La Raza Galeria Posada, one of Sacramento's oldest Latino arts nonprofits, will likely lay off its staff and close doors if it does not raise $50,000 by the end of the year.

"We have reached the point that in order for us to maintain our staff and to provide our programs … we will need to raise money from this community in a significant way," said Mario Gutierrez, president of the La Raza Galeria Posada board.

The financial pressure on the nonprofit is the latest in a string of economic crises the Galeria has faced since it opened in 1972 as a small bookstore on F Street in Alkali Flat.

"The $50,000 will be used to pay off bills and stay open and give us immediate relief to keep our staff," said Gutierrez.

The organization, which has a budget of approximately $250,000, operates out of a small storefront on 22nd Street in midtown.

Gutierrez said that if the money is not raised, then the Galeria might continue as an all-volunteer nonprofit.

He said the economy has had a profound effect on its fundraising activities and investments. "Whatever we don't receive from donations and grants, we have to make up from our reserves."

And those reserves have been steadily dwindling. Most of what is left stems from the the selling of the organization's former home – the 1880s-era Heilbron Mansion at Seventh and O streets. In 2002 it sold the building for $935,000. That building had been donated by Wells Fargo Bank under a deal brokered by then-City Councilman Joe Serna Jr.

Over the years, that nest egg shrank, especially after an ill-fated move to a site on R Street, where the nonprofit sank almost $400,000 to renovate. The nonprofit's investments declined – by as much as 50 percent in 2008, according to IRS tax records.

Now its reserves hover around $50,000, said Gutierrez.

"Much of this is due to the overall state of the economy," said Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna, a longtime Galeria booster, and son of Joe Serna. "This is not the only arts cultural organization facing challenges right now."

This week the Los Angeles Times reported that La Plaza de Cultura y Artes of Los Angeles was floundering under steep staff cuts and an inability to pay contractors.

Serna said he recently sent out an appeal letter to Galeria supporters to encourage them to give to the organization so that the $50,000 could be secured. He also put the onus on the Galeria's board of directors.

"We're relying on the board's activism to get it through this," he said.

Some, like artist Jose Montoya, a long time board member until recently, feels the latest financial crisis is just another hiccup in the organization's evolution.

"I think the organization will survive. It has gone through rough times before," said Montoya. "But rough times call for drastic measures."

Montoya, along with a small band of art students from Sacramento State, found a forum for their art at the Galeria when it was primarily a bookstore. The student artists, who included Louie "the Foot" Gonzalez, Rudy Cuellar, Esteban Villa and Richard Favela, later became known as the Royal Chicano Air Force, and brought their art to bear on the emerging Chicano movement.

The Galeria moved in 1992 to the aging, three-story Heilbron Mansion, which needed a new stairway and proved costly to maintain.

Throughout the Galeria's history there have been allegations of mismanagement and ill-advised business decisions, and a steady diet of executive directors, including former executive director Marisa Gutierrez de Carreon (no relation to Mario Gutierrez).

"The mistake was selling the mansion … that is when all the errors began," said Gutierrez de Carreon, who clashed with the board during that sale and was forced out soon after.

Marie Acosta, current executive director of the nonprofit, did not return a call for comment in time for publication.

If the organization were to close its doors, it would leave a gaping hole in the fabric of Latino arts nonprofits in Sacramento, said Tere Romo, a former curator and executive director at the Galeria. Romo is credited in the late 1990s with adding the gallery component.

"The reality is that Latino artists do not get the kind of exposure they deserve," Romo said. "And these are the kind of spaces that afford that first-time exhibition."

Romo said she believes that now may be a good time for the organization to take stock of how the world is changing.

"Sometimes this is a good time to reinvent yourself," Romo said. "Maybe this will happen as a result of all of this."

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Call The Bee's Edward Ortiz, (916) 321-1071.

• Read more articles by Edward Ortiz