48 Hills editors and writers are highlighting their favorite people and things of 2025. Vote now for your own favorites in our 51st Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll! And join us October 22, 6pm-9pm, at El Rio for the 48 Hills Annual Community Gala to party with the winners and celebrate the independent spirit of the Bay Area.
Napa’s di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art made major moves in 2025. Like other arts museums, institutions, and galleries in the Bay Area, it found itself in a storm of financial challenges and the general public’s shifting cultural habits. The museum recently responded by transforming two of its spaces into rental venues and launching new initiatives.
The changes resulted in staffing cuts and other unfortunate actions, but did not cancel out the di Rosa’s larger, ongoing purpose: showcasing its extensive 1,600-item collection, centered on Northern California art and celebrating new voices entering the conversation.
Collectors Rene and Veronica di Rosa first opened their private collection to the public in 1997. Since that time, the museum’s exhibits and special programs have focused on established Northern California artists, including Robert Arneson, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Roy De Forest, William T. Wiley, and others. The integration on its 217-acre campus of contemporary new work, outdoor sculptures, nature camps, hikes, the Winery Lake Vineyards, programs at the di Rosa residence, and other features elevates the institution into a culturally significant and ever-changing regional destination.
Arguably best of all, a new 5,000-square-foot satellite space, The Incorrect Museum, has risen like a phoenix—and is free to all visitors. The close-to-home di Rosa SF satellite museum officially opened in early August in the former McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, within the Minnesota Street Project complex. Its first show, “Far Out: Northern California Art from the di Rosa Collection” (now thru October 4), features work by Joan Brown, Enrique Chagoya, Jay DeFeo, Mildred Howard, Packard Jennings, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and Peter Saul.
Also on the exhibition calendar are “Jim Melchert: Where the Boundaries Are” (October 18- January 3), the acclaimed ceramicist’s first major retrospective, followed by “Tiffany Shlain/Ken Goldberg: Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time, and Technology” (January 20-April 11). The environmentally-focused, multi-medium Getty PST ART Art & Science Collide exhibition travels from Southern California with the history of Jewish thought, tree science, AI, and their interconnectedness in human life.
