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Collaborative Seeding Space & Home 4 EA

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Embodied Astrology has an opportunity to be part of purchasing a truly one-of-a-kind property that is perfectly situated and developed to hold an expansive, collaborative art & land project & long term home for Embodied Astrology.

AND WE ONLY HAVE TWO SHORT WEEKS TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

A .68 acre urban farm with a 3-bedroom home, partially finished oversized workshop/workspace, ADU (accessory dwelling unit), and outdoor communal space is slated to go up for sale in September in an area where I have lived for the last 7 years. It has, until now, been owned by a friend and colleague who has stewarded it with a significant focus on land-based arts and performance. My partner and collaborator, Ayanna Drakos, and I have been offered the opportunity of a pre-market sale. If this property goes to market– given its highly unique qualities and central/urban location in Portland’s skyrocketing housing market– it will likely have several offers and sell for well over its initial listing cost.

Our Visions & Intentions for this space are to:

NEAR FUTURE (NEXT 2-6 YEARS)
  • Create a sanctuary space that gives respite to landtenders, caretakers, artists, and visionaries through providing a safe, beautiful, and peaceful environment to dream, live, work, and be, with an emphasis on prioritizing access to QT/BIPOC community
  • Plant & grow herbal medicine and food gardens for the community
  • Build & open a physical space for Embodied Astrology and other project collaborators and community members to host workshops, classes, and events

FARTHER FUTURE (NEXT 6-12 YEARS)
  • Cultivate and share restorative land tending practices through hosting skill shares and community events focusing on restorative and regenerative farming methods and practices
  • Establish a rest & research residency that gives creatives, healers, and visionaries time and space to recuperate, dream, feel safe in their bodies and expansive in their minds, and attend to their inner landscapes, ideas and imaginations
  • Generate possibility models for communal care and cooperatively led multi-use spaces

We are currently looking for well-resourced benefactors and pro-bono advisors who wish to support my work with EA, this project idea, and the many other artists, healers, leaders, and visionaries who will benefit from this space. Ideally, we would love to work with 2-3 larger donors who are able to contribute or loan $100,000-$500,000, AND we are deeply grateful for donations of all amounts.

This gofundme is meant to collect donations under $10,000. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation of $10,000 or more, you can do so through our fiscal sponsor, Golden Bridge. (Please contact me for wiring instructions or visit their page for other payment methods. If you make a donation via Golden Bridge, include a note that says “Embodied Astrology project.”)

Your support will allow us to create a space that is unencumbered by debt and resourced in its initial foundations, meaning that: 
  • We can begin working immediately on necessary repairs, infrastructure, business development, and community resourcing
  • We will be able to immediately implement sliding scale and financial equity models for any programming we offer
  • We, as providers, land-tenders and care workers will be supported to give our gifts generously to those who need them

OUR COSTS
$800,000 - total property sale cost
$200,000 - closing costs, initial repairs and build out for EA/teaching space
$11,000 - first year basic operating costs as programs and space rentals become established
$25,000 - finishing costs for 1st ADU (accessory dwelling unit)
$75,000 - construction or purchase of 2nd ADU
Total fundraising goal $1,111,000.00 

FINANCIAL BREAKDOWN
PHASE 1 (confirmation needed by September 1, transfer of funds by October 1)
*$500,000 - initial down payment for property
*$20,000 - closing costs
*$50,000 - realtor and real-estate attorney fees
*$30,000 - necessary, time-sensitive repairs 
Phase 1 Total: $600,000

PHASE 2 (confirmation needed by October 1, transfer of funds by December 31, 2023)
*$300,000 - land/lot purchase (*flexible timeline within 6-12 months)
*100,000 - permitting and construction of movement/teaching space
*$11,000 - first year basic operating costs as teaching space, programs, and space rentals become established
Phase 2 Total: $411,000

PHASE 3 (flexible timing, our hopes are to procure funding by 2026)
$25,000 - finishing costs for 1st ADU
$75,000 - construction or purchase of 2nd ADU
Phase 3 Total: $100,00

We are confident that (if we are able to purchase the property and pay for the initial repairs and infrastructure as outlined above), with a mix of place-based revenue models (EA events; art-programming; land-based education offerings), land and space rental, and arts, agriculture and cultural work funding, we will comfortably be able to cover our future ongoing operations costs and maintenance/repairs.

*notable mentions*
  • all funds received wiIl go directly to the costs mentioned in the financial breakdown above, regardless of whether we meet our entire funding goal. If we are able to fundraise enough to secure a down payment, then we wiIl pursue the realization of this project through ongoing fundraising untiI either our goals are met or our revenue models can provide for our expenses.
  • we will hold donations until the property sale is confirmed. If, due to unforeseen circumstances, we are unable to procure the space, all donations and gifts will be refunded.

******
RENEE SILLS is a multidisciplinary artist, author, astrologer, educator, and the founder of Embodied Astrology. The throughline of her work is an ongoing investigation of interrelatedness, spirituality, mindfulness, creative agency, and the adaptive processes of the human body in contemporary landscapes of the anthropocene. Renee holds a BFA in Intermedia & Cyber Art from Concordia University (Montréal, CAN) and an MFA in Contemporary Art & Social Practice from Portland State University (Oregon, USA). She conceptually approaches her work across the realms of astrology, embodiment, business, and community organizing through a lens of healing ritual and participatory art, and she seeks to proliferate (through all means possible) accessible, adaptable, embodied practices that reawaken enchantment, empathy and environmental interrelatedness.

Renee is a second generation astrologer, has worked as a consulting astrologer since 2014, and has read for thousands of clients. In addition to individual and couples/group readings, Renee teaches embodied approaches to astrology, offers monthly and yearly sun sign horoscopes and collective readings, and tends the Embodied Astrology virtual learning space – a vibrant and growing online community that celebrates and explores creative, experiential, fugitive, feminist, queer, and somatic forms of astrology.

Renee has been a student of somatic healing practices since age 11 and has been a movement educator for 20 years. From 2013-2018 she served as the Co-Founder and Programming Director of Sola School – a yoga therapeutics training program that focused on accessible, adaptive, and inclusive practices for all bodies, and the integration of holistic wellness and social justice. Renee has taught and continues to teach yoga, meditation, and somatic awareness to a wide-range of students and clientele. She has an extensive knowledge of anatomy and physiology and works with individuals to cultivate efficient, adaptive, and supportive practices. Renee has been credentialed as a Somatic Movement Educator (SME) through the International Somatic Movement Educators and Therapists Association (ISMETA), as a registered yoga therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), and as a SomaSource leader through Golden Bridge.


AYANNA DRAKOS is a Portland-grown historian, writer, educator and farmer of Black and mixed-European descent. As a Black, mixed-race, trans, non-binary being, they exist as a bridge-builder across structural forces of separation and distance. They are energized by, and committed to, everyday practices of liberation cultivated by those most marginalized; making space for grief; and passing on the love, support, and investment that has been poured into them by their teachers, elders, and ancestors to the students and young people in their life.

Ayanna holds a BA in History and African American Studies from the University of Puget Sound and an MA in African American Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where they are completing their PhD in African American History. Their historical research centers lineages of Black feminist and queer healing cosmologies, specifically related to land and earth-based practices. With a background in non-profit program development, youth-work activism, and education, they bring a passion for teaching and learning through facilitating hands-on, direct experience, and supporting people to become more intimate with themselves and their purpose. Ayanna is devoted to working with children, and supporting their inherent creativity through facilitating place-based experiential education.

The onset of chronic illness in 2017 initiated Ayanna on a path of embodied, spiritual healing and learning from plants as medicine. Their ongoing apprenticeship with plants is braided with mindfulness and meditation practices alongside ancestral relationship building and mending. They are a certified yoga teacher and student of embodiment-based, mindfulness meditation. Their dreams and aspirations include supporting our communities in realizing our healing potentials and making food and medicine accessible to QT/BIPOC folx who may not otherwise have access to these forms of nourishment.



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Organizer

Renee Sills
Organizer
Portland, OR

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