Town Hall Meetings Come to a Close

Napa Valley residents love the place they call home. This was the strongest theme Arts Council Napa Valley heard at our six “town hall” cultural planning meetings held all across Napa County. This love of place is what made the arts so important to everyone at every meeting. Attendees recognized the role of arts in their personal lives, in the lives of their children, and in their communities. They saw the arts as the means to make their lives richer, and also to connect with one another.

“(American Canyon residents) don’t see what’s going on here,” said Margaret Oliveri at the American Canyon meeting. “How do we communicate to them what’s going on in their own backyard?” “I’d like to see this community attend more arts events here,” said Linda Wilds Beltz in Calistoga. “There are still people we haven’t reached.” This lack of communication was a major theme at every meeting. All of the towns and cities- including Napa- considered themselves a “small town”; and yet all of them bemoaned the lack of communication between artists, arts organizations, and the larger community. There was a strong call for greater information sharing and collaboration. “…We all do compete a bit, but it’s finding a way to collaborate in exposing the variety of our cultures, institutions, and becoming more of a collective,” said Jennifer Garden of the Napa Valley Museum in Yountville. “Of course there are a lot of different towns but how can we work all as a valley together, and not be so separate. How can we merge?”

One of the solutions voiced in every meeting was the creation of a community cultural center. “I envision an arts center that incorporates all the arts. Film, video, performing, visual, to play off each other,” said David Garden in St Helena. “I’d like to see a facility that does include a performance arts place as well as exhibition space,” said Louisa Lucas in Calistoga. But while attendees agreed on the need for more centralized arts, many pointed out the challenges of building yet another venue. “Every time we talk about this problem we talk about how we need a building here, a building there,” said Carlee Leftwich in Napa. “For those of us who have been involved in it, (we found that) you don’t solve a problem by building a building. You solve a problem by getting a group of people together.”

Attendees were also concerned about the lack of arts opportunities for Napa Valley youth. “The arts are the slice of the pie that is missing in our schools that could help make children more whole human beings,” wrote an American Canyon attendee on an evaluation sheet. Arts organizations who provide children’s programming both in and out of school called for a way to create more compelling programs. “We need to map where the children are getting arts in Napa County, what is happening, so those of us who are creating arts programs can respond to that,” said Napan Kathryn Reasoner, of the di Rosa Preserve.

There was also a strong interest for greater business involvement in the arts, and attendees called for more partnerships between businesses and artists and arts organizations. “(We need) more involvement with artists in local establishments,” said Doug Cook of the Brannan Cottage Inn in Calistoga. “It would be amazing if Angwin could have a café,” said Will Callnan in Angwin. “One thing that is excellent about cafés… is that you can have an opening night, rotating shows, something that is on the main street… Somewhere everyone feels comfortable, a meeting point, a connection point.”

Finally, every community called for greater governmental support for the arts. The challenges of funding and the time consumption of fundraising were brought up in every meeting. Each community also discussed the need for public art. “What I would suggest is that if the people of this valley truly want art, spiritual, and for commercial meaning of it… if we really want that, then I wonder if it isn’t time when a serious dialogue should begin for public funding for the arts,” said Alvin Lee Block in Napa. “To our political leaders: this is what we want; we are willing to pay for it.”

Through our town hall meetings, ACNV discovered unique needs in every community, and common threads for the county as a whole. All meeting minutes, as well as town summaries are available on the ACNV website at www.artscouncilnapavalley.org. The next step in our planning process is to look at all of this community input, as well as all the data we’ve uncovered in the last ten months, and begin to draft the cultural plan for Napa County. Stay tuned to the ACNV website to watch the process, and to get involved in your local arts!