Artists flock to cheap Berlin from around the world

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 ($856) 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.

DIW said many get by on less than 10,000 euros ($15,570) a year and the median annual income is about 18,000 euros

($28,020).

Berlin's economy is weak and its cost of living is low because unemployment is relatively high at about 15 percent, rental property is readily available and population growth is stagnant.

"You're poor but you're so free because you've got no responsibilities, you're free from the pressures of life," said Kelleher, who came via Barcelona from Ireland and stayed after discovering a pulsating art scene in Berlin in 1999.

"You have no money but you have so much freedom and time, and if doing something creative is what you want to do, time is what you need," added Kelleher, 39, who now earns about 20,000 euros a year after initially getting by on less than half that.

EXCHANGE OF IDEAS