Grantee Database
Vital Arts
Grant Year
2025-26
Grant Program
Impact Projects
Award Amount
$17,750.00
Project Description
With support from the California Arts Council, Vital Arts will commission Dabke Drag Drums Against Displacement, an experiment in the synthesis of Dabke (dance tradition from Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria) drag, contemporary dance and advocacy. Created by choreographer Shams Amal, the project draws on ancestral strategies of their Bedouin ancestors for placemaking: rhythm, storytelling, migratory land tending, and textile. The work incorporates belly dance, folk dance, Sufi whirling, and the subculture of queer and Black diaspora and Latine dances including ballroom, vogueing, and Cumbia. The project develops through a year-long community-engaged process beginning in Fall 2025, culminating in August 2026 with a community processional event beginning at Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland, traveling up and down Telegraph Avenue, and ending with a processional, full-length performance, and celebration at BAM House Cultural Center, Oakland.
Organization Summary
Performance Activations
We commission and produce year-round performances/exhibitions by Bay Area artists from historically underserved communities. These include concerts, dance performances, and multidisciplinary works presented at both typical and non-traditional arts venues. These events are platforms for artists to present their work while serving as catalysts for solidarity building and cultural exchange, increasing engagement for our housing advocacy programs.
Artist Displacement Prevention Grants (ADPG)
ADPG supports individual artists facing immediate housing insecurity by offering emergency financial aid. These grants of $2,500 per artist are crucial in helping artists facing eviction or homelessness to maintain their homes and studios, ensuring they can continue their creative work without the stress of housing instability.
Bay Area Artist Census (BAAC)
The BAAC is a 3-year program, co-designed for artists by artists, gathering data to provide stakeholders (cities, foundations, arts & social service organizations, individual artists) with evidence-based approaches on how to support a thriving, resilient, creative workforce most effectively. BAAC addresses the challenges Bay Area artists face, including affordable housing, workspace safety, and equitable access to resources.
Artist Legal Cafe
Cross-sector collaboration among the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), Vital Arts, and Movement Law, is an artist-led initiative that offers direct services and capacity-building to individual artists, artist collectives, and arts organizations. Each Artist Legal Cafe provides one-on-one support with licensed attorneys, solidarity economy experts, and cultural workers on a wide range of topics.
Advocacy
Vital Arts works with regional and statewide agencies on legislative policies affecting artist housing and spaces. We propose and draft initiatives, meet with government officials, and raise awareness of artists’ space issues. With partners like Safer Spaces DIY and others, we seek to remove legal barriers for existing artists’ live/work spaces. I
Organization
Vital Arts
Address
1831 SOLANO AVE UNIT 7612
BERKELEY
94707-5032
County
Alameda
Region
Bay Area – Other
Website
Congressional District
12
State Assembly District
14
State Senate District
7
