Needs
The Natomas Garden & Arts Collective (formerly the Natomas Garden & Arts Club) is doing a great job expanding our outreach and membership. We are always looking for new members who want to help give voice to underrepresented sectors of our community. We, the NGAC, want our service mission and our organizational priorities to reflect those of our neighbors, families, and friends here in Natomas. We love enthusiastic people ready to share and breathe life into fascinating ideas. We need artists and creatives in any and all media, including music, written, and spoken word. This year we are seeking creative individuals who wish to share the narrative of their authentic, personal cultural experience. We also need gardeners and environmentalists able to take on environmental justice and livability issues facing our community in creative and innovative ways. Having built a new 1/4-acre pollinator habitat in 2022, we are looking for community members interested in maintaining this outdoor laboratory.
A source of unrestricted funds would allow us more flexibility as we build or organization and expand our programming. In 2023 we hope to begin team building, engaging a paid Administrative Director and Media and Marketing Team Lead. These two paid positions, plus paid accounting services, will allow us to expand our fundraising and grant-writing, thereby expanding the services and programming we provide to our community.
When the City makes the building structure available to us in late 2023 or early 2024, we will inherit a shell, empty of furnishings, but full of potential! The Natomas Garden & Arts Collective plans to install a public art gallery, meeting spaces, workspaces, and reception areas for which we will eventually need interior furnishings, lighting, and décor. We hope to use wood slabs from the Sac Tree Foundation for table and counter tops, and other unique elements from our local creative partners.
As a start-up organization, we will need office equipment for administration, planning, and marketing. We will need computers, phones, security, lighting, and a surveillance system. We are looking for industry sponsorships and donations from mission aligned companies for as many of our material needs as possible. We hope to use local contractors and suppliers so as to further support our community.
Starting from scratch, we have many material needs. Luckily, because of the nature and culture of our organization, we have abundant skilled labor and imagination to supplement generously donated or sponsored raw materials. We are hoping to hold design, construction, and maintenance workshops to create learning opportunities as we create our space. We will be able to generate many of the items we will need while providing a teachable experience for community members. At the same time, we will also be creating treasured items of beauty and meaning for our Community At & Garden Center and Gallery.
We will, however, need both hand tools and larger tools to accomplish this vision. If possible, we are very interested in finding carbon neutral options for our needs. One of our main goals is to get a community stump grinder to help homeowners and the Sac Tree Foundation's urban greening project. We will need an electric mower, blower, weed eater, and tiller for continued landscaping projects at our new site.