Space 4 Art Announces Phased Closure of East Village Home

SAN DIEGO, CA — [November 7, 2026] — After nearly 16 years in San Diego’s East Village, Space 4 Art is preparing for the phased closure of its current home at 340 16th Street, following the termination of its lease.

This is a significant transition for the Space 4 Art community. For nearly 16 years, the East Village location has been a home, workplace, gathering place, and creative laboratory for hundreds of artists and community members. Since its founding in 2009 at this site, Space 4 Art has provided affordable artist studios and live/work spaces, arts education, and free and accessible cultural programming to the San Diego community.

As we make this difficult transition, we want to stress that Space 4 Art is not going out of the essential community-building business it was founded to do. We are leaving our East Village home. We are not leaving the work.

The closure is the result of the termination of our lease and underscores Space 4 Art's longstanding mission and goal to establish a permanent, wholly owned arts center. From the day of its founding in rented quarters, the nonprofit's leadership has been working to secure a home outside San Diego's developer-friendly commercial rental market, in order to protect the organization from the upheavals of gentrification. While we are deeply disappointed to leave the place that has been home to our community for so long, we are focused on supporting our artists and community through this transition.

Since this spring, when the property owner announced plans to terminate our lease in preparation for the sale of the property, we have been working closely with our community to prepare for this transition. At the same time, we have been actively working with key stakeholders— including the City of San Diego’s cultural affairs department, the Prebys Foundation, and community leaders —to identify opportunities for Space 4 Art to continue its work and serve artists in San Diego.

At this point, we have not secured a new location for our operations and programs. In the immediate future, Space 4 Art will not have a dedicated home. At the same time, we believe there is a path forward to create a new home for our resident-artist community, and a nexus for our operations and programs. We are working urgently to identify a workable, sustainable opportunity.

Our goal is to have more information to share before the end of the year. Until then, our priority is helping our artists and community navigate this transition with as much information, support, and care as possible.

Space 4 Art has always been more than a building. It is a community of artists, educators, neighbors, supporters, and collaborators committed to making space for creative work in San Diego. That community— and the mission that brought us together —continues.

We are grateful to everyone who has helped build Space 4 Art over the past 16 years and to the artists, partners, funders, civic leaders, volunteers, and neighbors who continue to believe that San Diego needs affordable space for artists to live, work, create, and connect.

More information about the transition, resources for artists, upcoming programming, and Space 4 Art’s next chapter will be shared at www.sdspace4art.org.