Selling Sol: Sacramento arts collective raising funds to keep its home

For more than six years, Sol Collective has served as a safe haven for artists in Sacramento to showcase their talents. Now, a potential sale of the building that houses it threatens that legacy, but a crowdsourced fundraising effort just might save the venue and cement its future.

The organization has raised half of the $100,000 it needs to put a down payment on the building at 2574 21st Street, near Broadway. As of Tuesday, 56 donors had chipped in an additional $3,611 through the website Generosity.com.

According to Estella Sanchez, Sol Collective’s founder and executive director, the efforts have been successful enough that they’ve begun the process of purchasing the building, entering escrow with the current ownership.

The purchase would be welcome news for nearby businesses.

“We would love to see them stay,” said Darlene Solden, manager of Free Will Upscale Thrift & Boutique, a nonprofit thrift store directly next to Sol Collective. “Their customers are so nice to us; they bring life to the block.”

Along with securing the deed to the building, Sanchez said the organization would look to renovate the space with the monies raised as well. “We’re looking to work with some architects to update the building and increase our capacity and host larger events,” she said. “To make it more comfortable for the community to attend events here.”

Sanchez says planning for the future was paramount as investors have scooped up nearby properties and begun the process of gentrifying the Midtown and Oak Park neighborhoods.

“In the next 10 years, 20 years, the younger generation will have a much more difficult time planting roots in the city so, for us, we wanted to make sure we planted these roots now.”