Museum Position Available
If you are interested in working in one of the most historic places on the Peninsula--here's your chance. The Saratoga Historical Foundation has an opening for a Museum Director for the Saratoga History Museum and historic McWilliams House. Please click on the job description to find out more.

Be Mine--Celebrating the Valentine
-- a new exhibit at the Saratoga History Museum will run February 5-28. The exhibit features turn of the century valentines from flowery, poetic to the musical present. Find out the story behind the symbols and customs of this romantic date. And maybe get a few tips on how to make your valentine's heart beat faster. Come on by to the Museum and receive a free valentine. The Museum is open from 1-4 PM Friday through Sunday and is located at 20450 Los Gatos-Saratoga Road in Saratoga.

Steinbeck Lecture on Feb 5
“Steinbeck's Wrath, 1936-1939: The Santa Clara Valley Years” by noted author and Steinbeck authority Susan Shillinglaw will be given on February 5 from 7-9 PM. The event will be held at the Foothill Club (20399 Park Place Saratoga CA 95070) and is a fundraiser for the Saratoga History Museum. Museum members will be charged $15 and nonmembers, $20. To purchase a ticket, call (408)255-1883—during the day. Coffee and dessert will be served.

Steinbeck grew up in Salinas, California, a culturally diverse place with a rich immigrant history. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place. Salinas, Monterey and parts of the San Joaquin Valley were the setting for many of his stories. The area is now sometimes referred to as "Steinbeck Country".

John Steinbeck and his wife, Carol Henning, lived in a small house in Los Gatos where Steinbeck completed writing two of his most popular novels: Of Mice and Men, and where he researched and wrote the Pulitzer-prize winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath. His wife typed the manuscript and gave it it’s name from the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The Grapes of Wrath, focuses on the migrant worker during the 30’s in Salinas. Many of Steinbeck's works are on required reading lists in American high schools.. A study by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature in the United States found that Of Mice and Men was one of the ten most frequently read books in public high schools.

Stories abound about Steinbeck, a larger than life person. One story was that he chilled beer for his friends on the bottom of his swimming pool. Another story said he loved to boat in the San Francisco Bay, catching fish to keep his grocery bill from exceeding his $25 per month budget. He once toyed with the idea of shooting quail but he told a reporter from the New York World Telegraph in 1937 that “every time I see one around the house, I dash in and get a gun and get it to my shoulder, and then I can’t shoot.” He was later so embarrassed by the comment that he swore it would be the last interview he ever held with a reporter…it wasn’t.

Many of Steinbeck's works are on required reading lists in American high schools.. A study by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature in the United States found that Of Mice and Men was one of the ten most frequently read books in public high schools. He wrote a total of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories. In 1962, Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature. In September 1964, Steinbeck was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Montalvo Then and Now
Jane Goldbach and Kelly Sicat will give a presentation on “Montalvo Then and Now” at the January 18 membership meeting. The meeting will take place at the Immanuel Lutheran Church on Saratoga Avenue with the potluck at 6:30, the presentation at 7:00 PM. The meeting is free and open to the public. Montalvo Arts Center was previously known as Villa Montalvo, a historic landmark built in 1912 by James Duval Phelan (1861-1930). Phelan, a passionate Californian who had been a three-term progressive mayor of San Francisco, went on to become California's first popularly-elected U.S. Senator. Villa Montalvo was Senator Phelan's favorite home and a center of artistic, political and social life in Northern California.

Since its conception the house on the hill, as well as its general surroundings, has been known as Villa Montalvo. Now, the historic Villa and property it resides on is Montalvo Arts Center. The name reflects the growth, new direction and other general changes the organization has made in the past few years, including the addition of the Sally and Don Lucas Residency Program in October 2004. Gone are the days that Montalvo is known only as a concert venue. New programming, exciting up-and-coming artists and more make Montalvo the only arts organization of its stature between San Francisco and Los Angeles, serving Silicon Valley and the extended San Francisco Bay Area as a center for creativity. Welcome to the new Montalvo.

Jane Goldbach has been a Montalvo volunteer and member of the Montalvo Service Group for more than 35 years. She is a former member of the Board of Trustees for Montalvo, and has been instrumental in the preservation and maintenance of the nearly century old historic Villa. Jane trains the corps of docent tour guides at Montalvo in order to help preserve the history, knowledge, and perpetuate Senator Phelan’s legacy.

Kelly Sicat is Director of Programs at Montalvo Arts Center. Kelly oversees the management of the artist residency program, arts programming, and the arts education initiatives.

Roots and Wings
The special exhibit at the California History Center (DeAnza College 21250 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino) is open to the public. The community garden exhibit covers 1972 through 1987 and includes an oral history interview of Betty Peck and Jackie Welch. The once 10-acre garden inspired young and old in the delights of digging in the dirt and growing your own vegetables. The exhibit will run through June 2010.