Listen to Executive Director and Curator Kate Eilertsen and Curatorial Associate Twyla Ruby discuss the history of Northern California art through the context of the artwork represented in The Incorrect Museum: Vignettes from the di Rosa Collection.
Each preview covers two vignettes:
Sweet Land of Funk / The Pot Palace
The Museum of Conceptual Art / Worlds in Collision
These programs are offered as part of di Rosa’s at home digital content.
Shakespeare Napa Valley engages and inspires our diverse communities by creating lively and innovative productions of Shakespeare’s plays. Founded in 2010 by Artistic Director Jennifer King at Napa Valley College, Shakespeare Napa Valley presents at least one production each year. Featuring professional actors, artisans, directors, and designers, working alongside college students, Shakespeare Napa Valley is committed to nurturing seasoned and emerging artists alike. Signature programs include Shakespeare in the Park, Student Company and Student Matinees. For more information visit shakespearenapavalley.org
Olivia Cowell (Director, Shakespeare Summer Stroll) is an award-winning Bay Area director, choreographer, and actor. Local directing credits include: A Chorus Line, Beauty and the Beast, Clue, Matilda the Musical, Mary Poppins, Shrek the Musical, Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka, Peter Pan, Late: a Cowboy Song, Lend Me a Tenor, The Wizard of Oz, Seussical Jr., and Alice in Wonderland to name a few. She is also co-director of Cafeteria Kids Theater, a local non-profit youth educational theater and a theater arts faculty member at Napa Valley College.
Shakespeare Napa Valley and di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art present Shakespeare Summer Stroll, a site-integrated presentation of scenes and monologues from some of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays, interwoven with the exquisite works and outdoor spaces at di Rosa. This family-friendly show boasts a fantastic balance of comedic and dramatic scenes as well as sonnets, and is directed by Napa Valley College faculty member Olivia Cowell. Shakespeare Napa Valley, an auxiliary program of the Napa Valley College, has conceptualized an incredible walking tour through the world of Shakespeare and some of his greatest dramatic works. Guests will experience a short and enchanting hike through a carefully curated sequence of moments from The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
* Shakespeare Napa Valley is a Napa Valley College auxiliary program.
Please note that all performances include a walking tour that is approximately 1.5 mi long along uneven terrain. We suggest wearing comfortable shoes. If you require ADA assistance, please contact kathleen@dirosaart.org.
July 15 | 6 – 8:30 PM
Doors open at 5:30 PM
$65 Your ticket includes:
July 16, 17 | 6 – 8:30 PM
Doors open at 5:30 PM
$5 Minimum Donation: General Admission: Pay What You “Will” (all donations will be distributed amongst Shakespeare Napa Valley and di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art). This will grant you access to the guided walking tour and performance.
$30 VIP Admission: When you donate $30 or more, your ticket will also include a glass of wine and a small snack.
July 18 | 2 – 3:30 PM
This show will not include food and wine pairings. Admission to Sunday’s Matinee Performance is free to the following qualifying individuals:
Twyla will be enjoying a Kitchen Sink cocktail and guiding a deep dive into the incredible Rhinocar by David Best, a work on view in The Incorrect Museum: Vignettes from the di Rosa Collection.
Zoom login:
Meeting ID: 814 9331 9396
Passcode: 201753
Cocktail Recipe: The Kitchen Sink
Directions
Muddle the mint in the bottom of a cocktail shaker with the Simple Syrup. Add ice to the shaker, then add the gin, rum, triple sec and vodka and shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Top with some lemon-lime soda and garnish with a lime wedge.
Mocktail Recipe: The Clean Sink
Twyla will be sipping a Platinum Blonde cocktail and guiding a deep dive into Constructing Roberta Breitmore by Lynn Hershman Leeson, a work on view in The Incorrect Museum: Vignettes from the di Rosa Collection.
Zoom login:
Meeting ID: 814 9331 9396
Passcode: 201753
Cocktail Recipe: The Platinum Blonde
Directions
Add the infused vodka, elderflower liqueur, grapefruit juice, lemon juice and simple syrup to a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.
Double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with a rosemary sprig.
Mocktail Recipe: Sparkling Highlights
Twyla will be sipping a Golden Geisha and guiding a deep dive into Geisha I by Jay DeFeo, a work on view in The Incorrect Museum: Vignettes from the di Rosa Collection.
Zoom login:
Meeting ID: 814 9331 9396
Passcode: 201753
Cocktail Recipe: The Golden Geisha
Directions
Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled.
Double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with gold flakes.
Mocktail Recipe: The Virgin Geisha
Scroll down to read the introductory wall text and click the icons below to enter vignettes.
Rene di Rosa viewed his collection of more than 1600 objects, accumulated over five decades from the 1960s until his death in 2010, as a sort of “incorrect museum.” In 1997, when the preserve opened its doors to the public, di Rosa memorialized the occasion in verse, penning a “singalong for an incorrect museum” which was distributed to early visitors: “Come on out and let go/to return again while getting to know/that here the art invites a titter/from the free admitter/That here art is a healthy remedy/with a laugh at rascality not posing as ponderosity.”
di Rosa’s vision of an “incorrect museum” is a potent concept, especially today as museums across the world reassess their institutional histories, missions and values. What, exactly, made the di Rosa an “incorrect museum” in the eyes of its founder?
di Rosa, along with many of the artists he collected, strictly opposed the aesthetic and social conventions of the mainstream art world, which he viewed as pretentious, sterile and fundamentally conservative.
Unlike major museums in New York and Los Angeles, di Rosa welcomed the public free of charge, reflecting a populist vision for the arts. Similarly, he rejected the bland art-speak peddled by gallerists and curators, eschewing the use of exhibition labels to cultivate a more immediate and personal exchange between artwork and viewer.
Even the personal residence di Rosa shared with his wife Veronica was imbued with an “incorrect” spirit, with works installed ceiling-to-floor in a playful salon style. The entryway of The Incorrect Museum is installed similarly, as a tribute to di Rosa’s curatorial vision. In the main gallery, we present six vignettes exploring how di Rosa’s “incorrect” sensibility was informed by the Bay Area’s unique artistic milieu. As this exhibition shows, the ideal of “incorrectness” was a lodestone for generations of Bay Area artists.
The works in the collection had a distinctly “incorrect” flavor which tended, di Rosa wrote, to invoke a “curatorial frown” from cultural gatekeepers in large, international museums.
The collection focused on Bay Area artists—like Bruce Conner, William T. Wiley, Robert Arneson and Roy De Forest, among others—whose work was too colorful, ungainly, humorous and irreverent to be easily interpreted or consumed by art world afficionados. di Rosa also supported local artists—including Peter Voulkos, Jim Melchert, Tom Marioni and Paul Kos—who blurred the line between art and life, creating conceptual works rooted in experience that were not easily bought or sold.
We invite you to celebrate the shared “rascality” of these artists. The art and artists of Northern California have too often been overlooked by critics and historians of twentieth century art.
Kate Eilertsen, Executive Director and Curator
Twyla Ruby, Curatorial Associate
