The Archive of the Mendocino Heritage Artists

WILLIAM ZACHA

Cast bronze portrait head of Bill Zacha by Miriam Rice (1970). Mendocino Art Center. Photo: CGBlick — **Bill Zacha, co-founder of the Mendocino Art Center. Cast bronze portrait head by Miriam Rice (1970). Mendocino Art Center. Photo: CG Blick**

For 50 years Bill Zacha’s Bay Window Gallery presented the best work of Mendocino’s most gifted artists. Neighbors and visitors alike stopped by to enjoy an espresso with Bill, or glass of Mendocino County wine, see new artwork and listen to Bill’s marvelous stories.

Bill and Jennie Zacha, co-founders of the Mendocino Art Center, are gone, and Zacha’s Bay Window Gallery has closed, but the Mendocino Art Center testifies to the Zachas’ creativity, integrity, and vision.

The Archive of the Mendocino Heritage Artists continues the Bill Zacha tradition of sharing art and stories.

In addition to the Zachas, the Archive celebrates five other Mendocino Heritage Artists: Hilda Pertha, Dorr Bothwell, Fran Moyer, and Charles Marchant Stevenson, who came to teach at Bill and Jennie Zacha’s new Art Center, and stayed to make Mendocino their home, and Toshi Yoshida, who came to teach at the Art Center and then went back to Japan to create the Bunka, a center for art and culture in the tiny historic town of Miasa (present-day Miasa-Omichi), now Mendocino’s Sister City.

Miasa Sister City (1980). Mendocino's Sister City. Serigraph by William Zacha. WZ198002* — Miasa Sister City. Serigraph of Toshi Yoshida’s Miasa Bunka by William Zacha (1980). .

Miasa-Mendocino Peace Plaque on the Mendocino Headlands

Visit the Miasa-Mendocino Sister City Peace Plaque in Mendocino Headlands State Park, on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is a well-loved, favorite place for solitary meditation, and gatherings for peace and ocean protection.

For over forty years Zacha’s Bay Window Gallery represented the very best of Mendocino art. Its spirit continues here, in the Archive of the Mendocino Heritage Artists.

**Old Timer (1971). View of Mendocino from the south. Serigraph by Bill Zacha. WZ197104**

Dorr Bothwell used to say that everyone who comes to Mendocino has a story. She asked, “And how did YOU come to Mendocino?” We offer stories of Bill and Jenny, of Dorr, of the other Mendocino Heritage Artists and of their friends. As you explore here, you have come to Mendocino too.

Mendocino Heritage Artists
Zacha’s Bay Window Gallery
Mendocino Art Center
Divine Inspiration, Creative Genius. A Whim.
The Legacy of William Zacha