Best of Sacramento 2015: Arts & Entertainment

If you’re looking for the best spot to learn how to design your own prints, Sol Collective is likely it. What about the best education in how to create your own music and promote it? Sol Collective. How about the best organization for looking at rad art while getting a few history lessons in the process? Sol Collective again. We could do this all day.

Pinning down the collective’s greatest strength might seem difficult, what with the sheer volume of services offered by the organization. But truly, Sol Collective is the best at one thing: giving the members of our incredibly diverse community the tools, space and encouragement needed to pursue whatever it is that keeps the people vibrant.

But how is it that they’re able to organize and present so many different ways to engage with the community? That’s simple enough, says founder and executive director Estella Sanchez. It’s because everything is put together by community members who are looking to share what they have.

“Because we are a collective, there’s a wealth of knowledge, so we have a space for those who want to share that skill and knowledge with others,” Sanchez said.

That pooled knowledge is the backbone of offerings such as the Curanderismo workshops on traditional and practical health care, as well as the stable of music makers, producers and promoters known as Sol Life—that’s the collective’s record label and newest venture. Ditto for the activism programs that empower residents to get into the streets, the community gardens and the shows that put local up-and-comers on the same stage as Latin Grammy winners.

Many of the collective’s efforts center around community engagement, which has much to do with Sacramento’s position as a place of political power—and as a place of significance for activists.

“We had grown up hearing about the legacy of art culture and activism in Sacramento. There’s a very rich history and legacy here,” Sanchez says.

The generational aspect is also important—Sanchez worked in youth programming before founding Sol Collective 10 years ago, and her reverence for Chicano activism inspires her to help others remember their forebears while forging their own paths.

“We do have a lot of amazing young people in our community that we really love and appreciate, and that we really try to mentor,” Sanchez says. “And often times, they mentor us and give more to us than we give to them.”