“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”  
- Albert Einstein

Celebrating a birthday of someone special (Mayor Jill Techel) was the perfect way to do LNV Arts Day!! Our day began at the Oxbow school, which was fabulous to so many of us who had never seen what happens there. What an incredible place to foster art education in our community. Olivia Dodd, CEO and President of the Arts Council Napa Valley, was a spectacular leader for the day. She challenged us to this question: “What would the world look like without art?” As a class we were inspired to see just exactly how art is working in our community, in many different ways. Miki Hsu Leavey, from di Rosa, lead us in an activity that truly opened our minds to the world of art. Taking a quick look at a few art pieces, we explored the multitude of meanings behind each piece. We shared our thoughts and learned that there is no one interpretation of art. It was fun and exhilarating!!

Our next adventure was off to Salvador Elementary School where we met Pam Perkins. There are some exciting things happening at that school and art plays a huge role in that. I’m pretty sure a highlight for all of us was visiting two classrooms at Salvador. It was impressive to see how these young people incorporate the arts into their everyday learning processes. The enthusiasm of each child to learn was quite evident! For lunch we enjoyed some fabulous food from Food Shed and heard from our sponsors at NORBAR. The performances from Napa High’s Theater Group and River’s World Percussion Class were both so enlightening! How amazing it is to have these opportunities for our young people.

After Salvador, we were off to Nimbus Arts in St. Helena. The work of Jamie Graff at Nimbus was eye opening! We had no idea what was already being done in our community through our arts! The Mariposa Project with the mosaic butterflies was powerful. Then the presentation by Phil Lofaro about the influence that art is having on the students in Napa’s Juvenile Court Schools was something else. It truly seemed life changing. What a gift this program is to so many. After participating in our own art activity, we left feeling empowered and definitely seeing arts in a whole new light!

“The arts change people and people change the world!”

Submitted by Betsy Cipriano, Chris DeNatale, and Megan Dominici, members of Class 30.