The 100 Best Art Towns in America: A Guide to Galleries, Museums, Festivals, Lodging and Dining, Fourth Edition [Paperback]

John Villani (Author)

Book Description

Series: 100 Best Art Towns in America | Publication Date: April 19, 2005

Discover creative communities, fresh air, and ideal getaways.

Whether you're looking for a great place to buy a painting on a weekend road trip or an inspiring and beautiful community in which to start a new life, The 100 Best Art Towns in America puts you on the right track. New Mexico author John Villani details all you need to know—from a town's lifestyle to interesting places to dine and must-do art festivals—written from the perspective of the nation's top arts travel writer. The communities profiled in this fourth edition of The 100 Best Art Towns in America range in size from under 1,000 to nearly 100,000 in population, but all have one thing in common: a strong sense of support for the visual arts, performing arts, and music. These communities are at the vanguard of an important national trend that's leading to the revitalization of smaller communities through arts-driven economic development. Essentials include:

• Visual arts venues
• Performing arts & events
• Wining & dining
• Accommodations
• Population

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Villani has reported on contemporary arts and creative communities for two decades. The author of Art Towns California and The 100 Best Art Towns in America, Villani lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: Countryman Press; Fourth Edition edition (April 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881506419
• ISBN-13: 978-0881506419
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Villani writes about creative communities and creativity-driven individuals. His work has appeared in Art in America, Vanity Fair, The Christian Science Monitor, Art News, Urban Land, Southern Living, U.S. News & World Report, Native Peoples, Sunset, Country Home, Southern Accents, and Southwest Art.

He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and has held art sector positions such as visual arts critic of the Arizona Republic daily newspaper, and the Communications Director of the Institute of American Indian Arts, an accredited tribal college and museum of Native American art.

He's author of 'The 100 Best Art Towns in America', released in 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2005, with an updated 5th edition in 2009. Published by The Countryman Press, a division of WW Norton, this national guidebook examines small to mid-sized communities where the arts play powerful cultural, economic and development roles.

His newest book, 'Art Towns / California' is an in-depth look at 27 communities from Mount Shasta to La Jolla where artists and arts organizations have exerted profound impacts such as reshaping local economies, revitalizing small town downtowns, and improving communities' quality of life.

In researching his books he observes the successful strategies of arts organizations, educational institutions, nonprofit entities and creative entrepreneurs in establishing arts districts, rehabilitating historic buildings, building tourism, and reenergizing downtowns.

These smart and collaborative efforts are fast-tracking new ways of thinking about the arts' far-reaching potentials'including the transformations redefining communities as America's Best Art Towns.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Primus Inter Pares of Guidebooks, July 16, 2005

By 

Paul S. Soderberg "novelist and art writer" (Scottsdale AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The 100 Best Art Towns in America: A Guide to Galleries, Museums, Festivals, Lodging and Dining, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

As a lifelong world traveler (106 countries visited, and all 50 States), I consider myself a connoisseur of guidebooks in various languages, and the fourth edition of John Villani's "The 100 Best Art Towns in America" is one of the finest I've ever seen in the English language. Where others are mere compendiums that in essence are glorified phone books, Mr. Villani's is more in the nature of an artwork, for he has deftly sketched 100 communities in a way that reveals each one's soul. (Yes, communities do have "souls," and those guidebooks that do not recognize this fact are wastes of paper, no matter how fancy they've been produced.) A town's soul is manifested throughout it--in its restaurants, its hotels, its public spaces, its historic sites and annual festivals, all of which Mr. Villani covers very nicely in this edition; but the single clearest sign of any community's soul is its art scene, the realm and arena of its total creative force. Some cities, with sad souls, have high crime rates, but the best cities have high art rates, and John Villani has given us a delightfully usable work of art masquerading as a book that identifies the best 100 of those cities and towns. My sole complaint would be that he didn't pick America's best 200 art towns, or 300! At any rate, for tourists or visitors certainly, and for city planners and promoters who want to find the secret to being a successful art town, and definitely for any and all art-lovers, John Villani's "The 100 Best Art Towns in America" is THE best guidebook you can find.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sophisticated, Easy-to-Use Guide to Art Towns !!!, July 14, 2005

By 

F. Hanafin Elliott - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The 100 Best Art Towns in America: A Guide to Galleries, Museums, Festivals, Lodging and Dining, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

When I travel, I usually need to spend a lot of time reading scores of newspapers, Chamber of Commerce information, and flyers, in order to figure out the highlights and personality of each area. Thanks to "The 100 Best Art Towns in America", the author has distilled this information into an easy-to-read, informative format, which cuts through the advertising and special interest promotional activities, allowing me to experience a more sophisticated vacation.

The book also saves me from wasting time in overly-commercial towns that are usually promoted in most other travel guides. I am a resident of one such overly-commercial town, Sedona, AZ, and am delighted to see that the author has NOT included that town, and therefore, not sold-out to its national efforts to be included in all lists of "Art Towns". This book will steer you clear of timeshare and tommyhawk towns!

Congratulations to John Villani for his helpful guidebook.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars These Towns Offer Affordable Living?, January 22, 2007

By 

3DForms (Glacier, Montana, United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The 100 Best Art Towns in America: A Guide to Galleries, Museums, Festivals, Lodging and Dining, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

Subtitled "Discover Creative Communities, Fresh Air, and Affordable living". The author obviously hasn't lived in these communities. Sedona, Nantucket, Carmel CA, Santa Cruz, Martha's Vineyard, Telluride, Key West, Vail, Sun Valley, Santa Fe and Deer Isle? Is he serious? Generally, the more unaffordable the town, the more gallery space there is. The author is most likely not used to living as an artist does.