Our Team
Artist Space Trust Staff
-
Meg Shiffler
DIRECTOR
Meg (she/her) brings over 20 years of service to diverse Bay Area artists and communities to her role as inaugural AST Director. Her unique cross-sector background, developed from decades of work with government, nonprofit and private organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Minneapolis, and New York.
-
Qiana Ellis
PROGRAMS MANAGER
Qiana (she/her) is a Bay Area–based artist, educator, and community-oriented creative professional. She currently serves as Programs Manager at Artist Space Trust, where she develops and implements educational and outreach programs supporting affordable housing access for artists across the Bay Area.
-
Alex Acuña
REAL ESTATE PROJECT MANAGER
Alex Acuña (he/him) is an organizer and housing justice practitioner based in Oakland. He deeply believes in the Community Land Trust (CLT) model and has worked on anti-displacement strategies in Los Angeles, Boston, Mexico City, the Bronx, and here in the Bay.
Incubation Leadership
-
Ian Winters
AST CO-FOUNDER & NCLT DIRECTOR OF INCUBATION
Ian (he/him) served as Executive Director of the Northern California Land Trust (NCLT) from 2002-2023 and is a long-term CLT & co-op resident. Professionally he has over 10-years’ experience in sustainable construction and architecture as well as community activism and organizational development.
-
Aboubacar “Asn” Ndiaye
NCLT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Asn (he/him) is a housing and climate equity strategist whose work spans policy, advocacy, and community-centered solutions. Most recently, he served as California Housing and Climate Campaign Manager at PowerSwitch Action, where he collaborated with state affiliates to advance sustainable, equitable housing and climate policies.
-
Sharmi Basu
VITAL ARTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Sharmi (they/them) stepped into the role of Executive Director at Vital Arts in 2023. They bring with them a deep understanding of the challenges artists face in sustaining their lives and practices. They are committed to creating inclusive environments and promoting social justice, diversity in arts, and mutual aid.
AST Advisory Council: Artist Committee
-
Melecio Estrella
Melecio (he/him) is a director, choreographer, and educator who has been a core artistic force with BANDALOOP since 2002 and now serves as its Artistic Director, bringing two decades of experience integrating vertical dance, dance theater, somatic facilitation, and ecological belonging into the company’s internationally celebrated work.
-
Lorraine Garcia-Nakata
Lorraine (she/her) is an acclaimed visual artist whose work has been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally since 1970, and she is recognized for her large-scale drawings and paintings as well as her mastery of mixed media, printmaking, installation, ceramics, and sculpture.
-
Joanna Haigood
Joanna (she/her) is a distinguished choreographer and site-responsive artist who, since 1979, has created work that uses natural, architectural, and cultural environments as catalysts for movement, narrative, and community engagement. Her stages have ranged from grain terminals and clock towers to the pope’s palace, military forts, and a mile of South Bronx streets.
-
Cherie Hill
Cherie (she/her) is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and scholar whose work explores human expression and its interplay with music, visual imagery, and the natural world. As the founder and artistic director of IrieDance, she has created performances that engage audiences across diverse cultural and architectural spaces
AST Advisory Council: Properties Committee and Advisors
-
Arianne Dar
Arianne is the product of the 1960’s, educated in the open classrooms of a Quaker school staffed by conscientious objectors. Drawn to the arts and activism, she has lived a life of community building, and creativity.
-
Tess Frugé
Tess (she/her) has a passion for using data-driven analysis to drive organizational strategy. Her 20-year career has spanned the non-profit, real estate, and tech sectors.
-
Teslim Ikharo
Teslim (He/him) is an urban strategist, community convener, and impact investor who leverages finance, real estate development, social services, and policy to create equitable and resilient communities.
-
Patricia Maloney
Patricia Maloney is a residential Realtor and real estate advisor with the East Bay firm The Grubb Company and a longtime advocate for Bay Area visual artists. Over a 20-year career as a curator, critic, publisher, and arts administrator, she has supported artist-centered communities.
-
Francis McIlveen
Since 2022, Francis McIlveen has worked as a consultant to Community Land Trusts and related affordable housing organizations, providing technical assistance and coaching to both emerging and established groups. Prior to this work, Francis spent nearly 20 years at the Northern California Land Trust in multiple capacities.
Our Incubation Partners
Artist Space Trust is incubated by Vital Arts and Northern California Land Trust, two organizations with complementary strengths that support AST’s work. Vital Arts brings deep relationships within the Bay Area artist community and a history of artist-led advocacy and partnership-building, while Northern California Land Trust provides long-standing expertise in community land trust stewardship, affordable housing, and complex real estate transactions. Together, they enable AST to build the Artist Housing Commons with both cultural grounding and institutional rigor.
About Northern California Land Trust (NCLT)
Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Berkeley, the Northern California Land Trust (NCLT) is a Community Land Trust that develops permanently affordable housing and community facilities in the Community Land Trust model. California’s oldest community land trust, NCLT is a small but complex nonprofit organization that bridges community-driven real estate development, social finance, technical assistance with direct service and housing for our residents, community members, and a broad range of coalition partners.
About Vital Arts
Founded in 2017 in honor of the victims of the Ghost Ship fire, Vital Arts is dedicated to ensuring access to safe, affordable spaces for artists to live, work, and perform. We act as a catalyst and advocate for fresh solutions and engage in partnerships to prevent the loss and displacement of artists, offering information, resources, and connections while working with public agencies and the private sector to address the housing crisis for low and moderate-income artists in the San Francisco Bay Area.
