The Healdsburg Tribune 6-9-2022

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TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune The Enterprise & Scimitar Enterprise & Scimitar

Visit www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news views Visit www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news andand views Our 157 year, Number 23 Healdsburg, California

Our 155th year, Number 00© ur 155th year, Number 00©

HUNDREDS SIGN PETITION FOR MORE PUBLIC ARTS FUNDING

Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California

1865 –June 9, 2022 Date, Date, 20202020

CITY DEFLECTS CALLS FOR MORE CASH By Christian Kallen

➝ Petition, 3

Mark Fernquest

Presented with a petition signed by over 600 people that called for increased funding for the arts, the Healdsburg City Council gave the topic as much attention as they could in the May 31 special budget study session, but were unwilling to allocate more than the $50,000 earmarked. The council heard public comment from half a dozen residents, including several members of the city’s own Creative Leadership Team, about the importance of arts funding for the public image of Healdsburg and in support of the petition circulated by Christina Stafford on Change.org. Titled “Support Healdsburg Arts Funding Now,” the petition writes, “This current placeholder amount for this vital programming is simply insufficient to launch the Arts and Culture Master Plan.” It lays the blame squarely in the seat of city staff: “Right now, The City Manager has slashed the suggested funding by 90%.” Stafford, the originator of the petition, is the owner of Stafford Gallery at the northwest corner of the Plaza, at Plaza and East Streets. She moved from San Francisco to Healdsburg in 2017 to open the gallery, and found an arts-receptive community that was just beginning the research and development of an Arts and Culture Master Plan. The city chose a national consultancy company, the Cultural Planning Group, and assembled an advisory committee of 30-some locals with an interest in the arts, the Creative Leadership Team. The process to develop the master plan took longer than expected, as first the Kincade fire of 2019 and then the Covid pandemic slowed their efforts. But they came up with

TRIFECTA Kathy Birdsong (left), acting chair of the board of directors, and gallery artist Sue Sweet showcase local sculptor Charlene Doiron Reinhart’s ‘Puck’ at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts.

New Beginnings

HEALDSBURG CENTER FOR THE ARTS RUNS STRONG By Mark Fernquest

Healdsburg Center for the Arts is stepping boldly into the future from its new downtown location. Recent years have been tough. Kathy Birdsong, board president and gallery artist, says, “The Covid shutdown and the fires impacted us negatively—so many changes in when we could be open and not. Our artists’ receptions are favorite community events, and we could no longer hold them. We missed our loyal supporters and, of course, revenue. As a nonprofit, we were not eligible for Covid funding and relied on grants our education director was able to procure. We have relocated from 130 Plaza Street to 334 Center Street and are enjoying being where the foot traffic is better. We have increased our public profile and revenue.” This all bodes well for Healdsburgians, who

in past years have benefited from Art After Dark, the Art Festival and the many classes and exhibitions hosted annually by HCA. This year, the Art Festival will launch again in late August after a two-year hiatus. Specifically, “August 26–28, we return to the Plaza for our Healdsburg Art Festival, where 30-40 art vendors will showcase their work, in addition to art activities in which to participate, and a culinary pavilion on Plaza Street with food makers and providers. There will be entertainment as well,” Birdsong says. It will be the first time HCA has held a fundraiser since before Covid hit in 2019. Birdsong stresses that the City is being very generous with regards to helping with the upcoming Art Festival. Art After Dark will return in 2023. “There’s only so much you can do when you’ve moved into a new place,” Birdsong says, “and there’s all sorts of expenses. And manpower. We couldn’t restart everything after three years of nothing.”

Covid restrictions didn’t shut the Center down completely, but they came close. Limited hours were further hampered by limited manpower.

is part of her duty as an HCA gallery artist. She works the desk a couple days a month and helps out with different projects as part of the cooperative effort. “People just find what they like to do and do it,” she tells me. She painted for a day during the move and will help out at the upcoming Art Festival. The gallery’s current exhibit, running through June 19, is titled “Miniatures.” Each exhibit measures less than 12 inches in any direction. All the gallery artists participated, as well as 30 invited artists. Exhibitions draw from across the nation and beyond. One artist is even from Santiago, Chile. Birdsong shows me how

Covid restrictions didn’t shut the Center down completely, but they came close. Limited hours were further hampered by limited manpower. Then came the move, in August 2021, into the new building that had housed Plaza Paints for decades. The paint-layered interior required extensive renovation to be brought up to snuff—new paint, new flooring and more. Sue Sweet worked the front desk on a recent Monday. A practicing MFT art therapist and a six-year gallery artist who specializes in painting and mixed media, she and her husband recently built a wooden storage rack in the gallery’s back room. The volunteer work

WEST SONOMA COAST WINES GET OWN AVA Courtesy West Sonoma Coast Vintners

WINE The new American Viticultural Area (AVA) includes Fort Ross-Seaview,

but comprises a narrower slice of coastline than the greater Sonoma Coast AVA.

MARINE AIR AND HEAVY FOG DISTINGUISH AREA By Eric Schwartzman

Just seven years after the West Sonoma County Vintners filed their petition, the West Sonoma Coast—where the cold

the movable walls hold the “Miniatures” exhibits, while the actual walls are for gallery artists and invited artists. Exhibits run the gamut from jewelry to ceramics to mixed to glassware to wood. The display of art makes for a beautiful room. Behind the gallery’s rear curtain lies a tablefilled “flex” space, where classes and other activities such as ScriptTease script readings by the Raven Players, take place. It is a spartan room, with a paint-splattered concrete floor and shelves on all sides. Classes include Summer Art Camp classes, which run from June 13 to July 21 and include sessions for children ages 3–5, 6–9 and 9–17, respectively. These classes are so popular that some have now been moved to the nearby community center and nursery school. Full and partial scholarships are available, thanks to the generous contributions of HCA donors. “Dress for a mess and prepare to explore the world ➝ New Beginnings, 2

marine air and heavy fog offer distinct advantages for growing wine grape varieties ranging from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to Syrah—has officially been sanctioned as a new American Viticultural Area (AVA). The jurisdiction of the new West Sonoma Coast AVA isn’t perfect, but given that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) prohibits overlapping AVAs, and the inherently ➝ AVA, 6


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