Welcome to the Solarium

A coffee shop sits just across the street from the ASU School of Music. 

It's this magical combination of garden, sunroom, coffeeshop, and community center. 

It's where I often work on SOL projects during the school year, where we hold most SOL meetings, and where SOL co-hosts our open-mic nights. 

We've even rehearsed there.

If you live around here, you probably know I'm talking about Eden Tea and Coffee House.

Upon entering the shop, you'll usually run into the incredibly friendly baristas Amie, Jean-Luc, and Emma who will quickly learn your name, and you'll end up chatting with them whether or not you were feeling sociable when you walked in. 

Plants drape over the big windows, flowers perch on the windowsills, and Amie's propagation tubes hang over the espresso machine. 

Entering Eden evokes the feeling of stepping into a sunroom or conservatory - a place where light streams through windows and everything grows, whether plants, people, or relationships. 

Another name for such a room is "solarium."

A solarium is a room exposed to the sun, mostly enclosed with glass, and often filled with plants.

A place for connection and community.

A place of light and life.

I believe the name Solarium fits for the SOL newsletter due to this connection between what a solarium does and what this newsletter aims to do, which is:

To shine light on our living, growing organization, and to cultivate connection in the SOL community.

Eden Tea and Coffee House has been our physical solarium, providing an incubator for our newborn orchestra, and this newsletter is our virtual solarium. 

Over the coming weeks, we will fill you in on what SOL has been up to over our past semester and update you on what we are planning for the future. 

Welcome to the Solarium! 

We hope you enjoy the stories and reflections, and we hope to see you at one of our upcoming events this season!

Sincerely,

Esther Witherell

SOL Director