As the grapevines sleep in valleys and on hillsides, Napa artists and their supporters are putting down what they hope will become deep roots with the help of the county’s newly formed Arts and Culture Commission.
The nine-member panel, which includes such Napa art stalwarts as Margrit Mondavi and T Beller, is intended to be the “primary advisory body for arts and culture planning for the Napa communities,” according to Michelle Williams, executive director of Arts Council Napa Valley. The nonprofit Arts Council will work with the new commission to help sustain the arts from American Canyon to Calistoga.
The county’s board of supervisors and its five city councils each appointed one member to the commission, and three were named to at-large seats.
It’s a welcome turnaround: Just five years ago, the Arts Council was nearly moribund after crippling cuts to state funding. Now supported by the Community Foundation of Napa Valley, the council has big plans for the county, beginning with a comprehensive “road map” drawn from a series of public town-hall meetings throughout the valley last fall.
At those meetings, Arts Council staff heard from more than 150 residents eager for a more culturally vibrant Napa County.
Lo and behold, it’s already happening: Galleries and art venues are blossoming like winter roses, both on and off the beaten track. This might be the first—but far from the last—year to choose a home-grown cultural valentine, be it original artwork, donation-linked gifts or tickets to a show.
East Napa heats up
One up-and-coming art district is taking shape on Atlas Peak Road, east of central Napa, where longtime Napa artist Jessel Miller recently rented the building behind her Jessel Gallery to a pair of philanthropic entrepreneurs named Ann Trinca and Norma Quintana.
Dubbed “Nest,” Quintana’s and Trinca’s new venture is more than a gallery or gift shop: Quintana calls it an “art house.” It offers affordable artwork and gifts, and donates 20 percent of its profits to a fund that will provide grants to Napa Valley artists and arts education programs.
“We’d like to inspire people to live creatively and give generously,” says Quintana, a photographer. “That’s really our motto.”
Among the desirable objects for sale—most gathered by Quintana, and nearly all one-of-a-kind creations by Bay Area artists—are delicately filigreed medallions and earrings of laser-cut wood, artisanal notecards and lavishly beaded jewelry.
Every sale will help build up the “Nest Egg,” as Quintana and Trinca have dubbed the account into which they’ll deposit 20 percent of the gallery’s profits. Once the fund has grown, Nest will award grants to local artists through Arts Council of Napa Valley.
“If we can help the Arts Council and we can help artists make money, it’s always a good thing,” says Trinca, a veteran arts administrator who’s worked at the Arts Council, the di Rosa Preserve and Off the Preserve! on Main Street in Napa, as well as at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and SFMOMA in San Francisco.
Napa’s east side will also be home to sculptor Gordon Huether’s new world headquarters.
Housed in a restored hay barn on Monticello Road, it’s expected to open in May with a gallery, open to the public, displaying Huether’s fine art.
Huether is best known for his soaring works of public art, both in the United States and overseas. He recently won a commission to beautify the City of Napa’s upcoming Fifth Street parking garage, while his rocket-ship sculpture forms the gateway to the popular Playground Fantástico, which draws children from as far away as Marin County to its Old Sonoma Road location. His website is www.gordonhuether.com.
City streets sprout galleries
Inside Napa proper, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy the arts, whether at a concert at the Napa Valley Opera House or on the walls of downtown restaurants and tasting rooms—more of which, it seems, are opening every month.
At this rate, Napa could come to be known for its art scene in the way Austin, Texas, is known for music. Sure, we’re also the county seat and surrounded by grapevines; and Austin is a state capital surrounded by barbecue, but both places have much more to offer.
In Napa, visual and performing arts can even share the same space: G Studio, in the Napa Box Building on Walnut Street, is preparing to host both an exhibition of paintings and a performance by noted soprano Angelina Reaux this month.
Liz Lopez, former proprietor of Glass Gallery on Main Street, and co-conspirator Reuben Godinez, have already mounted one show at G Studio, with two painters from Milan.
The space is occupied by Napa photographer and filmmaker Shahin Gholami, who makes it available to Lopez and Godinez for their occasional shows.
Finally, art collectors are increasingly finding their way to a little-known spot in a nondescript block off Lincoln Avenue: The Brown Street Gallery showcases work by developmentally disabled artists like Ricky Lee, whose colorful paintings fetch hundreds of dollars apiece.
Just a couple of years ago, Lee was an unemployed janitor with little to look forward to. Then he signed up at the Brown Street Gallery, a program of Napa Valley Support Services, where coordinator James Orlando works with disabled artists to help them develop their careers. Lee recently held a successful solo show at the gallery, where he spends several hours each weekday working painstakingly on his detailed creations.
