Gala Kicks Off New Arts Season at the 222

Aerial Ballet Elevates Arts Nonprofit Event With Spectacle

By Christian Kallen

The art gallery-turnedperformance space at 222 Healdsburg Ave. has announced its coming season of music, film, lecture and performance arts, to be kicked off with the highflying dance acrobatics of Bandaloop, at the Aug. 5 Gala for the Arts.

Bandaloop, a “vertical dance company,” combines dance, climbing and aerial techniques to execute performances on the sides of buildings, cliffs and other vertical surfaces. Trained in various dance disciplines including ballet, modern dance and acrobatics, the troupe will perform on the west wall and open space of the gallery. celebration to honor the contributions of all of Healdsburg’s non-profit arts organizations.

Bandaloop will highlight the first Gala for the Arts, a celebration to honor the contributions of all of Healdsburg’s nonprofit arts organizations. These include AVFilm, Healdsburg Center for the Arts, the Healdsburg Chorus, Healdsburg Community Band, Healdsburg Jazz, Heartizens, the Raven Performing Arts Theater and, of course, The 222 itself.

The 222 Executive Director Paul Mahder called the gala “an evening of empowerment for the arts,” with fundraising opportunities for the city’s eight arts nonprofits.

“Each of the organizations has one item for the live auction. A bunch of them are doing silent auctions,” he said. “There will also be fund-a-need bidding that all goes to the organizations.”

Among the auction items: a private outdoor movie screening for 50 (AVFilm), a framed painting by artist Gary Nesbit

(Healdsburg Center for the Arts), two nights lodging and golf at the Little River Inn (Healdsburg Community Band), a VIP festival bundle for the 2024 Healdsburg Jazz Festival, and others.

“It’s never happened before, it’s always been everybody in their silos doing their own thing,” Mahder said. “Some of the organizations are small and can’t manage a big gala to raise money.”

The gala begins at 7pm on Saturday, Aug. 5, with bubbly and hors d’oeuvres. Tickets are $50, available at the222.org/ gala-for-the-arts.

That event is followed by the first of many

NEW MUSIC FOR THE POST-BOOMER GENERATIONS AT VEGAN LITTLE SAINT

By Christian Kallen

The upstairs floor at 25 North St., with its high ceiling, wide-open floor space and full kitchen, never seemed to get the usage for which it was intended. But in the past year Little Saint has turned the room into a frequent and inviting venue for live music as well.

The room itself is now known as Second Story, the “elevated” vegan dining restaurant of the plant-friendly enterprise, but its use as a music hall seemed to break out a year ago. In August 2022, singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers made an unpromoted appearance at the former “Grange” of the former SHED days. Wordof-mouth spread and the show was standingroom-only, based solely on the buzz.

Since then a steady stream of talented singersongwriters has appeared, often with little notice, sometimes to small audiences and sometimes to a packed house.

Most of the music at Second Story is booked by Jonny Fritz, a singer-songwriter himself who promotes what he calls Dad Country.

“Around 2012, I made a record called ‘Down on the Bikini Line,’ and everybody said, ‘Oh, this is the next Outlaw Country! This guy’s the New Outlaw!’” Fritz said, on the phone from Havre, Mont. “I was like, ‘Oh, man, I’m really not an outlaw. I’m more like somebody’s weird dad.’”

Thus was born his own genre, and brand. Fritz had previously released two earlier CDs under the stage name Jonny Corndog. Dad Country is an upgrade.

A Calendar Of Upcoming Events In Healdsburg

Shakespeare in the Park

This year’s Theater in the Park presentation is The Comedy of Errors, a “madcap romp”—as the Bard didn’t say—with not one, but two, sets of twins. The Raven Players set the show in modernday New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Performances in West Plaza Park at 7:30pm on Thursdays through Saturdays, July 27-29, Aug. 3-5, Aug. 1012. Free.

Art After Dark

The community-wide street fair and art celebration returns on Friday, July 28, from 5-9pm.