As the project coordinator of Arts Council Napa Valley’s initiative to create a cultural plan for Napa County, I’ve been asked to write ongoing updates regarding the process.

In this forum, I’ll share what we are learning, describe our latest discoveries and give notice of all of our public meetings.

We’re in the second month of this process, and we are surprised by how much we’ve already learned. In this first phase, we are focusing on three elements: creating the strategy team, building a cultural resource database and conducting discovery interviews with community members from across the valley. The strategy team is composed of community leaders from every city who are passionate about the arts and who care deeply about the future of our cultural sector. The database, filled with artists, arts venues, arts groups, and arts educational opportunities, is blossoming, and we are finding an even deeper and greater creative community in Napa Valley than we ever imagined. 

The discovery interviews, however, are foremost on my mind, because they are giving us snapshots of what this community thinks not just about the arts, but also about the greater problems and challenges we are facing. Interviewees have included educators, winery owners, arts funders, artists, business owners and many others. The first question in these interviews is: “What do you see as the major issues, of any type, facing this community?” The second is “Do you think the arts sector could play a role in solving these problems?” The heart of this planning lies in these two questions. We are working to build a stronger arts and culture sector, certainly simply for art’s sake, and what the arts bring to our lives; but we also see the arts as a vehicle to address greater community problems.

There are many themes popping up in these interviews, in response to the first question: too many nonprofits; traffic; donor fatigue; the struggle to keep young people in the valley; the high cost of housing; and, most of all, the growing divide between the Latino and Anglo populations. And it is also telling is that so far the answers are split on the second question. Half of the respondents think that the arts can address these issues; the other half believes they should be addressed by business or government, or do not believe the arts can or should be utilized in this way.

Since we are so early in this process, I cannot draw any firm conclusions from these interviews. But I do see great potential in what this process can achieve. I do believe that the arts can address some greater issues, particularly when it comes to the cultural divide in this community. One of the respondents spoke of how important it is that local arts be “welcoming” to everyone in the community; or, at the very least, that there are offerings for all the different populations, and that plans are put in place to make everyone feel welcome, so we do have those chances to come together, to have collective experiences with our neighbors whom we might not ordinarily get to meet.

But, again, this is only the beginning. So far to go, and much more to learn!

Full results from the discovery interviews will be available on the ACNV Web site within the next two weeks. To get involved in the creation of this cultural plan, to volunteer, to add your information to the cultural resources database, or for more information on the process, please visit www.artscouncilnapavalley.org or call us ACNV at 257-2117.

Michelle Williams is executive director of the Arts Council of Napa Valley.