What

Artist Space Trust (AST) is an innovative national model for equitably securing permanently affordable artist housing and creative space. Utilizing methods developed by the community land trust movement, AST will facilitate an intergenerational transfer of property to prevent losses for future generations locked out by market forces.

Artist Space Trust grew from the shared commitment of Vital Arts and the Northern California Community Land Trust (NCLT) to stem the displacement of artists economically vulnerable to rising real estate costs. We believe that community control and ownership are necessary to ensure that local artists have access to safe, affordable spaces to live, create, and share their work. 

Why is this approach important now? 

This moment offers unusual opportunities for change with the generational shifts underway amidst fluctuating economics and real estate demand. There is increasing recognition of the threats to the arts at every level and the importance of artists in our communities. Artists play a critical role in bringing us together to share fresh visions and stories of resilience, resistance, and hope. Unless new policies and solutions are enacted, the SF Bay Area's creative wealth risks becoming a historic artifact, rather than an imperative driver and incubator for both individual and collective visioning as well as cultural forms that expansively reflect the human experience.

We need new and varied approaches to the housing and creative space challenges facing our cultural communities, or the outmigration of artists seeking a more affordable life will continue. The National Endowment of the Arts estimated the Bay Area’s artist population at 75,760 between 2015 and 2019. And the results of a 2015 San Francisco Arts Commission survey indicated that over 70 percent of the artist respondents had been or were being displaced from their workplace, home, or both. As for the 30 percent that weren’t being displaced, potential displacement in the near future was a common concern. (Vital Arts, 2022 Survey of Data on Artist Displacement in San Francisco Bay Area)