Anna Pier sat down in Simon Blattner’s office to talk with Barbara Wells, who since 2013 works as bookkeeper, has been immersed in the nonprofit world, and has been trained in the art of curating exhibits.
First let’s talk about the upcoming exhibition, “Etched in Sonoma: A Living Legacy ,” that you and Simon Blattner are curating. This exhibition is deeply personal for Simon. It’s been a joy looking at prints with him, going down memory lane. I wish I could have seen his printing studio, Eastside Editions. Many of the prints in this show were printed there, on the Griffin. That’s the printer that Simon donated to the Community Center, which gave rise to the Print Studio at the Center. Many prints in the exhibit are from artists who are connected to the Print Studio. We are so grateful to Sonoma Community Center for hosting us as guest curators – again – at the Center.
What other exhibits have you curated with Simon? Most recently, in January, Craft in the Valley, also at the Community Center Gallery 212. We selected and then exhibited the work of 24 local artisans, works which reflected the enduring value of handmade craft and keeping these traditions alive. It was a huge success. Before that, in January 2024, Simon, Maki Aizawa and I curated a major exhibition at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Book Becoming Art. It featured contemporary, hand-crafted Japanese artist books, which Simon and Maki had selected in Japan, that showcased the artistry and innovative possibilities of bookmaking. That exhibit was sensational, and very popular. Through Simon, I’ve learned how to curate, and learned that I love doing it. It’s immensely satisfying.
Tell me about your childhood. I was born in Germany, near Frankfurt, to a German father and a Chinese mother, whose family had lived in Panama for several generations. My parents met in San Francisco, and were living in Germany till I was two-and-a-half. My parents returned to the Bay area, and wanted a rural home, like they had had, to raise me and my older sister.
They kept going north from San Francisco till they found a nice home with a garden they could afford to buy – in Cloverdale.
So that’s where you grew up? Yes, I lived there through high school. I graduated from Cloverdale High School with a class of about eighty students.
As a child, what did you want to be? I had no clue. So I think that’s why I ended up where I am, in a role where I have created my own career path. My parents both valued art and craft, and shared that with their children. That also helped shape not only my work ethic, but how I live my life. I would love for every child to have this opportunity, doing crafts – clay work, beading, then colored pencil drawing, watercolors. We had a garden and both were garden-to-table cooks.
Next steps? I went straight to Sonoma State University, where I majored in Global Studies. It was a brand-new major, akin to International Relations. It was interdisciplinary learning, including art, women’s studies, economics, political science, history. It was fantastic. I use the skills I learned all the time.
How did you end up in Sonoma? I met Brandon, and we moved to Sonoma together in 2008 for a work opportunity. My first job was at the Boys and Girls Club. I was development assistant, and I worked under and was mentored by Katie Holden. When I left, I started my own business as a bookkeeper, and then began work for Simon.
So the Boys and Girls Club was your start in the nonprofit world in Sonoma? Yes. Now I am involved with two nonprofits, Plein Air and Catalyst Fund.
Tell me more. I started helping with Plein Air in 2012, and got on the board in 2021. The Board itself runs the weeklong festival in September every year. Thirty artists, selected from about 60 applicants, arrive on a Monday, and they are free to paint all week. Sonoma’s Plein Air is one of the most popular, because we make very few requirements of the artists.
This year the Gala, which is our big fundraiser, is Friday, September 18 at Hanna Center. Every artist brings their “best in show”, and the artists vote among themselves on the Artists’ Choice Award. All those works are sold at silent auction that evening. The next day, Saturday, all the artists display and sell in the Plaza all the works they have painted that week. 4o percent of what each artist sells goes to the Plein Air Foundation to support art and creativity education in public schools and nonprofits in the Valley.
Every Board member is assigned a grantee, to be a supportive partner and build a longterm relationship with. Mary Clark Janis and I work with the Boys and Girls Club, Art Escape and Sonoma Community Center. I consider myself really lucky to have been raised the way I was, by parents who suppported arts and creativity and shared that with me.
And you also work with the Catalyst Fund? It was founded at the start of the pandemic by co-chairs Katherine Fulton and Simon Blattner. I was hired at first as Operations Administrator, and now I am Operations Director. The Fund’s mission is to address “urgent, emergent and chronic issues.” Catalyst Fund has matured into a sophisticated funder in the Valley. It’s really been an honor to work alongside such deeply empathetic, knowledgeable and motivated people.
Next steps for you? This summer we are going to Panama for a big reunion of my mother’s very large Chinese family.
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