The City of Napa, California, is most known for its vineyards and wine tasting, but Mayor Techel is helping Napa become a destination for cultural arts. With the Rail Arts District, BottleRock music festival, and the Napa Art Walk, Napa continues to be enriched and enhanced by incorporating the arts in its community fabric.

Napa’s newest development is the creation of the Napa Lighted Art Festival, which is held annually in January, the city’s slowest tourism month. This is a nine-day free festival where the community’s iconic architecture become the paintings in this unique lighted art walk. Original artwork created by local and international artists are installed at approximately 15 locations in Downtown Napa. Supporting the innovative techniques using light and light technologies as a growing art medium, the Napa Lighted Art Festival is a celebration of creative arts, technology, and light.

In 2019, approximately 35,000 people attended the Napa Lighted Art Festival with approximately 40 percent from outside Napa County. The financial funding for the event was formed by partnering with the Tourism Improvement District, Property Business Improvement District, private property owners, as well as individual and corporate sponsors. In 2019, the City of Napa raised over $225,000 for the festival which accounted for 80 percent of all revenue and reduced the burden on the city’s general fund to support free cultural events. The economic impact to the city was estimated at $1.8 million.

Mayor Techel is a trail blazer by supporting this innovative program that has helped brighten the darkest days in Napa. She champions the philosophy that public art programs can provide a multitude of benefits to a community. 

Under the direction of the Mayor, city staff also developed a local community engagement component for the festival, which included partnering with the Napa Valley United School District. During this past year, 30 students in the digital design lab at New Tech High School created one of the installations downtown. These students worked together and showcased their artwork next to other highly acclaimed international and regional artists.