In the first few days after the fires ignited throughout the North Bay and seemed to be spreading everywhere, Ambatalia owner Molly de Vries and her friend, designer Jess Brown, like many of us, found themselves overwhelmed with the desire to help but feeling lost as to exactly how to do so effectively.

The pair, along with friend Dana Weitzenberg of Lobstervine Web Design, came up with the idea of creating California Fire Help, a web pop-up shop featuring artwork and products donated by the artists and designers they know throughout Mill Valley and the North Bay, with 100 percent of proceeds beyond taxes and shipping going to the North Bay Fire Relief Fund. The trio raised more than $38,000 for fire victims.

Now, with fires ravaging communities of Malibu and Paradise and beyond, they're back at it. 

"So many artists and designers have jumped in and, honestly, with the website platform we can take as many as want to participate," de Vries says. "The outpouring of support from this community has been beautiful."

The 411: GO TO CALIFORNIA FIRE HELP. Learn more about each artist/designer.

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The Mill Valley Lumber Yard has increasingly become one of Mill Valley's premier destinations, with an ever-growing roster of tenants.

Owners Matt and Jan Mathews are seizing that momentum at the end of of 2018 by launching 'Enchanted Evenings,' a series of holiday shopping happy hour events designed as "a great way for folks to shop for the holidays and have fun at the same time!" Jan Mathews says.

The events, which promise to be "sparkling with lights and levity," are set for Thursday evenings, 5pm-7pm, starting Nov. 29 and running through Dec. 20, at the Lumber Yard, 129 Miller Avenue.

Flour Craft Bakery and the soon-to-open Watershed Restaurant will provide "delectable baked goods" and appetizers, respectively, while MVLY's host of retails tenants, including Ambatalia, Bloomingayles, The Edit, FarmHouseUrban, Makers Market, Spirited Marin and the newest tenant, Aviator Nation, will be open for business. Artists Victoria Mimiaga, Francis Whitnall and Guy Chambers will also have their MVLY studios open during these events.

The 411: The Mill Valley Lumber Yard's 'Enchanted Evenings,' a series of holiday shopping happy hour events, are set for Thursday evenings, 5pm-7pm, starting Nov. 29 and running through Dec. 20, at the Lumber Yard, 129 Miller Avenue. MORE INFO.

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"Shop Local. Shop Mill Valley."

We say, write and post these words on social media all the time. 

But what do they really mean? 

Here in Mill Valley, particularly among retailers, those words mean resisting the urge to use your local stores to comparison shop before doing the seemingly inevitable: heading to Amazon.com, finding the product you spotted in your favorite local shop and buying it with one-click, knowing it'll show up at your door within two days. It's magic – a completely friction-less transaction, right?

While the purchase may seem like the pillar of tech-driven efficiency, it has its costs. Store owners in town say they see it every day: a potential customer walks in the door, finds just the product they're looking for, hovers for a bit, whips out their phone and snaps a pic of the item and its price tag. Amazon.com (or its big box brethren), here we come.

Let's be clear: saving a few bucks is always important, but doing so runs the risk of losing some of what makes Mill Valley the truly special place we love. Local shop owners say that while the economy is doing well, competing on price with the likes of behemoth Amazon and the big box stores is nearly impossible, all while their fixed costs, particularly rent, utilities and the difficulty of hiring in a saturated employment market with skyrocketing home prices, continue to climb.

On top of that, the vast majority of businesses in Mill Valley are mom-and-pop shops. That means that the people who own it are likely your kid's baseball or soccer coach, the dad who donates burritos for the end of season party or the mom who organizes the car pool to school.

And here's one more for you: When you buy a product at a Mill Valley shop, you walk out the door with that product. Even Prime can't beat that! You also skip the massive amounts of packaging waste – seriously, does a pair of shoes for your toddler need to arrive in a box that could fit a 55-inch TV in it? – that comes with ordering products online.

This is not an admonishment. It's also not an all-or-nothing exercise. It's just a challenge. And we're here to help!

Know a local store that sells the product you want? Support them as often as possible. Not sure if anyone in Mill Valley carries the product you want? Lean on us – we can help be your Mill Valley shopping concierge! Email us at info@millvalley.org or call 415.388.9700 and we'll set you straight.

​If you need any more incentive, there's the City of Mill Valley's annual tradition of waiving metered parking for the time allowed during the holidays. From Friday, Nov. 23 to Sunday, Dec. 31, skip feeding the meter for allowable time. 

#SHOPMV! GO HERE FOR MORE DETAILS.

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Author, attorney and former Mill Valley Arts Commissioner Owen Prell is set to sit down for a discussion of his debut novel, Chance to Break at the Depot Bookstore & Cafe on Friday, Nov. 30 at 7pm. 

“Having lived for many years in Mill Valley – including spending countless hours with my son on the tennis courts of Boyle Park – it is very gratifying for me to read from my debut novel at the Depot Bookstore," Prell says.

Set during the opening four days of Wimbledon in 2010, when an otherwise ordinary men’s singles match seems incapable of ending, the novel follows the darkly comic travails of Trevor Davis, a former standout junior tennis player whose comfortable Bay Area life has unravelled in the wake of the 2008 subprime mortgage fiasco. The novel ventures from modern San Francisco and England back to the mid-1970s economic malaise that permeated Trevor’s high school years in Oxford and the dark days of occupied France that defined his parents’ youth. Chance to Break tells the story of a man’s courage in the face of past failure and present adversity, of trying not to succumb to defeat, even when victory seems lost.

“I’m often asked what my novel is about," Prell says. "I could say it’s about tennis. Or about overcoming adversity. But the truth is, like any reasonably ambitious novel, it’s about the crazy, wonderful, heartbreaking journey that we call life.”

Prell has written for both stage and screen, and his documentary film, Finding Nico, followed his quest to get to know his godfather, a disgraced former Hollywood B-movie actor who may or may not have lived with Marilyn Monroe.

The 411: Author, attorney and former Mill Valley Arts Commissioner Owen Prell is set to sit down for a discussion of his debut novel, Chance to Break at the Depot Bookstore & Cafe on Friday, Nov. 30 at 7pm. 87 Throckmorton Ave. Free. A discussion and book signing will follow the reading. MORE INFO.

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Studio 4 Art
In creating her Studio 4 Art spaces in Novato and Tam Junction, Kebby McInroy drew inspiration from within, watching the experiences of her two older children while they were at Tam Valley school and hoping they’d “experience authentic art making.” McInroy, who has a BA in painting from Sonoma State with an emphasis on child
psychology and early childhood education, sought to create a program that went deeper than the art itself. “Ultimately, our studio isn’t about creating artists, it’s about creating leaders. We want to empower young people to gain tools that will help them accomplish their goals throughout life,” she says. McInroy’s space within the aforementioned collective of businesses around Proof Lab is a hub of creativity for children ages 2-7. She also offers programs through MV Recreation’s enrichment program within the Mill Valley School District, as well as family workshops, drop-in studio time, “pARTies” and yearly camps for kids ages 3-12. studio4art.net

O’Hanlon Center for the Arts
Ann and Richard “Dick” O’Hanlon started this non-profit organization, initially called the Sight & Insight Art Center, as a space dedicated to the arts on their bucolic two-acre Cascade Canyon property in 1969. Nearly 50 years and the Vera Schultz Award for lasting contributions to the cultural life of Mill Valley later, facilitators and teachers continue to emphasize process over product, fellowship, and individual growth. Led by co-directors Kellan Christopher and Erma Murphy, O’Hanlon provides programs, studio space, exhibitions and experiences that honor individual creativity, develop artistic practice, and build community. The center also hosts monthly art shows across the full spectrum of mediums, as well as classes for both children and adults in the visual, literary, performing and meditative arts, from creative writing workshops and photography classes to its Art Film Friday series. ohanloncenter.org

Marin Conservatory of Dance
If longtime professional ballet dancer and Bay Area ballet instructor Melinda Neal ever needs a reminder of how far she and her family have come, she can look across her Miller Ave. studio as her daughter Leilani, a professional dancer and model in her own right, teaches classes at MCD. Neal gave birth to her daughter at the age of 15, and through determination, vision and unwavering family support, their story is one of unabashed success. In 2018, Neal opened her dance studio, offering classes for both kids and adults as well as private coaching and looking to fill a void for a solely classical ballet-focused conservatory in southern Marin. She did so after serving as the ballet director at Roco Dance’s studios in Tam Junction and Fairfax and doing plenty of private coaching sessions. “The idea of creating my own space – I just couldn’t get it out of my head,” she says. “So I made the leap. I feel like this is my calling.” marinconservatoryofdance.org

PAAM
In the nine years since longtime Mill Valley resident Annie Thistle launched Performing Arts Academy of Marin (PAAM) in her living room, the academy has grown by leaps and bounds, spanning more mediums, styles and specializations with each passing year. That growth has made the multi-faceted PAAM juggernaut into a vagabond of sorts, as it has moved from space at the Community Church to the Alto Plaza center to the space above the former Balboa Cafe and later to a 6,000-square-foot space at 60 Belvedere Drive just behind Strawberry Village. As PAAM’s student body and faculty continues to grow, so have Thistle’s ambitions. Thistle had been offering acro dance, an athletic style that combines classical dance technique with precision acrobatics, and in 2017, she opened Tumblespot, a 3,000-square-foot hub for kids ages 18 months to 10 years old, in response to demand for more of it. paamarts.com & tumblespot.co

WOW! Music Studios
For the past 13 years, Wow! Music Studios on Lomita Drive has drawn rave reviews for its less rigid take on musical education, mixing “school of rock” fun with an individualized approach. That focus, coupled with its founders’ infectious
enthusiasm and sense of humor – co-founder Tommy Toy loves to joke that when he met his future wife, Mill Valley native Emily Siskin-Toy on October 17, 1989, the day of the Loma Prieta earthquake, “the earth literally shook” – has made Wow! a staple for many parents wanting their kids to learn music in that environment. And now more adults are getting in on the act themselves. Toy says that while their numbers of students and teachers has never been higher, adults are seeking that same setting. “That’s always been a dream of ours,” he says. They’re always on the hunt for places for their students to perform live, from Sweetwater’s open mic night to Hopmonk Tavern to the annual MV Winterfest and even concerts in their own parking lot. wowmusicstudios.com

Singers Marin
For more than three decades, Jan Pedersen Schiff has established her own take on the “think globally, act locally” mantra. Her Singers Marin organization sends singers to perform everywhere from stages in Australia and Iceland to concert venues across the Bay Area and annually at the Mill Valley Winterfest. Pedersen Schiff, who grew up in a musical household, has helped choral voices of all ages reverberate around the world. After she moved to Marin in 1986, she felt motivated by a lifelong passion. “I just felt like there was a need for choral music here,” she says. She’s made it happen, from her first ensemble, the women’s chorus Wings of Song, to the Twinkling Starlets, ages 4-5 and her honors youth chorus, dubbed les ètoiles, the all-ages youth “stars” that have competed internationally, bringing home gold, silver, and bronze awards from stages around the world. “We’ll never turn down a voice that wants to sing,” she says. singersmarin.org

The Makery
Like any new venture, Jane Watson’s first year since the launch of her community handcrafting space in a gorgeous, brick-laden space on El Paseo Lane has been full of lessons. Watson’s learned how to further enrich the experience of the people who come in to learn an array of creative pursuits, from sewing and calligraphy to weaving, painting and floral arrangement. “It’s become very clear to me that delivering a wonderful class from a passionate teacher in a lovely environment with food and music is important,” she says. “But if people take time out of their busy lives to learn something new, they’re also seeking a moment to be mindful and intentional about how they’ve chosen to spend their time. They’re not just here to make a dreamcatcher.” The Makery has an extensive lineup of classes for adults, summer camps for kids and a new ArtBar that allows walk-ins for kids to create something “simple, fun and inexpensive” in less than 30 minutes. makerymillvalley.com

Happy Feet Dance School
Want evidence of how Happy Feet Dance School, which Cece Bechelli opened 40 years ago in the building that now contains Marin Theatre Company on Miller Avenue, has been able to teach myriad dance styles and routines to generation after generation of children over so many years? Just look into the dazzled, wide open eyes of the young children watching Happy Feet’s performances at Winterfest this year, or any number of their showcases around town. Now run by Bechelli and her daughter Caitlin, one of her three children, all of whom “basically grew up at Happy Feet,” the school is located in a large, bowling alley-shaped former auto repair garage on Montford Avenue right off of Miller. Its offerings span, jazz, tap, ballet across a wide range of ages. They held a recital in June to celebrate the 40-year milestone, with dancers of all ages performing, including a group performing everything from Mary Poppins to Michael Jackson. happyfeetmillvalley.com

​An important note: This is not meant to be a fully comprehensive list, for two reasons. First, there’s no shortage of businesses and organizations that offer classes and workshops, many that we’re not even aware of, or those that do so only occasionally.

Second, with plenty of businesses and organizations throughout Mill Valley that are boundless engines of local creativity, we’re highlighting some of our MV Chamber members. They help us keep the lights on, allowing us to focus our efforts on
supporting the more than 375 businesses, nonprofits and individuals in our community that rely on us for marketing and promotion, advocacy, education, beautification, leadership and much more. Let me know at jim@millvalley.org if you want to join us! We can always add you to the digital version of this Winter Guide.

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Wendy Xa and her team opened the new K-8 Terra Marin School and the Terra Mandarin Preschool, a Reggio Emilia-inspired Mandarin immersion preschool and transitional kindergarten, located within the former Ring Mountain Day School space on Lomita Drive in Mill Valley, on Sept. 5. 

In the months leading up to that opening, they created an “interaction-rich” K-8 curriculum that incorporates ideas from John Dewey, Howard Gardner, Edward Harkness and John Muir and helps them “know their gifts and empowers them to forge ahead with purpose.”

They’ve hired a cadre of teachers for both schools from around the Bay Area and, in the case of the Mandarin-immersion program, from around the world in places like Singapore. Xa and her administrators held rigorous, three-week training sessions as well as a 16-hour talk about social emotional development with a neuroscience foundation.

They’ve also changed the school’s moniker from Pacific Discovery School to Terra Marin School after "an exhaustive, deliberate and productive process" that "truly speaks to our vision and what we seek to provide for all of our students, staff and parents alike," Xa says, pointing to the name's Latin roots of "Earth" and "sea." Oh – and they squeezed a remodel of the Mill Valley School District building adjacent to Edna Maguire School.

“We have been extremely busy,” says Xa, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs and a mother of two who founded the Mandarin immersion Presidio Knolls School in San Francisco in 2008 as a preschool before expanding it to a K-8 program. “But it’s all because we want to build a world class institution in the heart of Mill Valley. And we’re on track to do it.”

Xa and her team continue to host exploration-themed open houses for children and their parents, and the next one is set for Sunday, Dec. 9 from 9am-10:30am at the school at 70 Lomita Drive. Attendees can expect a Constructive Creativity Program featuring art expression with soap stones and Mandarin calligraphy, paper lantern making, animal fun with bunnies and a jumpy house. They'll also provide tours and a presentation on the school's curriculum, and a workshop on "5 Ways To Strengthen Your Child's Brain."

The 411: Terra Marin School and the Terra Mandarin Preschool host an exploration day-themed open house on Sunday, Dec. 9 from 9am-10:30am at the school, 70 Lomita Drive. Free. Space is limited – RSVP here. MORE INFO.

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Whether it's the Iran nuclear agreement or the ongoing face off with North Korea, nuclear weapons are often at the center of some of the United States' most critical foreign policy debates.

On Thursday, Nov. 15 at 1pm, William J. Perry, the former United States Secretary of Defense and author of My Journey At The Nuclear Brink, will take the stage at the Outdoor Art Club for a talk about that very subject. Perry, who served under President Bill Clinton from 1994-1997 and was previously Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1993-1994, has had an illustrious career includes government, academia, private enterprise and diplomacy.

Perry has dedicated the bulk of his work in recent years towards educating the next generation on the dangers of nuclear weapons, and he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1997.

The 411: On Thursday, Nov. 15 at 1pm, William J. Perry, the former United States Secretary of Defense and author of My Journey At The Nuclear Brink, will take the stage at the Outdoor Art Club for a talk. One West Blithedale Avenue. Light refreshments will be served. ​Free. 

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When utility companies aren't digging up Locust Street on a seemingly weekly basis, the quaint side street off Miller Avenue has long been home to some of the most creative businesses in Mill Valley.

A few of them are getting together on Thursday, Nov. 15 for a Locust Ave. Fall Marketplace event. That includes Poet and/the Bench, Jeffrey Levin and Bonnie Powers' lifestyle store and jewelry atelier, which is hosting a trunk show for the latest collection from Küdd:krig, the Scandinavian-inspired blanket and pillow designer.

"Just in time for fall, you'll discover your new cozy layers for home," says Powers. "Join us for bites and beverages with Kalla McGuire while you snuggle up with these artfully inspired luxuries."

Kress Jack at Home, the always eclectic space across the street featuring Kress' interior design and color consulting business as well as a retail shop showcasing her eye for vintage housewares and accessories and her restoration of vintage furniture, is hosting a pop-up with several SoCal creators displaying their wares: Roam Vintage, Calle Del Mar and Ghost Dancer.

Kress' neighbor, Lily Kanter's innovative Boon Supply, has a pop-up of locals Collective Hearts, Amy Nordstrom and Brandilyn Bee Designs.

"Our vibe on Locust Ave will be in full gear! " says Powers.

The 411: On Thursday, November 15 from 6-9pm in their respective spaces on Locust, Avenue, Poet and/the Bench, Kress Jack at Home and Lily Kanter's innovative Boon Supply are hosting a Locust Ave Fall Marketplace event. Free.

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Mill Valley native Melanie Victor-Smith's Artstream, her new mobile art gallery inside her 1954 Airstream trailer, is showcasing the digital drawings of Brian Andrews Second Fridays Art Walk with Art Works Downtown this Friday, Nov. 9 from 5-8pm.

​Andrews' work, while created digitally, feels organic and expansive, says Victor-Smith. "For the first time we will show new crops of his drawings which allows the viewer to see the many layers of his topographical style."

"My intention is to create an immersive sensory experience: that perfect moment during a sunset where racing thoughts and quiet contemplation meet," he says. "A half open door of possibility, where all the questions and answers of our existence lie on the tip of your tongue."

Andrews says he's drawn to maps as a metaphor., because they "promise a reality that can be known. Some myths are stored in our language, but others are embedded in our model of the real, our map. My work asks the question: did the map create the territory or the territory the map? Is a sunset beautiful, or do we have a sense of beauty that evolved to fit the sky?"
​
The 411: Mill Valley native Melanie Victor-Smith's Artstream, her new mobile art gallery inside her 1954 Airstream trailer, is showcasing the digital drawings of Brian Andrews at Second Fridays Art Walk with Art Works Downtown this Friday, Nov. 9 from 5-8pm. 1337 Fourth Street, San Rafael. Free. MORE INFO.

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