Up the steep flight of stone steps to the Healdsburg Museum’s double-door entrance is a pathway to possibilities—the promise of old worlds made new. Starting last Saturday, that ascent leads to a magical gateway into Healdsburg itself, past and present, with a new multi-media show that brings history to life.
Appropriately, it starts with the Russian River. The recently installed projector system throws a montage onto a 19-foot-wide screen—videos of the river’s slow meander through cottonwoods, bay trees, Douglas firs and oaks. Herons fly across the river, and a splashing takes place in the shadows from an unknown creature. An otter? A salmon? A summer vacationer?
Much of the video is a boat’s-eye view of the Russian River, created by Hugh Livingston as part of the “Your River, Downtown” project he and Linus Lancaster have been working on for two years (and will continue to work on until it’s finished)…