Oakland mayor announces grant to help artists

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf on Tuesday announced a $1.7 million philanthropic grant to create affordable spaces for the city’s artists —a move she saw as “especially important and prescient” in light of Friday’s warehouse fire that killed 36 people in the Fruitvale district.

The grant, which combines funds from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the nonprofit Community Arts Stabilization Trust, was supposed to be the focus of a mayor’s news conference at EastSide Cultural Center, just blocks away from where officials were clearing debris from the deadly blaze.

[...] Schaaf and the other organizers decided early Tuesday morning to cancel the news conference, saying they wanted to focus their attention on the fire relief effort.

“The arts are at the center of vibrant and diverse communities, and are critical to neighborhood health and well-being, yet artists and cultural organizations are increasingly vulnerable to instability and displacement,” Schaaf said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.

The $1.7 million will fund a two-year pilot program by the Community Arts Stabilization Trust to help artists keep their existing venues, or move into permanent, affordable space.

Schaaf has established herself as a stalwart for the creative class in Oakland, but some artists fear that she and other city officials will use the fire as a rationale to crack down on warehouses and galleries, many of which are not up to code.