Sonoma artists’ collective turns 40, founder LaHaye passes away

Frank LaHaye, co-founder of the LaHaye Art Centre in Sonoma, died at his home in Aptos on Sunday, April 21, surrounded by family and friends. He was 90.

He left behind the legacy of his public art center on East Napa Street, carved from the bones of the metal foundry his father, Frank Sr., established at that location in 1937. When the foundry was relocated to southern California in 1976, LaHaye and his wife Sally determined to redevelop the site.

This year, the center celebrates its 40th anniversary. The building is home to Café LaHaye, a funky warren of artists' studios, the Arts Guild gallery, the Alley Gallery, and a two-bedroom apartment attached to a 'green roof.'

'He was an engineer, but he was exposed to a lot of art as a kid,' said LeHaye's daughter, Laura Bilson of Chicago. 'He wanted to restore the building for the economical use of artists.'

'He was a brilliant guy, and had a real interest in the arts,' said metal sculptor Jim Callahan, who lives upstairs in the building's apartment and leases studio space below. 'The agreement was that everything here should be art related in some way. Even the restaurant was originally called 'A Place for Food and Art.''

Born in San Francisco in 1929, LaHaye spent summers in Sonoma until 1937, when he and his family moved to the Valley full time. An award-winning scholar and star athlete at Sonoma Valley High School ('47), LaHaye went on to earn a bachelor's degree in metallurgic engineering from Stanford University ('54). After college, he went to work for McCormick Selph, inventing parts still widely used in the aerospace industry. According to a statement issued by his family, LaHaye was an 'energetic businessman and entrepreneur who was the president or director of many companies, including several that he established.'

He was also an amateur artist and habitual dreamer.

In the early 1970s, Laura said, LaHaye collaborated with artist Robert Rauschenberg on 'Mud Muse,' a piece in which a large Plexiglas box was filled with bubbling clay drilled from a worksite owned by the Teledyne Corporation. 'The idea was to take products your company used and put it into an artwork,' Laura said. 'The mud bubbled to the sound of music. It was quite wild.'

'Frank was an early adopter his whole life,' said Callahan, whose partner, Kelli Anderson, was LaHaye's niece. When the roof of the art center began to fail, Callahan said, LaHaye sought out an unconventional solution. 'He could have upgraded to code and built a space that was functional but lacked personality. Instead he expanded the living space of the apartment upstairs with a green roof and a water catchment system, long before that kind of thing was commonly done,' Callahan said.

That kind of creativity is foundational to the LaHaye Art Centre, a public space leased by private individuals who intentionally blend the line between creation and commerce. The door to the artists' studios is generally unlocked, and behind it, creatives are in steady pursuit of the muse. 'It's iconoclastic because the emphasis is on the production of art. These are working studios with artists practicing their craft. It doesn't speak the normal retail language,' Callahan said.

People wander in off the street and tend to hesitate in the narrow hall, thinking perhaps they are accidentally trespassing. 'They stop and go, wow. This is actually how art is made. Not in a sterile room with white walls,' Callahan said.

The 'pop-up' Alley Gallery in the back of the building is leased to individual artists as an exhibit space, and sometimes is 'pressed into service for parties, gatherings, and movies,' according to Callahan. On Thursday, May 2, it will be ground zero for Sonoma's monthly 'art walk,' sponsored by the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.

The event, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., will celebrate 40 years of the creative spirit that defines Sonoma, and pay homage to one of its generous underwriters.

'He had a great sense of humor and was a very gentle, kind man. He never raised his voice,' Laura said. 'He was generous beyond belief, too. He was always there to help people.'

Email Kate at kate.williams@sonomanews.com