Artist Space Trust builds upon the community land trust movement to secure permanently affordable spaces for artists to work and live, ensuring the health and vitality of our communities for generations to come.

Above: Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock in their home studio. Photo: Shaun Roberts

Centering Artists

Artist Space Trust (AST) is the nation’s first Community Land Trust exclusively dedicated to securing and stewarding permanently affordable, community-owned housing and creative spaces for artists. Through our programs we stem artist displacement and provide solutions to systematic housing injustice. AST cultivates vibrant, empowered communities that center the holistic wellbeing of artists. 

AST is a joint program of Vital Arts and Northern California Land Trust, and serves San Francisco Bay Area artists.

Painting detail of Preservation by Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock. Photo: Shaun Roberts

Our Vision

AST is the blueprint for artist-centered, artist-led Community Land Trusts nationwide. We envision a vast AST network of affordable housing and creative spaces that secure the permanent presence of artists in every Bay Area neighborhood. This interdependent artist + community relationship is deeply engaged, culturally abundant, and mutually prosperous. The value and impact of artists and culture-bearers is seen as foundational to a healthy society and is supported by policy, equitable access to resources, and intergenerational education.

AST’s Programs

  • Property Acquisition and Stewardship: Using the Community Land Trust model, AST acquires properties that are then permanently removed from the profit-driven real estate marketplace and preserved for artists, generation after generation. 

  • Educational Programs for Artists: AST provides workshops that support artists in building pathways to financial literacy, affordable housing, and vital resources. 

  • Consulting and a Toolkit for Replication: AST provides consulting services and offers a toolkit to guide the creation of new artist-centered community land trusts.

  • Building the Future with the AST Loan Fund: AST provides foundations and individual donors the opportunity to impact social change by contributing to AST’s Impact Loan Fund that supports property purchases, community projects, and our Aging in Place program.

Artists are Essential.

Housing is a Human Right.

Access Must be Equitable.

Transparency is Imperative.

Community is Key.

Artists are Essential. Housing is a Human Right. Access Must be Equitable. Transparency is Imperative. Community is Key.