The Napa Quake Mosaic is a collaborative public art project created to honor and memorialize those affected by the 2014 Napa earthquake. The project was initiated with a generous grant from the Napa County Arts & Culture Fund and is now launching a crowdfunding campaign to complete the installation in downtown Napa.
The Napa Quake Mosaic project manager and lead artist is Kristina Young. In September of 2014, just after the dust from the 6.0 earthquake had settled, Young began collecting broken items from Napa neighbors. Some residents delivered multiple bins of fragments and shards of former belongings. Young says, “These objects were important to people’s lives; they couldn’t keep them, but they couldn’t throw them away either.”
Since that time, Young has worked tirelessly to coordinate the donations; sorting and assembly of the 14 feet by 20 feet mosaic mural, which will be installed on a disused rail car donated by the Napa Valley Wine Train. Once completed, the Quake Mosaic will become part of RAD Napa (the Rail Arts District) on Soscol Avenue below Vallejo Street.
Sections of the mural were made by many hands, through studio workshops with groups like Nimbus Arts, Teens Connect, New Technology High School, Arts Council Napa Valley, Mentis and over 1,000 individual volunteers. Now the 406 sections must be mounted and grouted, then attached to the rail car. The site must be cleaned and landscaped to create a space along Napa’s Vine Trail for visitors to stop and enjoy the project. Young needs to raise $15,000 to cover installation and landscaping costs.
“The idea of the mosaic is that, after it’s completed, you can go and sit in reflection,” Young says. “You can find your object that you contributed or section you made and think about what home means and what we can do to connect with our community.” The mosaic also contains items recovered from the 2017 North Bay wildfires to extend the healing potential of this important project. “We all live with the threat and reminders of natural disaster. I hope this project will continue to help people who experience this kind of trauma.”
As the fiscal sponsor, Nimbus Arts will receive 10% of every donation to support their work in building community through the arts.
For more information, visit napaquakemosaic.com. To contribute to the completion of the Napa Quake Mosaic, donors can give tax-deductible gifts online at gofundme.com/the-napa-quake-mosaic.