The next appearance of Mill Valley native Melanie Victor-Smith's Artstream, her mobile art gallery inside her 1954 Airstream trailer, is showcasing the work of Lisa Anderson Shaffer, author and photographer of “These Three Things," on Saturday, March 9 at the Farmer's Market at Marin Country Mart in Larkspur Landing, 9am-2pm.

“These Three Things” is the result of Shaffer’s commitment to reconnect with her curiosity and imagination, something she felt had disappeared in the midst of disconcerting events in the world over the last couple years. Shaffer created a daily ritual for herself to reflect on three lessons she had learned that she knew to be true, despite what was going on in the world. She paired her writing with a practice of photographing three things she found in the natural environment, or heirloom tools and other sentimental keepsakes.  

Shaffer posted her writing and photography through social media and the result was deeply moving, as many others shared that they felt similarly and joined in the practice of posting their own “three things.”

Shaffer says her “These Three Things” fine art photography evoke a reflective mood of appreciation: appreciation of nature, of those who “make” with their hands, of nostalgia, of creativity. 

The 411: Mill Valley native Melanie Victor-Smith's Artstream, her mobile art gallery inside her 1954 Airstream trailer, is showcasing the work Lisa Anderson Shaffer, author and photographer of “These Three Things," on Saturday, March 9 at the Farmer's Market at Marin Country Mart in Larkspur Landing, 9am-2pm. MORE INFO.

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Holy Stoned Revival Tour with King Daniel and others comes to Mill Valley as part of a month-long tour.

For longtime Mill Valley resident Sammy "the Red Rocker" Hagar, it seems the proverbial apple hasn't fallen far from the musical tree.

Hagar's son Andrew's band S.o.S. is among the headliners of the Holy Stoned Revival concert tour throughout March, and the show comes to the Sweetwater Music Hall on Thursday, March 14. Singer-songwriter Andrew Hagar, who recently released a new song called "Triggerman," is joined in S.o.S. by “Shredmaster” Scott and Jonathan Lopez, and trio explores the sounds of what Hagar has dubbed, “gonzo garage folk" – a mix of folk, psychedelic garage rock, and grunge.

S.o.S. will be joined in the revue-style concert by a number of artists, including King Daniel and Caroline. 

Andrew Hagar says that his S.o.S. project was the natural next evolutionary step after plenty of healthy experimentation while on the road, as he spent the past three years performing across the U.S. with the likes of Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers, and Sammy Hagar & The Circle.
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Andrew Hagar is also going on tour in April and opening for Sammy & The Circle, Hagar's band that includes Michael Anthony, Jason Bonham and Vic Johnson. Sammy Hagar recently touted his son's upcoming tour:

The 411: Andrew Hagar's band S.o.S. is among the headliners of the Holy Stoned Revival concert tour throughout March, and the show comes to the Sweetwater Music Hall on Thursday, March 14. MORE INFO & TIX.

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There have been two constants at 17 Madrona Street over the past five years: change, and some of the tastiest food in downtown Mill Valley.

All signs point to a continuation of the latter.

Ged Robertson, the owner of the former Small Shed Flatbreads, which closed at 17 Madrona in November 2014, has returned to the space, partnering with chef Kyle Swain, who manned the historic wood burning Alan Scott brick oven at Todd Shoberg’s revered Molina restaurant, which succeeded Small Shed Flatbreads in the space in 2014. When Shoberg left in early 2016, Swain took over the kitchen at Molina, which closed there in 2017. In March 2018, the Moana Restaurant Group opened Pizza Molina, a casual, pizza-centric reincarnation its predecessors, and Robertson and Swain have now taken the helm of that restaurant, whose future name is TBD.

"We're excited to partner up together in the spot we’ve each enjoyed so much in the past," Robertson says. "A few weeks ago there was an opportunity to return to the address that houses the Alan Scott brick oven that was built for Small Shed 15 years ago, so without thinking twice, we took it."

"Kyle and I are getting close to opening Watershed in the MV Lumberyard this spring, so it was an easy decision to get a jump on working together as a kind of prelude to Watershed's opening – a bit of fun that we couldn’t pass up,” Robertson adds.

Robertson says the duo is in the midst of an overhaul of the menu, starting with changing sourcing to become more local and organic. Pizza Molina has added a half fire-roasted chicken to its artisanal pizza lineup, as well as mac and cheese, new salads and a new pizza crust that has been in the works for two years with a little assistance from Mick Sopko at Green Gulch and guidance from Petaluma's Central Milling on their flours.

“Thrilled to be back at 17 Madrona Street, where we are working to steer the restaurant back towards a well-sourced local menu and catering to our wonderful Mill Valley neighbors," Swain adds.

The 411: Pizza Molina is at 17 Madrona Street. MORE INFO.

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Jon Ballack grew up in the world of endurance sports. He swam for the University of Southern California. He's been racing in triathlons for many years, always on the hunt for the new workouts to mix into his offseason training regimen.

"Fitness has always been my thing," he says.

But two years ago, Ballack happened upon a workout that became much more than an effective way to sustain his fitness through the winter months. It became his latest business venture: Orange Theory Fitness in Mill Valley's Strawberry Village, which opened in December 2018 and has already exceeded Ballack's expectations.

"We're really trying to create more than just a workout here – we want to create and sustain community," Ballack says.

It all started when a friend recommended that Ballack go to an Orange Theory Fitness class in Palo Alto to see if he could mix it into his personal regimen. As he moved from station to station in the studio drenched in bright, vibrant orange – each one-hour class moves participants from the treadmill to a rowing machine to and strength training with weights and body-weight exercises – he was struck by its impact.

"You become comfortable being uncomfortable, and I began to feel really confident after doing it," says Ballack, who'd spent the bulk of his career to that point in medical device sales.

Ballack was so enamored with Orange Theory that he reached out to its corporate offices in Florida to inquire about opening a franchise, and did just that in Novato two years ago. Orange Theory now has more than 1,100 studios across the world, and Ballack has been thrilled at the results from his two locations. 

Founded by physiologist Ellen Latham in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2010, the Orange Theory workout centers on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in which participants work at an all-out effort for short intervals of time in order to shoot their heart rate up, followed by brief periods of active recovery. Studies have continuously shown that HIIT is an extremely efficient way to maximize calorie burn.

According to Orange Theory, participants can burn anywhere from 500 to 1,000 calories during the hour-long workout, and can continue burning calories for up to 36 hours after their workout. The program uses a Bluetooth-powered heart rate monitor called OTbeat to display participants’ heart rates anonymously on one of the many flat screens in the gym.

"The goal of the exercise is to experience the 'orange effect,' which occurs when a person’s heart rate is pumping at 84 percent or higher for a combination of 12 to 20 minutes during their entire workout," Ballack says.

There are essentially two major keys  to Orange Theory's success to date, Ballack says: first, the instructors bring a personalized approach to each participant, encouraging and cajoling each but only within their own personal fitness level; each workout is different, so while the goals and tenets stay the same, instructors switch up the routine every time, offering a unique challenge every time you show up.

"The surprising this for me initially was the realization that this is really a workout for everybody, not just a certain level of athlete, because the output and the results are all about maximizing each person's fitness level," Ballack says.

The 411: Class times at Orange Theory Fitness Mill Valley in Strawberry Village range from 4:45am to 8pm, depending on the day. MORE INFO.

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You can seemingly walk down any street in the Bay Area and bump into a web designer – those that create the look, layout and features of a website. But in a world where a website is an essential component to almost any business, how do you choose the right web designer?

How about someone who has been doing it since dial-up modems were a thing but who has adapted to endless change and continues to innovate and create bold, clean websites for an array of businesses and organizations?

That’s Minkin Design’s pitch.

Bob Minkin grew up in Brooklyn, NY and got his degree in graphic design in 1981 from the attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, where he met his eventual wife, Anne Minkin, a wine ambassador for the Boissett Collection who also plays a key role at Minkin Design. “I was just amazed when the web came into being. I immediately dove into it and quickly made the transition into electronic design. When I was a kid there was no such thing as “tech,” he says with a laugh.

As anyone who grew up in those early years of the fast-changing tech industry knew, websites couldn’t handle large file sizes or anything that would slow down the time it took for sites to load on dial-up modems.

But the speedier connections of the modern era have spiked demand for photo-heavy, clean designs, and Minkin’s got an ace in the hole when it comes to photography: himself. While he was developing his design business many years ago, he was also becoming a burgeoning concert photographer.

Like many teens of the late 1970s, Minkin was hooked by the explosion of music coming from the Bay Area: Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Janis Joplin, Santana, and of course, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Minkin turned that love into another profession. He’s regarded as one of the Bay Area’s preeminent music photographers, including serving as the house photographer for the Sweetwater Music Hall, and in 2018, he released “The Music Never Stopped,” his latest photography book, this one entirely focused on Marin County’s music scene.  

So when Mike Altman was set to open his Iron Springs Public House in San Rafael in 2018, he knew who he wanted to turn to for great photos to grace the home page of a new site that would send customers to the new place and the longstanding Iron Springs Pub in Fairfax. When he found out that his friend Minkin also designed great websites.

“Bob has always had great aesthetics with his photography – the way he photographs is just phenomenal,” Altman says. “But when he let me know that design was also part of his skill set, we ran with it. What we have now compared to what we had before is just night and day.”

The music that drew Minkin to the Bay Area remains a huge part of his life, and his two-pronged careers continue to thrive.
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“Our bread and butter has really become creating clean, uncluttered modern websites that are easy to navigate, and get the point to across to the end user,” he says. “The sites we create are totally owned by our clients. with no monthly service contracts, and since they’re created in Wordpress, the world standard web platform, our sites are relatively easy to update and we often train our clients to update their own site if they desire.”

The 411: Minkin Design created a wide variety of websites for all sorts of businesses and organizations. MORE INFO.

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How can Marin residents fulfill the promise of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and become a "fossil-free" county?

Leslie Alden, aide to Marin County Supervisor Kate Sears, and Drawdown: Marin's Senior Sustainability Coordinator Alex Porteshawver are set to appear at the Outdoor Art Club on Thursday, March 7 at 1pm to discuss the countywide effort to do just that. "It's about how we can work together to ensure that every individual, neighborhood, organization, business, and municipality in our county contributes to this important effort," she says.

Drawdown: Marin is a community-driven campaign to prepare for climate change impacts. The County and community will work to eliminate fossil fuel use and “drawdown” carbon emissions by designing and implementing solutions in 6 Focus Areas: Renewable Energy, Transportation, Buildings and Infrastructure, Local Food and Food Waste, Carbon Sequestration and Climate Resilient Communities.
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​The 411: County of Marin's Leslie Alden and Drawdown: Marin's Senior Sustainability Coordinator Alex Porteshawver speak about Drawdown: Marin on Thursday, March 7 at 1pm at the Outdoor Art Club, One West Blithedale. Free. Refreshments served.

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With reported anti-Semitic incidents and Anti-Muslim hate crimes in the U.S. on the upswing, according to the Anti-Defamation League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, respectively, there's no doubt that religious violence in American and throughout the world appears to be rising.

Community Church of Mill Valley leaders say now is the time to have conversations on finding the path toward religious tolerance. To that end, they are hosting a "Religious Tolerance in America: Ending the Violence of Religious Prejudice" panel discussion on Sunday, Feb. 24, 4-5:30pm.   

The panel includes Mark Noguchi, who was raised in and practices the teachings of Buddhism and has studied Christianity and Judaism; Matt Kahn, currently director of the American Jewish Committee in San Francisco, who has worked in interfaith organizations for much of his life; and Khadija Hansia, a Muslim, and the lead volunteer at the Islamic Center of Mill Valley. The church's minister, Stephen Hinerman, who has taught world religions at Las Positas College for a number of years, will moderate.

The 411: Community Church of Mill Valley hosts a "Religious Tolerance in America: Ending the Violence of Religious Prejudice" panel discussion on Sunday, Feb. 24, 4-5:30pm. Free. Refreshments will be served. MORE INFO.
Admission is free. Donations appreciated. Refreshments will be served.
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Playwright Ayad Akhtar, who won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Disgraced, is back at the Marin Theatre Company. 

Akhtar, whose Invisible Hand at MTC in 2016 drew rave reviews for weaving a financial lesson into the story of an American investment banker Nick Bright being kidnapped and held for ransom by a militant Islamist group in Pakistan, returns to MTC this month with a "passionate and probing new play" called The Who & The What.

The play, which opens Feb. 28 and runs through March 24,  follows brilliant Pakistani-American writer Zarina who is committed to finishing her debut novel about women and Islam, but discouraged by months of writer’s block. Her father, Afzal, tries to help the only way he knows how: by setting her up with a nice Muslim man. When Zarina meets Eli, a white convert who runs a local mosque, she finds balance: someone who both supports her work and pleases her father. Tensions erupt when Afzal and Zarina’s sister, Mahwish, read her finished manuscript. The implications of Zarina’s controversial claims about who the Prophet was, and what he has become, drive a wedge between the family members and force them all to confront the beliefs that define them.

MTC says the play, directed by Hana S. Sharif, is a "thrillingly fierce and heartfelt piece about identity, religion and the contradictions that make us who we are. Searingly fresh and fast-paced, The Who & The What celebrates the courage it takes to be yourself—even in the face of family and faith."

The 411: Playwright Ayad Akhtar returns to the Marin Theatre Company with The Who & The What, which runs Feb. 28-March 24. 397 Miller Ave. Tix $25-$70. MORE INFO.

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For Frantoio Ristorante Manager Matthew Calkins, the past several days have been a whirlwind, overwhelmed by a heartwarming show of support from customers of the longtime Tam Junction institution but even more saddened its imminent closure.

Frantoio is closing on Feb. 16, as staffers were informed this week that the restaurant's lease wasn't being continued after the latest in a series of sales of the Holiday Inn Express with which it shares a building at 152 Shoreline Highway. 

"It's extremely bittersweet," Calkins says. "The outpouring of support has been amazing. We're booked solid. We're doing what we can to put our best foot forward and go out with our heads held high. And then we'll try to figure out what's next, as so many of our employees have been here forever."

Calkins says some 34 employees will lose their jobs, including longtime wine director Susan Zappa and waiter Jamshid "Zorro" Abianeh, both of whom have been at the restaurant for 23 years, as well as bartender Jason James, who's been there for 17 years.

Frantoio (the Italian word for olive press) opened in August 1995 near the entrance to Tam Valley, touting the fact that it was the only restaurant in the United States with a state-of-the-art certified organic olive oil production facility on site. According to the San Francisco Examiner, it was quite the spectacle at the time: "Right now you can witness the sexiest culinary rite of passage in the Mediterranean world just across the Bay in Mill Valley," wrote Patricia Unterman. "At Frantoio, a bustling new restaurant on the order of Il Fornaio, locally harvested green and black olives are transformed into precious extra virgin oil by a state-of-the-art olive oil press located behind a window at one end of the dining room. At lunch you can observe the whole process and taste the results. Excitement at Frantoio during its first pressing season is running high. People from all over Northern California are bringing in olives they never bothered to harvest before – manzanillo, sevillano, picholine, mission – to see what kind of oil they will make."

Located with a huge, 6,000-square-foot space designed by star architect Cass Calder Smith, the restaurant has long been home to big events, regularly hosting star-studded galas as part of the Mill Valley Film Festival. For many of those years, chef Duilio Valenti ran the kitchen before he left to open his own restaurant in San Anselmo in 2014.

Over those many years, Calkins says Frantoio remained stable through a series of hotel ownership changes. In August 2012, a partnership between Argosy Real Estate Partners and Ultima Hospitality bought the 100-room hotel, then called Larkspur Hotel Mill Valley as Larkspur Hotels and Restaurants had bought the roughly 60,000-square-foot property in 2007 and embarking on a $3 million of the property. When Ultimate/Argosy bought the hotel in 2012, they rebranded it back to a Holiday Inn Express. They sold it in 2005 to Terrapin Investments & Management.

The 411: Frantoio Ristorante closes on Feb. 16. Stay tuned for the next chapter of that space.

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When Jeffrey Levin and Bonnie Powers opened their Poet and/the Bench space on Locust Ave. in late 2015, they did so as the next step of a personal journey as much as a business venture.

As the couple saw it, their "lifestyle store and jewelry atelier inspired by and celebrating beautifully crafted objects and the narrative behind each one" was an extension of themselves, a walk through the life they'd created together, a celebration of craftsmanship, creativity and a love for the arts.

This week, three-plus years and many fantastic events showcasing both Levin's custom jewelry and in-house collections as well as their curation of emerging and independent designers later, they're taking the next step in that journey by moving to downtown Mill Valley. They're opening in their new space at 11 Throckmorton Ave., in the space formerly occupied by Bossa Nova Clothing on the Throckmorton end of El Paseo Lane, with a soft launch at 12pm on Wednesday, Feb. 13. The couple will be serving up drinks and small bites to longtime customers and friends, old and new, from 5-8pm.

​"Mill Valley has welcomed us, made us feel part of the community and we’ve established a deep following here," Powers says. "We’ve lovingly called Locust Ave. a “discovery” street and embraced that. Customers told us time and again how much they loved finding our beautifully curated shop."

But while Poet and/the Bench came to anchor the Mill Valley Design District, the shop also had to deal with a series of storefronts around them going vacant during and after the 18-month Miller Avenue Streetscape project, followed by continued construction throughout 2018 by an alphabet's soup of utilities: MMWD, PG&E, you name it.

It was during that time that Powers and Levin hatched a new plan, one that sought a new challenge in the community they'd spent the past three years. "The time came to step it up," Powers says. "After more then 3 years building our brand, we really desired an area with high foot traffic to share the narrative of our emerging and independent designers with more people. We know we have something unique going on at Poet and/the Bench and it’s our continued intention to make this a place people always feel welcomed, where you can find gifts for self and others not otherwise readily around and share in interesting dialogue."

The new space "has amazing light, energy and flow," and "home goods, jewelry, scent, Poet and/the Bench exclusive atmosphere collection, found objects and art greet you" in the space.

"We're super excited to be part of the downtown Mill Valley community," she says.

The 411: Poet and/the Bench is at 11 Throckmorton Ave. MORE INFO.

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It's easy for many Mill Valley and Marin residents to forget that amidst the affluence and gorgeous natural beauty most often associated with the region, Marin is also home to San Quentin State Prison, California's oldest prison and home to the largest death row in the United States.

There has been no shortage of feature films and documentaries that have sought to explore San Quentin over the years. The latest, Invisible Bars delves into the impact that mass incarceration has on families and American society. Directed by John Beck (Worst in Show, The Monks of Vina), the film premieres on KQED on March 19 at 11pm and again on March 20 at 5am and March 21 at 10am.

Filmed entirely in the Bay Area over the past four years, the film takes viewers into Solano and San Quentin state prisons, meeting inmates trying desperately to rebuild relationships with their families. It also visits San Francisco courtrooms, state prisons, Mendocino summer camps, Tenderloin halfway houses, Oakland recording studios and churches to tell the story of children growing up with shame, parents riddled with guilt, all struggling to maintain any semblance of a relationship after a violent crime tore them apart.

Invisible Bars also shines a light on the San Rafael-based nonprofit Project Avary, which was founded by the Grateful Dead’s Rex Foundation to help nurture children growing up with incarcerated parents. Beck chronicles some of those children, including Jessica, who grew up as a Project Avary camper and now works as a counselor for the nonprofit, making weekly visits to see her father, Fred Stillman, who’s served 23 years for second-degree murder after a bar fight in Lake County left one dead and one severely injured.

In a flashback, the film revives Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart’s historic recording of a gospel concert in San Quentin state prison, featuring guards and inmates singing along together. It was the inspiration for the founding of Project Avary.

The 411: Bay Area filmmaker John Beck's Invisible Bars delves into the impact that mass incarceration has on families and American society. It premieres on KQED on March 19 at 11pm and again on March 20 at 5am and March 21 at 10am.

Here's the trailer:

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Mt. Tam United Methodist Church is bringing back a trio of popular events in 2019.

First up is "Grace Within," a small group gathering for moms. "Come and make some new friends, get to know one another and most importantly, get to know yourself more," says Tricia Wiig, the church's Children, Youth and Families Minister. "We'll focus on topics such as self-acceptance, dealing with stress and worry, practicing spirituality in the everyday, personal growth, friendships and discovering the gifts you bring to the world.

The free series begins Sunday, Feb. 27 and continues every other Wednesday through May 29. Each session is from 9:15am to 10:45am in the church's Connell Lounge. Childcare provided. RSVP to Wiig here or at 415-388-4456.

Next up is the church's "The Invitation" series, this year built around a “Our Global Human Family” theme. It kicks off March 10 at 9am in Room 1 on the Mt. Tam Church Campus, and runs each Sunday through March 31. The series explores the question of "who is my neighbor?" and is "based on stories from the Old and New Testaments, using Godly Play as a guide," Wiig says. "The Invitation Series is perfect for families with children and for people of all ages who are looking for a church service that’s “outside the box” or who are interested in an all-ages Sunday School prior to our regular 10:30 am worship." Light breakfast is provided and childcare is available for children under 4. RSVP to Wiig here.

Finally, the church has set its "Peace Camp" for kids for the week of June 24-28, 9am-3pm, with extended care (8:30-5:30). Ages 5-12. Cost is $197 per child and $25 for extended care per family, with a request of three hours of parent volunteer time. Campers will be immersed in peacemaking activities as experienced through story telling, spiritual practices, arts and crafts, cooperative outdoor games, yoga, music, and more.

"Our mission is to equip and empower children to be peacemakers in the world," Wiig says. "All faiths and spiritual traditions (or none) are welcome to learn, grow and play with us! Email triciawiig@gmail.com for questions or to request a registration form.

​The 411: Mt. Tam United Methodist Church is at 410 Sycamore Ave. MORE INFO.

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Is now the winter of our discontent?

Mill Valley residents have a forum on the horizon to express that discontent, or their wholehearted contentedness or something in between at an upcoming Parks & Recreation Commission hearing about the various uses of Old Mill Park, from the Curtain Theatre's annual series of performances and private events like weddings to one-off fundraisers and the usual gleeful shrieks of children, well, playing in the park.

The hearing is set for Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30pm in the Council chambers at City Hall (26 Corte Madera Avenue).

The debate appears to have kicked off with complaints lodged by Old Mill Park's neighbors, and an unsigned letter from one resident "seeking a substantial reduction in the number of events, activities, noise, disruption, etc.," according to the Marin Independent Journal. The letter specifically takes issue with the Curtain Theatre, the nonprofit organization that has been producing free theater in the park's redwood-laden amphitheater since 2000. “The duration of practices and performances needs to be addressed.”

Mill Valley Arts & Recreation Director Jenny Rogers says the commission is inviting community members to share their perspectives at a hearing "to review policies that govern the uses of Mill Valley parks."

Supporters of the Curtain Theatre, created a "Save the Curtain Theatre" online petition, collecting more than signatures to date. "The outpouring of support for the Curtain has been truly heart-warming," says Stephen Beecroft, a producer for the theater.

The unsigned letter also sought to limit Old Mill Park event rentals, which are currently limited to three rentals per day each at the amphitheater, the Redwood Grove and the group picnic area, and also suggests hiking rental rates for wedding ceremonies from $100 to $4,000.

Want to have your say? Send your comments to Parks & Recreation Commission, 26 Corte Madera Ave.
Mill Valley, CA 94941 or email at recreate@cityofmillvalley.org.

If you can't be in the room, watch the live stream on March 6 here.

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Nearly 110 years since it opened on Lovell Ave., the Mill Valley Public Library, now just up the road on Throckmorton Ave., is ushering in the kind of sustained financial health that most public libraries can only dream about.

The local institution has a library-loving Almonte couple, and a unique public-private partnership between the City of Mill Valley and the Mill Valley Library Foundation, to thank for it. The Mill Valley City Council this week voted unanimously to release $350,000 – a bit less than half of a $661,419 donation in 2016 from the Zimmer Family Living Trust – to MVLF, allowing the nonprofit foundation to begin paying out annual, perpetual grants to the library. The payouts kick in with $65,000 from the foundation in July.

“Funding from the Mill Valley Library Foundation and generous donors like John Zimmer allow the Library to offer more interesting and robust programming than would otherwise be possible,” City Librarian Anji Brenner said. “A consistent level of funding from the Foundation, along with the Friends of the Library’s annual donation, ensures that the Mill Valley Public Library can continue to innovate and offer programs our patrons appreciate and have come to expect.”

​The agreement between the city and foundation comes on the heels of nearly two years of discussions, said Mill Valley Mayor Stephanie Moulton-Peters. “The benefits will be enormous and lasting for our library and community. Endowing this vital resource ensures our library will remain the gem that it is for decades to come.”

In 2016, the City Council accepted the donation, which came several months after the death of John Zimmer, who lived in the Almonte neighborhood. Zimmer and his wife, Jan Willard Zimmer, were huge fans of local public libraries, and they left behind $3 million of their estate to be divided equally among the Mill Valley Library, the Larkspur Library and the Corte Madera branch of the Marin County Free Library. The foundation received the $350,000 in January and implemented an endowment spending policy that will begin the annual payout of grants. The endowment currently sits at approximately $2.3 million, according to foundation officials.

“Crossing over our endowment into a perpetual payout mode is a major milestone for our 36-year old Foundation,” Foundation Board Chair Andrew Shapiro said. “The City’s transfer of a part of the Zimmer family’s generous legacy to the Library, allowing us to accelerate this milestone, demonstrates a unique public-private partnership here in Mill Valley. From this solid base, we hope to further grow our endowment, and the vital sustainable support it provides our Library, in the years to come when government budgets might not be able to do so.”

The formalization of the foundation’s endowment will provide for annual grants to the Library in perpetuity, city officials said, "supporting a range of superb and popular programs, including After Hours, technology equipment and classes and programs for young children and teens, as well as select capital improvements. In 2018, the library offered more than 1,400 free programs attended by 44,000 adults, teens and children, according to library officials. In 2015, Library Journal magazine named the Mill Valley Public Library a finalist for Best Small Library in America, recognizing its creativity, excellence, breadth and range of free programming.

The Mill Valley Public Library has an annual budget of $2.6 million and is funded primarily through tax revenues. It's supported by two separate but complementary non-profit organizations: the Mill Valley Library Foundation and the Friends of the Mill Valley Library. The Friends, which largely support the library via its regular book sales both at the library and online and through its membership dues, and the Foundation contribute nearly $180,000 a year of private funding.

Founded in 1983, the Foundation continues its fundraising efforts, including community events such as its Storybook Ball and Beyond The Book Bash, in alternating years, and an annual year-end appeal, to further grow its endowment. This year, the foundation is also rolling out a legacy giving program to directly accept and manage gifts similar to the Zimmer bequest. As the Foundation’s endowment grows, the amount of annual grant support to the Library for its future needs will also grow, Shapiro said.

The Mill Valley Public Library opened at 52 Lovell Avenue in 1911, later moving to its current location at 352 Throckmorton Avenue in 1966. In 2011, to celebrate its centennial, the library produced and hosted a seemingly endless array of events, from First Fridays featuring notables like Daniel Ellsberg, who made the Pentagon Papers public in 1971, to the 100 Book Reading Challenge, in which adults committed to reading nearly two books a week for a year, as well as an Experience Backpack program, which provided “all the materials for a unique Mill Valley experience,” including things like maps, binoculars, a narrative guide and a digital camera.

The library serves a population of 15,000 with nearly 10,000 cardholders and a collection of nearly 320,000 items (print and digital). It welcomes 230,000 visitors per year and offers more than 1,400 free programs annually.

The 411: The Mill Valley Public Library is at 352 Throckmorton Avenue. MORE INFO.

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Through all its changes over the years, one fact has remained true of Mill Valley: the person sitting next to you at Equator or behind you in line at MV Market likely has one heck of a back story.

That is definitely true of longtime local fixture Shane Kennedy, one of the most well regarded soccer coaches in Marin and an artist whose career has spanned decades and myriad mediums, including exhibits in New York, Los Angeles, Memphis and San Francisco. Throughout February, Kennedy is showcasing his latest batch of collages, or art made by grouping found or unrelated objects, to the Mill Valley Chamber (85 Throckmorton, with a wine reception on Feb. 5 (5:30-7:30pm) as part of the Mill Valley Arts Commission's First Tuesday Artwalk.

Exactly how Kennedy creates his pieces is a window into Kennedy's character. “Working quickly and without a plan,” he says with a laugh in explaining his process. "I look for moments to start and stop and capture the unexpected.”

Kennedy has lived in Mill Valley for more than 30 years, having moved here from New York in 1988. The decade-plus prior to that cross-country relocation found Kennedy immersed in the “art furniture” movement in 1980s New York City, where his work under the name Furniture Club blended simple shapes with dyed concrete and steel and was the subject of a New York Times’ feature story in 1984.

But it was the decade prior that saw Kennedy perfecting a different art: preventing some of the world’s best soccer players from scoring goals on him. A state champion goalkeeper at Staples High School in Westport, Ct. in 1972, Kennedy went on to win a national championship as a team captain at NCAA Div. III Babson College in 1975. He set an NCAA career record for shutouts at Babson and was named Soccer America’s All-Collegiate Most Valuable Player.

In 1976, Kennedy was drafted by the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League whose roster then included Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia, and legendary American goalie Shep Messing. Despite his success as an artist, Kennedy is perhaps best known in the Bay Area as a go-to coach for aspiring goalkeepers. 

Whether it’s his own Dominate the Box teaching school, as head girls soccer coach at Tam High or as assistant men’s coach at Dominican University, Kennedy has had a hand in shaping some of the best young goalkeepers to come out of Marin for years.

When he relocated to the Bay Area, Kennedy scratched his artistic itch by turning to junkyards, dumpsters and flea markets, giving an array of found objects a second life through his creations, from welded masks and totems to constructions and collages. 

The 411: Shane Kennedy exhibits his artwork at the Mill Valley Chamber, 85 Throckmorton Avenue, throughout February. The First Tuesday Artwalk receptions are Tuesday, Feb. 5, 5:30-7:30pm. First Tuesday Artwalk Guide with venues.

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!