WORLD CITIES TO TACKLE CREATIVE SPACE CRISIS AT INAUGURAL CREATIVE LAND TRUST SUMMIT 

As rent and living costs continue to rise, global cities are forming partnerships to protect creative workspaces. Creative Land Trusts – an innovative legal structure that safeguards property for long-term creative use – are becoming a global movement to guarantee creative workspace is affordable. This approach is key to fostering a diverse and resilient creative economy and retaining talent in global cities.

From 27-30 May 2025, cultural leaders, funders, and developers from over 15 cities – including London, Sydney, Calgary, Helsinki, and Austin – will be attending the inaugural Creative Land Trust Summit in San Francisco.

The event will be hosted by Kenneth Rainin Foundation in collaboration with Left Bank Co. and World Cities Culture Forum. 

Shelley Trott, Executive Director of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation said:  

“Creative Land Trusts are needed now more than ever as cities face turbulent geopolitical climates that threaten creative workspaces.
The first ever Creative Land Trust Summit will see cultural leaders, who have adapted the model in their cities, share their learning with others interested in protecting workspace for artists. We’re developing a global community of practice.” 

Over four days, cultural leaders will share learnings on how they have adapted the Creative Land Trust model to their unique city context, and explore how they can be financed, developed in partnership, and operated to benefit the community.  

The loss of cultural spaces threatens the long-term prosperity of world cities, striking at the heart of what makes them unique— their rich cultural offer, their cosmopolitan mix of people, and their ability to innovate. Justine Simons OBE, Founder and Chair of World Cities Culture Forum

Creative Land Trusts In Action Around The World 

Creative Land Trusts offer a powerful solution to securing affordable spaces for the arts as cities navigate rising costs and market pressures. Without intervention, rapid urbanization threatens a sharp decline in artist studios, rehearsal and performance spaces.

In 2013, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation pioneered this model with Community Vision and funded the Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST). This addressed the displacement of artists during a tech boom that created a surging real estate market in the San Francisco Bay Area. CAST builds arts and culture nonprofits’ capacity to lease or own property in the long-term at below market rates. As capital is reimbursed, it is reinvested to acquire more spaces, establishing a perpetual cultural asset that ensures permanent homes for nonprofit organizations for decades to come.

In 2024 alone, CAST stewarded over 86,000 square feet of performance, studio and rehearsal space for Bay Area artists and organizations, with another 100,000 square feet in the pipeline. It has helped over two dozen arts and community groups to gain dedicated workspace and connected 630 individuals and organizations with real-estate advice, capacity building and space solutions. 

Ken Ikeda, CEO of Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST), said:

“With sustainability as an outcome, we must think 20-30 years into the future, through transitions in organizational leadership, shifts in real estate value and the gentrification of communities where the arts create value. The ability to stay in place and have the space to dream are fundamental to CAST’s mission and to the sustainability of the arts and cities. They are inextricably bound together.” 

Facing a predicted decline of 30% creative workspace within a decade, London set up a Creative Land Trust in 2019. 

Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries in London, and Founder and Chair, World Cities Culture Forum, said: 

“Culture is at the heart of thriving cities, boosting the economy, tourism and jobs, as well as bringing communities together building civic pride. Cities need artists and creatives to be able to put down roots, but the loss of cultural spaces threatens long-term prosperity, striking at the heart of what makes them unique — their rich cultural offer, their cosmopolitan mix of people and their ability to innovate. That’s why London set up a Creative Land Trust in 2019, inspired by San Francisco’s CAST model, to secure affordable creative workspaces for generations to come. Through the World Cities Culture Forum, cultural leaders have been inspired to adapt this innovative model, including in Austin, Sydney and Vancouver.”

By securing a blend of funding from donors, investors and grant-makers, London’s Creative Land Trust sustains the future of the capital’s studios through the purchase of freeholds or long leases, gifts and asset transfers. Using local agreements, the Creative Land Trust sets affordable rents based on transparent assessments of local conditions. 

Sydney is the latest to set up a Creative Land Trust, where creative workspace declined by over 1,861,000 sq ft between 2012 and 2022.

The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, commented:

“The scale of the loss of creative spaces is too great for any of us to tackle alone. Governments at all levels need to urgently work together to retain, rebuild and restore creative spaces close to affordable housing.

A Creative Land Trust would be an independent, not-for-profit entity with a board of trustees that takes land out of the private market and places it in the hands of the cultural sector for good. It can build a portfolio from philanthropic and other private investors, and it can manage properties from the City of Sydney and other governments.”

Ahead of the Summit, World Cities Culture Forum will launch a practical toolkit for setting up Creative Land Trusts, based on insights from city leaders.