Montalvo Arts Center

Saratoga, California, United States

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Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California, is a historic Mediterranean Revival estate built between 1912 and 1914 by James Duval Phelan, a prominent businessman and U.S. Senator.

The estate features the grand Villa Montalvo, a 19-room mansion designed by architects William Curlett and his son Alex Curlett, and landscaped gardens created by John McLaren, famed for Golden Gate Park.

Phelan intended the villa to be maintained as a public park dedicated to the arts, literature, music, and architecture, a vision carried forward after his death when the estate was turned over to the Montalvo Association in 1953. Since 1939, Montalvo has been home to an artists-in-residence program that supports creative work across various disciplines, and it offers a range of public arts programming including festivals, exhibitions, and performances.

The grounds include sculptural gardens, arboretums, hiking trails through redwood-studded hills, and venues like the Lilian Fontaine Garden Theatre and Carriage House Theatre. The arts center continues to emphasize inclusivity, community engagement, and the celebration of diverse artistic expressions, embracing its historic legacy while fostering contemporary creativity for over a quarter million visitors each year.