Grantee Database
Personal Space Projects
Grant Year
2026-27
Grant Program
General Operating Support
Award Amount
$18,000.00
Project Description
With support from the California Arts Council, Personal Space Projects will fund the operational costs of our community art center and inclusive contemporary gallery space located in Vallejo, CA. We exist in order to collaborate with local artists and organizations, presenting free workshops, exhibitions, performances, readings, and youth programs. Our exhibitions feature artists from Vallejo, the Bay Area, and abroad, centering BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists, and artists with disabilities. Operational costs at Personal Space include annual rent and utilities, as well as specialized insurance.
Personal Space is committed to equitably compensating the people we work with. Personnel costs include compensation for our team as well as a growing population of youth interns. In 2026/27 we are doubling our hours of operation including exhibition correlating public programs and gallery hours. Funding is critical as we grow.
Organization Summary
Personal Space Projects Inc has engaged in arts programming in the Bay Area since 2003. As co-founder of Hayes Valley Market, our Director Lisa Rybovich Cralle collaborated with Matt Gonzalez and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in transforming a vacant corner-store into a vibrant hub for free cultural public programming. Between 2003-04 HVM served as a platform for emerging local artists, writers and musicians through readings, concerts, and monthly exhibitions.
Personal Space Projects Inc continues to organize free workshops/events for artists and their communities, previously in San Francisco and Oakland and now in Vallejo. We also produce arts workshops for adults with developmental disabilities in collaboration with Creativity Explored and NIAD. Cralle has provided guest curatorial services to Bay Area galleries and institutions for 18+ years, and curates Berkeley City College’s Visiting Artist Lecture Series.
The ongoing PSP project, Heavy Breathing, is a series of experimental artist workshops exploring the possibilities of “critical somatics” or thinking with and as bodies. Established in 2015, Heavy Breathing is supported by Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Award and has partnered with SFMOMA, the Berkeley Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Bangkok Biennial in the presentation of workshops by over 40 Bay Area artists, including: Brontez Purnell, Stephanie Syjuco, Xandra Ibarra, Sofía Córdova, Leila Weefur, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr, Claudia LaRocco, and Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork.
Personal Space Gallery, our organization’s hub, is the permanent brick and mortar extension of Cralle’s decades-long involvement in Bay Area arts. Our exhibitions and programs present work by emerging, under-recognized, and mid-career artists. The gallery’s back room offers works on paper, artist books, zines, t-shirts, sculptures, and artist editions. Our opening events serve upwards of 2000 visitors annually. Our artist interview podcast, The Spinning Wheel, debuts in 2025.
Organization
Personal Space Projects
Address
1505 Tennessee Street
Vallejo
94590
County
Solano
Region
Capital
Website
Congressional District
California Assembly district 11
State Assembly District
District 11
State Senate District
District California
