The decline of small manufacturing in New York City meant artists could get cheap, spacious industrial lofts where they could work, live, rehearse, and gather in one space. Soon a new artistic community emerged downtown, a counterpoint to the older generation of avant-garde artists that was entrenched uptown. Rauschenberg rented his first loft space at 61 Fulton Street on his return from Italy in 1952. The loft soon became a place of lively artistic exchange. Artist Cy Twombly whom he met at the Art Students League, often worked there, and composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Earle Brown, choreographer Merce Cunningham, dancer Carolyn Brown, musician David Tudor, and artists Rachel Rosenthal and Sari Dienes, among others, were frequent visitors. Rauschenberg would work out of the Fulton Street space until 1955.