Napa Valley Museum Eyes an Expansion to the Heart of Wine Country

When visitors travel to Napa Valley from around the world, they’re likely to miss the art scene.

“It takes an effort to get to the [Napa Valley Museum in Yountville]. It’s not something you drive by, so that can be limiting,” says Laura Rafaty, who has served as the museum’s executive director for the past seven years.

According to Rafaty, 68% of the museum’s visitors come from outside of the Napa area. And since they’re often cramming a weekend’s-worth of activities into a few precious hours — wine tours peppered with visits to The French Laundry and a spa appointment or two — it can be difficult to make time to take in art.

The museum is hoping to change that with its latest move: an expansion site along Highway 29 in St. Helena, which runs through the heart of wine country.

In September, the additional museum space, dubbed the Napa Valley Museum of Art & Culture (or the MAC), will take over a large beige building that formerly housed Gary’s Wine & Marketplace and Dean & DeLuca. Conveniently, they’ll be neighbored by the Michelin-star PRESS Restaurant and chateau-style winery V. Sattui.

It’s a much different vibe than their original location, which is a few miles away and tucked along a backroad, inside the oldest and largest military veteran’s home in the country. Though the original museum will remain open — with a plan to increase their spotlight on local contemporary artists and art history within and beyond the region — the additional museum space will allow for a greater offering of “splashier” exhibitions.

“We want to have a unique identity for the space. We are creating a cultural flagship location for the museum where we will feature our major exhibitions,” a high-energy Rafaty tells KQED. 

What could that look like? Perhaps remixing and “super sizing” previously successful exhibitions that were incubated at the Napa Valley Museum — some of which, including a Julia Child retrospective, have gone on to travel the country. In addition to expanding the museum’s greatest hits, Rafaty’s goal is to deliver never-before-seen shows at the new location. 

In 2019, Rafaty brought a series of large-scale erotic paintings by the actress Lucy Lui. Recently, the museum unleashed a retrospective on the origins and evolution of Tiki aesthetics, and their deep roots in the Bay Area. Rafaty’s vision for the museum — which she admits has at times been overshadowed by its surrounding temptations of food and wine —  is one of sharp originality and pragmatic hope.

“Our patrons are highly cultured, open-minded and ready to see what the best of the world has to offer when they’re visiting Napa Valley’s food, wine and resorts,” she says. “Even if they’re on vacation, they don’t take a vacation from their good taste, and we want to cater to that. That’s exciting.”

The Napa Valley Museum (55 Presidents Circle, Yountville) is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Museum of Art & Culture (MAC) expansion site is coming to 607 St. Helena Highway, St. Helena in September.