Artists' Quarter

A low-rise largely Bohemian district that has over time developed a reputation for accommodating the creative, sensitive, temperamental, and talented in an environment that will encourage their growth and development. At the same time it has attracted a considerable body of parasites, hangers-on, hopelessly devoted disciples, patrons, and followers, ruthlessly predatory agents and buyers, talentless hacks, and last but by no means least, poseurs and wanna-bes. Exactly who falls into which category depends very much on whom one asks and in what context, but they are one and all well supplied with cafes, bistros, supply stores, galleries, theatres and the like.

The major thoroughfares are more transparently commercial in character catering to tourists and casual shoppers rather than genuine afficionados or connoisseurs who hunt for treasures slightly further off the beaten path. Beyond the galleries and boutiques, the narrower back lanes become markedly seedier and less wholesome, eventually merging seamlessly into Colonial Bay's red-light district. To which artists throughout the ages have been attracted like moths to a naked flame.