Free BBQ to Celebrate 'Scherzo!' & New Park, Neighborhood in Healdsburg

The City of Healdsburg and the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation will co-host a community celebration on Saturday -- May 10 -- at 1 p.m. at Sonata, the first new subdivision in Healdsburg in many years.

The celebration will include remarks by Healdsburg officials and new residents of the subdivision, along with a free barbecue by the Healdsburg Fire Department Reserves.

Sonata, built by developer DR Horton, is a small home development of 37 homes on a new street that begins behind the Healdsburg Fire Department and extends north.

A new intersection at Healdsburg Avenue is with Marigold Way and features a small pocket park, a bus stop, and a new steel sculpture by Mark Stasz.

The art, installed by the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation, is the foundation's first installation along Healdsburg Avenue, after more than two dozen installations elsewhere in the community, along the Foss Creek Pathway, at Giorgi Park and at Healdsburg High School.

The new sculpture is called "Scherzo!" and is a playful reflection of the name of the subdivision. A scherzo is the whimsical third movement in a musical sonata, and can be translated from Italian to mean "playful" or "joking."

The piece, made of steel and stainless steel, is 9 feet tall and almost 5 feet wide.

It is installed in the new landscaped area in the pocket park. Sculptor Mark Stasz is a prolific artist in stone and metal, with more than 400 works of art in public and private collections across the country.

In addition to Scherzo! his work can be seen at Dovetail Collection Gallery in downtown Healdsburg.

The Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation, created by Al and Judy Voigt in 2005, has installed major works of art at schools and in cities all over Sonoma County, with many sculptures and art benches installed in Healdsburg.

A free tour of the artwork along the Foss Creek Pathway, led by Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation Curator Debra Lehane, will begin at 2 p.m.

The Sonata subdivision is also home to six residences built under Healdsburg's inclusionary housing rules. This has provided home ownership opportunities to six local families who work in the community but were previously priced out of the housing market.

Managed by the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County, these unique agreements foster home ownership for working class families.

--Information provided by Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation. Follow group on Facebook here.