above all else. Art is been a prevalent force in the neighborhood for decades, but a new vibrancy has added contemporary edge. Though there's been a long battle with up and coming cultural institutions and existing residential properties, that tension charges the area with a community-oriented feel, as social networks expand to accomplish goals both prosperous and aesthetic--there are more working artists in East London then on Paris' Left Bank.

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Location: New York

Notable Galleries: Postmasters, Printed Matter, Gagosian, Sean Kelly, Pace, Barbara Gladstone, Zach Feuer

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Even Hurricane Sandy flooding this West Manhattan neighborhood couldn't stop Chelsea from, without question, dominating this list. The need to rebound was deep--this is the largest concentration of art galleries in the world. Many works were ruined by the flood, such as the basement stores of 10th Avenue art-book darling Printed Matter. And though the big hitters of the art world that call the neighborhood home made it back to life pretty quickly-spaces like Gagosian and David Zwirner-even the little guys managed to find a way to stay afloat, a testament to the resilience and strength of the community. Though Chelsea is home to some of the largest gallerists in the world, it's the low- and mid-level spaces that really lend diversity to the nabe. There is really something for everyone in Chelsea, from the envelope-pushing to the populist to the playful to the shocking to the mundane.

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