The arts community in Napa Valley is facing turbulent times.

Next week, the Napa County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider a proposal to create a Napa County Arts and Culture Commission. We support the idea as a good first step toward overcoming their obstacles.

Recently, the Register editorial board met with several people intimately involved with the arts in Napa. They include Michelle Williams, head of the Arts Council of Napa Valley; Lauren Ackerman, chairman of the board of trustees at Copia; Dave Mendelsohn, an arts supporter with experience staging and supporting concerts and events, and Tom Fuller, who does public relations work for several local groups and venues.

Separately, we met with Asher Raboy, conductor and executive director of the Napa Valley Symphony, a 74-year-old institution working to overcome serious financial hardship.

Williams and the group accompanying her explained what the proposed arts and cultural council would do. It would start with an arts commission staffer, paid for at first by private funds but perhaps later supported by county taxpayers, to work on myriad issues related to performances, arts spaces and so forth. Tangible benefits might include consideration of artist live-work spaces in future zoning decisions, support for public art in architectural and other decisions, and a cultural planning calendar that would maximize creative and financial success while promoting collaboration between groups. The agency's efforts would be linked to the "Destination Napa" business and tourism effort already underway.

That group emphasized the importance of educating the public about the arts opportunities here, and indeed we are fortunate. We have venues -- the Opera House and Lincoln Theater, for example -- with acoustics and sightlines to rival venues anywhere in the United States. Mendelsohn tapped into a growing sentiment when he said he no longer feels the need to go into the city to find artistic excellence.