Customer Reviews

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

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

When I first bought John Villani's book, my wife said, "How cool is this...a vacation planner for the art-minded!"

That's exactly what it is: a summary of what there is to see and do in 100 wonderful arts communities across the US and Canada. The author has gathered information about art galleries, art festivals, restaurants, musical events, and live theater to produce a unique compendium, distilling the essence of each town's character. To guide the reader to the best, Villani ranks the top 10 towns of under 30,000 population, along with the top 10 larger towns of 30,000 to 100,000.

Any summary of so many towns must of course must leave some things out. Local partisans may may miss seeing a favorite restaurant listed in this book, or a theater, or a well-known gallery. Others, with equal home-town loyalty, may dispute Villani's rankings.

But this is all beside the point: this book is a splendid guide for visitors, providing enough information to plan a trip or sample a new art venue. Travelers will discover their own delights and favorite places in each of these fine art towns. Villani's book will reward the adventurous with a taste of rural America unlike any other.

I bought this edition because I so much enjoyed it's predecessor. I can not tell you how many trips I planned around the information found in the former guide and was anxious for this updated release. Unfortunately, the author decided to terminate the system to rate the towns. This was one aspect of the prior edition that I loved - why should I research these towns when it could be done for me! I had no problem visiting town #89 because I new what to expect in relation to the other locations. Many trips were planned going from town #89 to town #45 then finishing at a top #10. My anticipation building as each town was visited - although never being disappointed. Now all the towns are a jumble not giving me an idea of which are worthwhile. I also miss the easy to read town description and specific listings at the end of each selection: bookstores / galleries not to miss / public radio channels and food markets. I am sure this information is still noted, but now I have to look for it while before it was separately listed. I have already decided after spending just an hour with this book to donate it to my local library. Good thing I didn't throw away my 3rd edition.

This lively guide gives a fine sense of the texture of art locales all over America. As an ardent cultural traveler, I plan to take it with me on the road for future trips. His write-ups of the places he has savored ring true and I look forward using it as a helpful guide to new destinations I plan to visit. Many are locales I had not thought of, but are now on my list. So many guidebooks present the same-old, same-old. It's nice to find one with some character. Happy trails!

I was expecting to see 100 art towns ranked 1-100 with some rationale for the ranking. This book is just a pile of essays about towns with no meaningful way to compare all of them (aside from geographically -- there is a map that depicts all of them.)

The town rankings are split between towns under 30K population and towns 30K to 100K population. (Why?)

Only the top 10 towns in each of these two group are ranked. (Why?)

So, here is what you get:

- a top 10 ranking of <30K population towns;
- a top 10 ranking of 30K-100K population towns; but
- no comparison between <30K towns and 30K-100K towns; and
- no top-to-bottom comparison of all 100 towns.

To get a feel for the book, consider this gem: The author ranks Naples, FL as the #1 Arts Town Under 30,000 population. Fine. How does he back this up? As evidence he points out that the P.F. Chang's in Naples is one of the "Essentials" i.e. one of the top 3 Wine & Dine places that you must see.

Look -- If the author wants to put forward P.F. Chang's as an example of artistic/cultural excellence in Naples, as one of the reasons to rank Naples #1, then I call BS.

I disagree with the woman from Eureka Springs on several issues. Number one, I am amazed that anyone can put together such a comprehensive book. A lot of research must go into compiling all that data.

If I were going to use the book to plan my trips to specfic events I would call a visitor's bureau ahead of time to inform myself futher (so that I dont' miss a festival if it's erroneously printed...) And I would also EXPECT to pay $100-$150 for a night at a B&B in a resort town of Eurekea Springs' size. Even rooms at the chain hotels go for almost $100 there. And I haven't been there in years. Heck, in swankier areas I'd expect to pay $300 at a B&B the way things are going today.
As to the omission of the brewery in Kansas City...I believe it was metioned in a previous edition of the book...this is after all a series of books.

I'll say it again: I think there is an amazing wealth of information in this book--there were events listed in a town an hour from where I live that I'd never heard of!!! It's not that I have my head in the sand so much as this particular town has such a wealth of arts activites that I simply wasn't aware of some of them...I think that's got to be the difficulty the author and the publisher face: so much info, so little space. It's meant to be an overview, not a gospel. The author covers so many places that only a few pages are devoted to each one--I'm just glad to know about these towns that I didnt' know about before. Neat idea for a book.

I must confess - I am basing this review on towns I have lived in or visited that are listed in the book. I live and work now in the wonderful town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and yes, we are a HUGE art town, as well as historic and outdoorsy, and all the other pieces that make us a great vacation destination.

In reading the chapter on our town, I am wondering how little, if any time the author spent here? The accomodations that are mentioned, one quoted as affordable rooms, is actually over $150 per night - things have obviously changed since the author visitied. Blues Festival is not Memorial weekend - it is the first weekend in June. Which again tells me that the 4th edition was sadly not fact checked.

No mention is made of our 4 year old Eureka Springs School of the Arts, where 39 classes are listed on this summers schedule. Isn't this book about art in Art Towns?

What is inaccurately mentioned is the "Victorian residences built in the early 1900"s." Our large number of Victorian residences were built in the Victorian Era - 1880's. I know this is only a 20 year difference, but the architecture changed dramatically during that time. Another inaccuracy is the "several of the town's historic spa hotels are still standing" - well, only one is standing. The others spa hotels burned long ago. Maybe he was thinking the other historic hotels here were also spas. They weren't, and a quick visit to the historic museum would tell you that - or just talk with a couple locals.

Also, I know of no artists who drive out to Beaver Lake to "crack open a cold beer" and fish at the "end of a long, productive day in the studio." Great story telling - but come on. We have several small lakes, close to town, where maybe a person who is an artist fishes - but most of the artists I know do other things. The author just needed to ask some of them.

When I started glancing at the other towns mentioned, and ones that were left off the list, I am less than inclined to visit any other place listed - because the information is not correct. Or I assume it would be less than accurate based on the towns I already know. For example, you can't mention Lawrence, Kansas without mentioning Free State Brewery (also a restaurant), and to suggest the Salty Iquana, which is a decent place to eat, it is also a chain restaurant. As a reader, I want suggestions that are creative and, forgive me, but "artsy," since I picked up the book hoping for insite on art.

Yes, my town is an art town, and we always love getting recognized for it. I am amazed by the number of artisits - over 80 listed as selling/showing artists alone on eurekaspirngsartists.com (in a town of 2200, mind you). And galleries galore. I am just asking that books be more... accurate. So when I head out on vacation I can be sure I'm getting interesting information that is true, not just something that sounded good in the editing room, and if published, might make money.

I would like to think that the chapters written on other towns is solid information, but I have my doubts, so I cannot recommend that anyone use it as a guide. (a note to the publisher - I would have bought several of these for gifts for my bed and breakfast friends - they love to have books that mention our great town - but, in light of what I mention above, I will not be. I checked this one out from our awesome and sweet little Carnagie library - again, not mentioned by the author : )

As a resident of one of the LAST of these towns to actually remain (somewhat) affordable (and those days are numbered, I fear), I'd like to thank both author and publisher for doing their part to run creative people out of the increasingly expensive towns that they worked - through long, difficult years - to create. There's nothing like loving a place to death. We all owe you a real pat on the back.

-David Alston