When you live in the Bay Area, you are solicited for advice on the regular from faraway friends and family on what to see when visiting your part of the Golden State. Nine times out of ten, when you tell them about the cutty little “not-in-the-guidebook” spots that will give them a true taste of Boca de California, they proceed to ignore that advice and spend large blocks of time at heinous Fisherman’s Wharf tourist traps.
As far as touristy attractions go, the wine country of Napa Valley is one the few options that allows visitors to immerse themselves in some legitimately vibrant Bay Area culture. This is thanks to a man named Rene di Rosa and his late wife Veronica.
Now 87, di Rosa left San Francisco’s North Beach Beat scene in the early 60s to make a go at growing grapes at an abandoned 460 acre winery tucked among the rolling hills of Napa’s Carneros region. A little over two decades later, di Rosa had a much-lauded vintner’s operation and a personal collection of art featuring many of the biggest names in Northern California.
Wanting to ensure that his visionary assembly of quirky and kaleidoscopic art would be made available to the public long term, di Rosa sold half of his land in 1986 to establish the nonprofit di Rosa Preserve. His collection of over 2,300 works by over 900 local artists includes some nametags that will impress the hell out of your local art history professor – Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Robert Arneson, and Manuel Neri to name just a few.
Despite all the works by famous folks, the di Rosa Preserve is about as unstuffy as can be. Part of it is di Rosa’s deliciously wacky arrangement of the fantastic – you can stand under a Volkswagen hanging from a tree like a Christmas ornament and gaze out on the world’s tallest filing cabinet while peacocks file past you – but it is also the fact that he has always had such a commitment to supporting emerging artists.
A recent show organized by di Rosa Curator Michael Schwager at the preserve’s Gatehouse Gallery featuring the likes of Josephine Taylor, Taravat Talepasand, and Packard Jennings absolutely nailed its goal of congregating some of the best of young Bay Area visual talents. Whether it’s during regular Tuesday-Saturday visiting hours or for one of its new First Fridays parties, a visit to the di Rosa Preserve’s gorgeously surrounded sculpture meadow, thirty-five acre lake, and trio of galleries will show you what the Bay Area really has to offer.
– Buck Austin