di Rosa Land Could Become a Napa County Public Park
Napa’s di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, a museum housing a substantial collection of work by Northern California artists, has been in financial straits for a while.
Last year, the art center announced layoffs and an expansion into San Francisco, an attempt to reach new audiences while renovating its Napa campus for more event rentals. Earlier this year, the di Rosa put its entire 217-acre property on the market for $10.9 million. And in June, the Napa Valley Register reported over $700,000 in deferred maintenance and an endowment that has shrunk from $5 million to less than $500,000.
Now, the art center hopes a three-way agreement with the Napa County Regional Park & Open Space District and the Land Trust of Napa County may help turn the tides. The agreement, announced on Aug. 25, would allow Napa County’s parks system to eventually purchase the upper 162 acres of the di Rosa property, leaving 52 acres, including the museum buildings and lake, under di Rosa’s ownership.
Neal Harrison, a former di Rosa board member and a strategic advisor on the deal, says this won’t solve all of the museum’s current financial problems. “The final purchase price is $1.85 million — it’s not like a $100 million you can put into an endowment and run with,” he told KQED. “But it helps stabilize the organization as the operating model improves.”
The agreement provides an initial $500,000 to di Rosa, with the remaining $1.35 million balance tied to the passage of Measure B in November.
The parcel includes Milliken Peak, the tallest point in the Carneros region, which provides sweeping views of Napa Valley, San Pablo Bay and, on clear days, the Golden Gate Bridge. The di Rosa currently leads hikes to the peak once a month for small groups of visitors; the sale would greatly increase public access to the site.
Melanie Parker, CEO of the Land Trust of Napa County, described the deal as a “true win-win partnership” in last week’s announcement. “By working directly with di Rosa, we are protecting a treasured scenic ridgeline at zero initial cost to taxpayers, while helping a vital arts institution thrive,” she said.
If Measure B — a sales tax tied to wildfire preparedness, watershed protection and open space preservation — does not pass, the purchase could still go through. But the Open Space District would need to find the money elsewhere.
The Open Space District plans include a two-mile trail to the top of Milliken Peak, a path already dotted with a few sculpture works from the di Rosa collection. Under the sale agreement, more artworks could be added, in line with Rene di Rosa’s original vision for his “art and nature preserve.”
“If you looked at the articles of incorporation and some of his early writings and so forth, [di Rosa] really wanted the art to be — because it’s a Northern California collection of art — blended into the Northern California landscape,” Harrison said.
In the di Rosa’s ideal world, more access to the landscape would also mean more interest in the art collection, potentially bringing more revenue to the art center itself. “I think a lot of people drive by on the highway and don’t really know what it is,” Harrison said. “And I think that can change with a public hiking trail.”