Artists and Programs WEAD Supports
WEAD is proud to support a select group of artists and programs that align with our mission to elevate arts in the West End of Alameda. If you’re interested in receiving fiscal sponsorship, please contact us.
Tara Pilbrow Dance
Born in Hong Kong in 1979, Tara studied dance at Laban Centre before going to Oxford to complete a degree in Chinese Studies. While in China for her degree course, Tara studied with some of Asia's leading dance companies: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Beijing Modern Dance Company and CCDC, Hong Kong.
She founded Tara Pilbrow Dance on her return to the UK in 2011 and created Entangled, Inflanla, Waltzing Words and 2+1.
Tara moved to the Bay Area in January 2017, making her home in Alameda. She restaged 2+1 with a local cast, and presented it in Berkeley and Alameda. She initiated the Animate Alameda Project with the aim of proliferating and promoting dance performance in Alameda. 2018 saw the launch of Animate Dance Festival, Alameda's first free outdoor dance festival, and in 2019, launched Animate Shorts, a series of site-specific dance performances for which she created Stop, Drop, Drink and most recently Breathe.
Ozzy's Music Academy
Ozzy, Joseph Osborne, is a musician, music educator, and philanthropist bringing music to the East bay and beyond. Joseph studied Education and Music at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, completing his undergraduate degree at Wayne State Teachers College. His teaching career took him to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State for a few years of scenic beauty and music before moving to Oakland to pursue his Master's Degree in Music and Pedagogy.
Along with the Academy in Alameda, his most recent teaching project is Emotive Arts Oakland, a 10-day workshop that centers on Social-Emotional skill building through performing and visual arts skits.
He works with families and individuals of all ages to connect them to their inner artist and build the practices necessary to grow in regular, successful making music. He shares the liberating joy and connection of music making that brings people and families closer to themselves and one another through his workshops, lessons, and projects.
The Foodbank Players
The Foodbank Players is a vibrant coalition of theater artists, an essential community organization and neighbors helping neighbors. Everything they do is designed to build community, from their financial support of the Alameda Food Bank to their captivating, and free, productions in The Healing Garden to their diverse casts of professionals, up-and-coming actors and folks who haven’t been on stage in 40 years.