{{short description|American artist}} '''Bill Zacha''' (born 1920 in Garland, Texas, died March 18, 1998, at Fort Bragg, California) was an artist and entrepreneur who founded the Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, California, and by doing so started the artistic revival of Mendocino.<ref name="look">{{cite magazine |first=Chandler |last=Brossard |title=A young man saves an old town |magazine=Look |date=September 25, 1962 |url=https://www.williamzacha.com/artists/william-zacha/legacy/ |via=WilliamZacha.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/381548483 |title=Mendocino—Newest Art Colony in U.S. |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=January 12, 1964 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/17/archives/article-11-no-title.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 17, 1970 |first=A. F. |last=Dalbey |title=Mendocino Where Squares, Longhairs Mix}}</ref><ref name="map">{{cite news |title=The artist who put Mendocino on the map |newspaper=The Press Democrat |date=December 17, 1995 |first=Susan |last=Swartz |id={{ProQuest|280631167}}}}</ref><ref name="lat">{{cite news |title=Bill Zacha; Founded Mendocino Art Center |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=March 20, 1998 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-20-mn-31044-story.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Founder of Mendocino artist mecca dies: Zacha reputation known globally |newspaper=The Press Democrat |date=March 19, 1998 |first=Amy |last=Schlein |id={{ProQuest|280738298}}}}</ref>
==Biography== Zacha studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, spent four years in the United States Navy entertaining troops as a writer and actor during World War II, and later made unsuccessful forays into the priesthood and drama. Returning to Berkeley to continue his architecture studies, he supported himself as a cable car conductor, but dropped out after injuring his right hand in a fall. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he studied art at the Corcoran Gallery and learned to paint left-handed.<ref name="khm" /> While in Texas in 1953 for a Houston exhibit of paintings he had made in Italy, he met his future wife Jennie Malone, a fashion designer.<ref name="khm" /><ref name="maaes" /> He then moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area and worked as a mail carrier while he earned a teaching credential at San Francisco State University.<ref name="khm">{{cite web |first=Chuck |last=Bush |url=http://www.kelleyhousemuseum.org/history-articles/zachas/ |title=The Zachas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430214422/http://www.kelleyhousemuseum.org/history-articles/zachas/ |archive-date=April 30, 2011 |work=Kelley House Museum |access-date=October 6, 2020}}</ref>
The Zachas moved to Mendocino, then nearly a ghost town, in 1957, and Zacha took a job as a high school teacher.<ref name="look" /> Hearing about plans to build a trailer park on the {{convert|1|acre|m2|adj=on}} former Preston estate (one of the settings for the 1955 film ''East of Eden'', but badly damaged in a subsequent fire), he borrowed $50 for a down payment,<ref name="maaes">{{cite book |title=Mendocino Artists: An Endangered Species |editor-first=William P. |editor-last=Brazill |publisher=North Coast Rural Challenge Network |year=2000 |isbn=0-9627007-5-4 |contribution=Bill and Jennie Zacha |pages=1–2}}</ref> bought the estate for $5500,<ref name="msca" /> and in 1959 founded the Mendocino Art Center on the site.<ref name="mac">{{cite web|access-date=October 1, 2023|title=MAC History|url=https://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/mac-history|website=Mendocino Art Center}}</ref> Zacha also ran a combination laundry/art gallery and restored many other buildings in Mendocino.<ref name="look" />
In 1964, Zacha traveled to Japan, where he met Japanese artist Tōshi Yoshida. Yoshida taught at the Mendocino Art Center in 1971, and after returning to Japan founded an art center in Miasa, Nagano based on his experiences in Mendocino. Zacha's friendship with Yoshida became the basis for a sister city relationship between Mendocino and Miasa, formalized in 1980.<ref name="map" /><ref name="msca">{{cite web |url=https://www.mendosca.org/history |title=History |website=Mendocino Sister Cities Association |access-date=October 1, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Japanese students arrive for week-long visit |newspaper=The Press Democrat |date=August 3, 1996 |id={{ProQuest|280705019}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Mendocino hosts Miasa sister city group |newspaper=The Mendocino Beacon |date=May 25, 2006 |first=Connie |last=Korbel}}</ref> Zacha's series of 55 serigraphs depicting the Tōkaidō road in Japan is collected in his book ''Tokaido Journey'' (1985).<ref name="map" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120315192742/http://www.williamzacha.com/bill_bio.php Bill Zacha: A Life Well Lived]. *{{citation|title=''The Keeper of Dreams: Bill Zacha, Founder of the Mendocino Art Center''|first=Beverly|last=Kjeldsen|year=1995|publisher=Wine Press}}.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zacha, Bill}} Category:Artists from California Category:People from Garland, Texas Category:People from Mendocino, California Category:1920 births Category:1998 deaths Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II Category:UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design alumni