On the night of December 2, 2016, thirty-six people attending an underground concert tragically died in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland, California. Soaring rents and costs had displaced San Francisco Bay Area artists and musicians and forced them to live, work, and hold events and performances in deathtraps like the Ghost Ship.

The Ghost Ship fire in Oakland highlights the tragic human price that rising rents and housing costs, and increasingly scarce safe spaces can extract. Artists driven to create and drawn to a community of like-minded individuals should not be expected to pay an unthinkable price, nor should those who love them.

In remembrance of the approaching 10-year anniversary of the Ghost Ship Fire, Vital Arts has commissioned a symphony composition by Two-Spirit Mestiza composer Alexandrea Archuleta, a survivor and artist slated to perform the night of the tragedy. To transform her grief, Archuleta has created Symphony No. 1 …And No One Died and We Began to See in the Dark. Local musicians will come together to perform the symphony on December 4, 2026 at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.