What makes living in New York worth it?<\/a><\/p>\nRyan Compton knows a thing or two about gigs. To make it in New York, he has worked as a retail associate inside the Museum of Modern Art\u2019s gift store, a cashier for a downtown taqueria and a paint mixer for Takashi Murakami. He has experienced the paradox of a city both known for its artists and for pricing artists out.<\/p>\n
Financial constraints forced Mr. Compton, who is from South Jersey, to move away from New York twice over the course of two decades. He has lived in Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia, but remains convinced the resources and people inside New York are unparalleled.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never know who you\u2019re going to run into,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s curious about each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since moving back in 2022, he has whittled down his source of income to a single gig as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he made $51,000<\/strong> before taxes last year. It\u2019s his second time at the museum. He first worked there part-time in 2011 before leaving in 2015 to earn his master\u2019s degree in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.<\/p>\n\u201cI know I couldn\u2019t afford graduate school and the cost of living in New York at the same time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A third try at New York life has forced Mr. Compton, now 46, to confront the sustainability behind a career as both an interdisciplinary artist and a security guard \u2014 even inside one of the most famous museums in the world.<\/p>\n
Love at First Sight (With New York)<\/p>\n
As an undergraduate student at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Mr. Compton looked forward to spending weekends at his friend\u2019s apartment gallery in the East Village in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
A combination of showing face and knowing the right person led to his side project at the time \u2014 fashioning 3-d printed stuffed animals with skull faces \u2014 which were featured in an issue of Vogue Japan. He even sold a few inside a handmade craft store in Tokyo\u2019s Ginza district for about $1,000<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\u201cI was interested in the contrast between fuzzy-shaped animals and skulls,\u201d he said, later adding, \u201cYou know, stuff when you\u2019re a 20-something-year-old being kind of edgy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The early moment of success propelled Mr. Compton to chase after opportunities to showcase his work. While supporting himself financially through retail and service jobs, he helped write the artist Roman Ondak\u2019s interactive performance piece at MoMA, \u201cMeasuring the Universe;\u201d and worked as a collaborator for \u201cNo Souls for Sale,\u201d an experimental project temporarily at Dia Chelsea and later, the Tate Modern in London. Both went unpaid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chance to work in modern art before I was 30 is unheard of,\u201d Mr. Compton said. \u201cIt only happens in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Slower Pace<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of people flock to the Metropolitan on weekends, and it\u2019s Mr. Compton\u2019s job \u2014 one he has found increasingly difficult \u2014 to make sure the art is untouched. He believes social media has altered the way visitors engage with the museum. Think more selfies and poses leaned against Hellenistic marble.<\/p>\n
The one hour work commute from Parkchester in the East Bronx gives him time to prepare for a long day ahead. He splits a two-bedroom with a co-worker for $1,000<\/strong> a month and pays $50<\/strong> in utilities. Heat and water are included in his rent, and his roommate covers the cost of Wi-Fi. He pays $90<\/strong> each month for his phone bill.<\/p>\nThe slower pace of the residential neighborhood matches the stage of life he\u2019s in now. In the last few years, Mr. Compton has slowed down as he has come to terms with the expenses behind his art.<\/p>\n
He no longer has free access to fabrication laboratories pegged to his university, and he has opted for the more cost-friendly hobbies of zine-making and book binding. He is, however, eyeing a $1,000 <\/strong>3-d printer. For now, he has settled on $20<\/strong> a month Photoshop subscription.<\/p>\nThe largest constraint tempering Mr. Compton\u2019s spending is his $100,000<\/strong> student loan debt from graduate school. The window for his deferment period closed, and even with some money he inherited after his mother passed, he says he needs a miracle to finish paying off his loans. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what to do anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nSplurging on Plants and Experimental Harsh Noise Records<\/p>\n
Mr. Compton may not have any children, but he is a proud \u201cplant dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
His apartment houses $1,000<\/strong> worth of plants sourced through Facebook groups, pop-ups and by following Brooklyn Horticulture online. He typically pays $30-$50<\/strong> for medium to large sized plants, but he is constantly on the lookout for deals.<\/p>\nWhen he isn\u2019t at home with his plants, Mr. Compton treks into Manhattan to do his weekly grocery shopping at Trader Joe\u2019s. He prefers the prices there to local spots in the Bronx and estimates he spends $70<\/strong> each week.<\/p>\nA cash guzzler of Mr. Compton\u2019s food budget is the $20<\/strong> a day \u2014 an additional $80<\/strong> a week \u2014 he spends at the Metropolitan\u2019s staff cafeteria for breakfast and lunch. When working 12 hour shifts, \u201cI\u2019m not gonna go home and make something to bring the next day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nOn his days off, he seeks out affordable food deals. He frequents Vanessa\u2019s Dumplings in Chinatown for their $8<\/strong> dumpling special.<\/p>\nWhen in the mood to treat himself, Mr. Compton rides the train a few more stops out to Ridgewood, Queens and Bushwick, Brooklyn, to visit his favorite record stores like Fringe Records and Nexus Records. An experimental harsh noise aficionado, he spends no less than $100<\/strong> each visit.<\/p>\nHis biggest and most recent splurge was a 10-day trip to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka in Japan in February. He was able to cut his $900<\/strong> round trip ticket to $700<\/strong> with credit card points. Add in the cost of hotels, meals and souvenirs, he spent close to $5,000<\/strong> total.<\/p>\n\u201cI wanted to go because my artwork had been to Japan, but I haven\u2019t been to Japan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Looking Ahead<\/p>\n
Mr. Compton wants to strike a balance between saving and enjoying the life he dreamed of in New York. To help pay off his loans, he considered applying to be an art handler for the Metropolitan, a job with a slight pay bump. But without his present benefit of overtime pay, he\u2019s afraid he would be making less than he does currently.<\/p>\n
Over the years, Mr. Compton has found community among other security guards at the Metropolitan, who, like him, are artists<\/a>. He has also built inroads with notable names at the museum, one being Sheena Wagstaff, the former chairman of modern and contemporary art, who he said took the time to know Mr. Compton not only as a co-worker, but also as an individual, too.<\/p>\nBecause of his connections, he feels like he has nowhere else to go. He considered a quieter lifestyle upstate in Westchester or the Catskills, but believes he will make less money outside of the city. And, of course, he would have to leave the place he\u2019s called home for the majority of his adult years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did four other cities, and they weren\u2019t as good or great as I like New York,\u201d he said. \u201cI always end up here.\u201d<\/p>\n
We are talking to New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":916032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1037,155799,266067,14975,50558,8160,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-916031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-art","tag-content-type-personal-profile","tag-cost-of-living-and-affordability","tag-guards","tag-metropolitan-museum-of-art","tag-museums","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116872344237159355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}