Our Story

Soaring rents and costs are displacing Bay Area artists and forcing them to live and gather for events in deathtraps like the Oakland Ghost Ship warehouse, threatening the continuation of innovative arts and culture in the Bay Area, long recognized as a fertile place for creativity. 

Edwin Bernbaum, whose son Jonathan died in the Oakland Ghost Ship fire, started Vital Arts alongside friends Beth Jay and Tom Dolan to address these problems and to honor those lost in the fire by working to ensure that no artists or art lovers have to pay for their passion with their lives.

Vital Arts envisions a world in which groundbreaking arts and culture that are essential for the continued health and vitality of society at large are recognized and cultivated. We seek to bring this about by implementing projects to meet the needs of low income artists in the Bay Area.

We believe that if we are successful, our efforts to preserve and support a strong innovative creative arts community can provide models and seeds that can be replicated nationally and internationally.