Esperanza Spalding Meets Funding Goal to Build Artist Sanctuary

Award-winning bassist and educator Esperanza Spalding recently launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to raise monies needed to buy land for the building of a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) artist sanctuary in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Spalding contributed the additional funds to meet the goal stated, which saw more than $160,000 raised from some 650 individual donors.

Spalding said that riding out the pandemic in her hometown made her realize that she wanted to put down roots in the city again and this project is part of that process. The artist’s vision for the North Portland complex is a facility for long-term as well as short-term artist residency, multiple recording studios as reading rooms, and others.