From the years preceding the current financial crisis, it'd be pretty easy to get the impression that art is only for a small percentage of the world's wealthiest. Thinking this way, however, could lock you out of the greatest art buying opportunity in nearly 20 years. Even great art is relatively cheap right now, so if you've been looking for a reason to enter the market, you've just found it.

If you get creative, you can make your art investment stretch even further in today's tough market. Artists and galleries are desperate for the sale, so they'll generally find a way to work with you (as long as you're within the current definition of "realistic").

1. Join an "artist of the month club"
It's not as crazy as it sounds. There are several clubs that will send you emerging artist pieces for a few hundred dollars a month (just remember that this can mean up to 12 new pieces s year ... make sure you have space for them). Invisible Exports' Artist of the Month Club, which is run by a Lower East Side gallery, sends members a piece every month for an annual fee of $2,400 a year. If prestige is an issue, this is a gallery buy, so you can puff your chest when explaining to your friends how your gallery helped.

[Photo of glass artist Charley Keila]

New York artist and gallery darling Dash Snow died Tuesday at the age of 27: heroin was the culprit. The hot artist's work lives on at the Saatchi Gallery in London, where his project "Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture" is on display. His work has also been shown in Gagosian Gallery, Deitch Projects and is held in permanent collections at the Whitney and Brooklyn Museum.

Snow has worked in graffiti, photography and even his own semen. Though he has famous roots (Uma Thurman's his aunt), Snow preferred a gritty life on the Lower East Side involving theft, jail time and the narcotic that caused his demise. The world has lost a creative force – but one that was destructive at the same time.

Despite the notorious delays of the Thompson LES (as in Lower East Side) hotel, the latest in hotelier Jason Pomeranc's lineup of luxury sleepover parties, a few teaser pics have surfaced thanks to Men.Style.com. Above is the LES pool, complete with a triptych of Andy Warhol photolithographed to the bottom. Now scheduled to open July 29, Thompson LES was designed by architect Ed Rawlings and sits high at 190 Allen Street, eighteen stories reminding the neighborhood that the times they are a-changin'.