Artists flock to cheap Berlin

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - If you're an artist and you dream of honing your skills alone in a tiny garret, hungry and cold but filled with inspiration, then Berlin may not be for you. Because there is no such thing as a starving artist here.

Thousands of creative artists have flocked to this German city, drawn by low rents, cheap food, state support and the chance to be part of a community bubbling with ideas -- and live in a city that in many ways is an unfinished canvas itself.

They have turned Berlin into a 21st century hotspot for painters, actors, writers, filmmakers, musicians and designers.

"It's got a wonderfully creative environment," said Bonaventure S.B. Ndikung, 31, an artist and curator from Cameroon who settled here more than a decade ago.

"The city's inspiring, it's multicultural, it's diverse and best of all costs are low. You only have to sell things every once in a while to get by."

In the past, artists have flourished in other cheap cities during tough economic times -- such as New York in the early 1970s and London late in that decade.

Now, it's happening in Berlin where, for instance, it costs a painter like Finbarr Kelleher from Ireland only 550 euros a month for his roomy flat and large studio in the trendy Prenzlauer Berg quarter.

Berlin is home to some 25,000 artists, a study by the DIW economic think-tank found. They're from Germany and Europe but also from Asia, especially China and Japan, and North America.  Continued...