Upcoming Events

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 Past Events 

LAA visits the Hess Persson Estates in Napa

Friday, June 12 at 11:00 AM

VISIT THE HESS ART COLLECTION!

LAA's VP of Outreach and Education, Sharon Tama, invites you to join her for a tour of the captivating Hess Art Collection! If you've attended tours arranged by Sharon before, you know how educational, fun and inspiring they are! We hope you will join her, along with other fellow LAA members, for a free self-guided tour of the renowned art collection at the Hess Persson Estates in Napa Friday, June 12 at 11:00 AM. After the tour you are welcome to indulge in wine tasting* of the Lions Head Cellars offerings afterwards on your own.

Donald Hess’s art collection began when he first purchased a painting for his home, later identified by a friend as a Picasso. His earnest pursuit of art began in 1966 when he became driven to connect with living, relatively unknown artists, who later went on to be respected and recognized in their disciplines. Today the Hess Art Collection is considered one of the finest in the Napa Valley.
Please contact Sharon Tama by May 14th to reserve your spot on the art tour at: twotamas@gmail.com. Please use the email subject “Hess." Also, be sure to include your name and cell phone number.

Note: Sharon will be unavailable to respond from May 19 to June 5. More information, including directions, will be forthcoming as we get closer to June 12th.

*If you choose to imbibe in wine tasting, please make your own reservations by contacting the winery at: info@hesspersson.com. Walk-in appointments may be available but cannot be guaranteed. Wine tasting opportunities range in price from $35 per person, to $100 for Reserve Estate Tasting.

For more information about the Collection, please visit: https://www.hessperssonestates.com/visit/art/

Hess Persson Estates is located at:
4411 Redwood Road, Napa, CA. 94558
Phone: (707) 255-1144

LAA Visits the Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art

Friday, April 10th at 11:00 AM

Join LAA as we tour the Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art for a special three-part exhibit by notable artists Hilda Robinson, Zach Clark, and Beth Van Hoesen.

Hilda Robinson’s exhibit, Retrospective, reflects her expressions in vibrant oil pastels “…to preserve spaces of joy for Black American communities in public and third places.”

Zach Clark’s exhibit, Walking The Quiet: A Collaborative Commission, explores the “lore and perspectives of Saint Mary’s College landscape.”

Artist Beth Van Hoesen’s exhibit: Felt Through Line, “highlights the keen observations and minimalist line work of objects, people, and animals captured by San Francisco-based draftswoman and printmaker Van Hoesen (1926-2010).”

Together, these three exhibits offer differing perspectives of content, style, and medium which should offer broad appeal to the diversity of our own LAA member artists.
Admission is free but please contact Sharon Tama (twotamas@gmail.com) by Monday, April 6th using the subject line “St. Mary’s” so we can anticipate the number of participants.

Parking is available anywhere a “V” sign is posted, which includes both sides of the museum and in front of the Soda Center.

Saint Mary’s College is located at: 1928 St. Mary’s Rd., Moraga
Phone: (925) 631-4000  

Docent Tour of Arts Benicia during the CWA International Exhibition

Friday, February 6, 2026 at 11:00 AM

Click here to see the pictures taken by Lori Larks during the tour

Join your art-loving LAA colleagues as we tour Arts Benicia for the upcoming exhibition: California Watercolor Association 56th International Exhibition.

Pat Moseuk, Juror of Selection, has chosen 85 paintings from 549 submissions worldwide for this very special exhibit. Artists who demonstrated “extraordinary talent and artistic vision” will have been awarded additional recognition by Awards Juror Dongfend Li.

Please contact Sharon Tama, Vice-President of Outreach and Education, to sign up for this experience by January 28, 2026 (email: twotamas@gmail.com using the subject heading “Benicia Tour”). Please include your name and cell phone number. Directions and parking information will be forthcoming.

GOOGLE MAPS
Search: 1 Washington St, Benicia, CA

APPLE MAPS and WAZE MAPS
Search: 1 Commandant’s Lane, Benicia, CA

The Arts Benicia website artsbenicia.org also has directions to the gallery. 

Bedford Art Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek

Friday, November 7, 2025 at noon

Join LAA as we visit the Bedford Art Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek on Friday, Nov. 7 at noon. 

Please email Sharon Tama (twotamas@gmail.com using the subject heading “Bedford”) to join us for this notable exhibition.

Admission to the exhibit is $10 and a link for payment directly to LAA will be provided once you’ve contacted Sharon.

The Lesher Center for the Arts is located at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. Parking is easily available next door at the City of Walnut Creek Parking Garage on Locust St.

LAA Guided Tour of di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art

Saturday, June 21st 2025 11:30 AM

If you haven’t been a visitor to the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art on the Sonoma Highway in Napa, you’ve missed a true Bay Area treat! 

Join LAA for a guided tour of the various exhibits, including the Frances McCormack exhibit: Rooted in Wonder, and the beautiful vast grounds of the center.

McCormack is a Bay Area artist and this exhibit presents a 40-year survey of her work. As quoted from the di Rosa Center website:

“Her abstract compositions, featuring tube or tendril like forms, fields and bands of color, and painterly layering and effects, quickly earned her praise, with art critic Kenneth Baker writing: ‘her paintings strive for a kind of material poetic statement possible only in painting.’

In her lush paintings, McCormack explores personal themes with the garden as a guiding metaphor. Drawing on the concept of the garden as an enclosure, she populates the field of the painting with botanical references and images in earthly and vegetative hues. Pushing against compositional limits, these forms and color fields describe the nature of growth, energy, and even human struggle.”

For more information about di Rosa, please visit: https://www.dirosaart.org/

Please contact Sharon Tama (twotamas@gmail.com) no later than Wednesday, April 23 if interested.

Location: 5200 Sonoma Highway, Napa 

Entrance fee: $25 per person, members free 

  

Mary Cassatt, A Kiss for Baby Ann,(No. 3) 1897

Join LAA for a tour of the Mary Cassatt Exhibit at the Legion of Honor

Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at 11:00 AM

Explore the world of American-born, French Expressionist artist Mary Cassatt at the Legion of Honor exhibit, Mary Cassatt at Work. The exhibit focuses on the artist’s materials, processes, and methods as she gave life to her images of women and children. Included in the exhibit are works in pastel, prints, and of course, paintings.

To join the LAA tour, please contact Sharon Tama (twotamas@gmail.com) prior to December 14 using the subject heading “Mary Cassatt”. Exhibit entry fees are discounted 20 % and are as follows:*

Adults         $28.00

Seniors      $25.00

        *FAMSF Members $0 but you must provide your membership number in your response

A Walnut Creek Walking Tour of Art

Saturday, November 16th, 2024
10:00-11:30 AM

Join LAA members for a delightful and informative walking tour of public art in downtown Walnut Creek. The tour begins at the Bedford Gallery, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek, and focuses on the public art collection along Main St. and the Public Library.

The tour will be led by a trained public art specialist who will be able to offer information on the very art you may have meandered by in the past and were curious about.

The cost is $5 for adults, under 18 free. You must pay in person (cash only) and includes admission to Bedford Gallery. Please assemble in front of the Bedford Galley before the tour begins. Parking is available in the public garage next to the Bedford Gallery.

 The 2023 Ekphrasis Collaborative Exhibit Reception video