The del-100 Best Small Art Towns in America: Discover Creative Communities, Fresh Air, and Affordable Living

This is a concise reference tool for finding communities to visit or move to.Three years ago I launched a search for a new home town. Big city life no longer appealed. I used every resource I could find and then hit the road and visited about two dozen towns over two years. Many factors and many data points refined the search, and this book was a useful tool. The town I decided to live in was very much as described, and many of the other towns that I visited were also as described in this book. If you are searching, use multiple resources as a sort of check and balance, but make this one of them.Happy in the Rockies

Compiled and written by John Villani, The 100 Best Small Art Towns In America: Discover Creative Communities, Fresh Air, And Affordable Living is a refreshing travel guide for the art enthusiast who is on the go, or even looking for a new place to settle down. Listing at least one small town that has art talk and talent in each American state, The 100 Best Small Art Towns In America offers a brief summary of the lifestyle in the town, and the special attractions it has to offer for art enthusiasts. Also including some of Canada's best, The 100 Best Small Art Towns In America is an enjoyable and highly recommended travel guide, especially for art connoisseurs looking to enjoy their vacation away from the big city.

Enjoyed the layout of the book - with listings of galleries, NPR station, bookstores etc. Am planning on visiting Maui in November and noted the Hawaii listing. Next week will be in N. Carolina - for sure will visit Blowing Rock and Ashville.

By Georganne Beck-Wilson Columnist for the Little Rock Free Press, Little Rock, Ar and resident of Hot Springs. So you've grown tired of the rat-race of city life, the noise, hustle and bustle, high cost of living and just too darn many people. You think you might like to move to a smaller town but - God forbid - what would you do without the theatre, good restaraunts and of course, art galleries? John Villani can solve that problem for you. The author of The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America-Discover Creative Communities, Fresh Air and Affordable Living (John Muir Publications, $16.95) has done the footwork, so-to-speak, and can guide you in helping to find that perfect place to live or maybe just a special weekend getaway. In the completely revised third edition, this handy guide can help you find the best art town to visit that is near you - and what makes it so special; discover why small towns are perfect places to buy high-quality art at a price you can live with; and, what to see and do if you are trying to cram a trip into a few days. There are interviews with gallery owners who discuss why their town is the best place to be and what brought them there. The book provides essentials such as population, art events, art spaces, hangouts, bookstores, public radio stations and addresses for the chamber of commerce in each town. This new addition has completely new and updated facts on communities making repeat appearances, and for the first time, includes profiles of local artists. Hot Springs has bragging rights on this section. Out of only seven profiles, Hot Springs has not only one, but two, focusing on writer and painter Carole Katchen and Jeanie Linders, Executive Producer of the Hot Springs Street Painting Festival. These indepth looks at each artist provide information like what kind of media they work with, artistic accomplishments and what brought them to the town they now call home. For Katchen, whose achievements include writing Hollywood screenplays and 16 books, it was the stable and supportive arts community that influenced her to move to the Spa City. That and the fact that for what she was paying for car insurance in Los Angeles she could be making payments on a new house! From Baie St. Paul in Canada, to Homer, Alaska to Bellingham, Wash., to Key West, Villani, an author from Santa Fe, N.M., covers the United States from tip to tip. A travel and arts writer for numerous national publications, Villani has his own travel column in the "Sante Fe New Mexican" and covers Santa Fe's arts scene for the "Albuquerque Journal." So whether you're looking for a "great place to live or a new place to visit," this is the book for you.

A handy travel companion for those wanting to say so long to the big city. If you're looking for a slice of small town America this is it. After reading this book, I packed my bags and hit the road! I still use this book for my road trips