 | BANDALOOP Live & In Process. Rotunda Building/Kahn's Alley, Oakland, CA 2023
Photo by Brooke Anderson |
|
Build Belonging with BANDALOOP |
|
Over July 2025, BANDALOOP transformed Oakland's City Center into a soaring stage with Somewhere to Oakland. Families, artists, and passersby - more than 3000 people total - stopped in awe to watch. Strangers connected over the beauty, struggle, and lasting resonance of the migration experiences shared throughout the project. This is the magic your support creates. By becoming a $35+/month sustainer, you join the circle of people who build belonging with BANDALOOP. Your gift powers every performance, workshop, and community event we produce. Your gift ensures that BANDALOOP can continue to surprise and inspire artists and audiences from Oakland, CA to the world. |
|
From Damara Vita Ganley, Associate Artistic Director: As a first-generation daughter of immigrant refugees, it is profoundly meaningful for me to work with Melecio and the artists of BANDALOOP as we ask how our public art form can inspire belonging—belonging to our bodies, to one another, to those we have yet to meet in our cities, and to those across the world we may never meet. Birds build their nests with the materials at hand—branch by branch, effort by effort. They instinctively know how to create sanctuary for the future, and they learn from the other birds around them. I believe we each carry that same intuition: the capacity to build belonging, to weave wider and wider nests. And, like the birds, we must also look around, listen, and learn from one another. Thank you for your heartfelt presence, your togetherness, and your care in this tender world. We invite you to help us keep the sky road open for BANDALOOP. With your support, we can continue bringing people together in wonder, imagination, and the shared practice of building belonging through public art across the globe. |
|
 | Clockwise From Top Left: Chibueze Crouch and Damara Vita Ganley perform Bird Strike at Festival a Mil, Santiago, Chile 2023 (Ramiro Contreras); Wailana Simcock performs in Somewhere to Land, Alameda, CA 2024 (Brooke Anderson); FLOCK in Hungary 2025 (Daniel Alfoldi); Audience at FLOCK: Somewhere to Oakland, Oakland, CA 2025 (Nino Fernandez); FLOCK world premiere at The Momentary, Bentonville, AR 2025 (Brooke Anderson) |
|
2025 - Reaching New Heights- 28,730 people saw our work live - 6,200 local Bay Area + 22,530 global
- 3,000+ hours of affordable space provided for artists & nonprofits at BANDALOOP Studios
- 1,000+ people practiced and experienced dance at BANDALOOP Studios
- 60% of our budget paid to artists and technicians
- National media coverage in the NY Times
- International Tours to Hungary, Istanbul, and Dubai
- Artist Residency with Fairmont SF & The Momentary (AR)
- Vertical Choreographer premiere in REDWOOD starring Idina Menzel
- Music video collaboration with TIME Next Gen Leader Pattie Gonia and Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter Imogen Heap
- World Premieres of Somewhere to Oakland and FLOCK, engaging 104 artists and 26,000 global attendees
|
|
A Gift for Giving!The first 35 to join our Anniversary Sustainer Circle will get their choice of gift from the BANDALOOP Merchandise Archive. Our extra thank you for our fast acting sustainers. Don't miss your chance for your free gift! |
|
More Ways to Give
Consider making BANDALOOP a recipient of your Donor Advised Fund, Qualified Charitable Distribution, or beneficiary in your living will. Be it stocks, crypto, real estate, or other non-cash assets, we are here to help you exercise your balance sheet for impactful giving. Visit our Support page or contact jeanne@bandaloop.org to learn more. |
|
Thank You to our Funding Partners:
The City of Oakland, New England Foundation for the Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Margaret E. Haas Family Fund, Fleishhacker Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, CA Arts in Parks Grants, SF Foundation, NEA Grants for Arts Projects, Rubicon Point Partners, Morrison Foerster, Radium Presents, Prescott Properties/srmERNST, TMG Partners, Commercial Bank of CA, Lapine Group, and generous individuals. |
|
|
|
