Art students create one-of-a-kind float for Napa parade

About 17 young artists are spending this week creating a large piece of movable art that will "float" through downtown Napa this Saturday.

The students are part of the Nimbus Arts - Napa Parade & Float Camp, hosted at the Napa Valley Education Foundation Discovery Campus on Third Street.

They are designing and building a 16-foot-long parade float for Napa's Fourth of July Parade, which winds its way through downtown Napa Saturday morning.

This is the first year that Nimbus students will present a parade float in the city of Napa's Independence Day parade. For more than a dozen years, the float was made at the Nimbus campus in St. Helena and showcased during the Calistoga Fourth of July parade.

But now that the Napa Valley Education Foundation offers space at its Discovery Campus, at the former Oxbow School at 530 Third St., Nimbus has room to hold the float camp in Napa itself.

"We've been trying to get studio space in Napa forever," said Jamie Graff, executive director of Nimbus Arts. At this new location, "we decided it'd be fun to introduce this camp to Napa residents and be in this parade, which we've never been in before."

The float's theme is "Garden of Art," celebrating the idea that art can bring people together.

The design includes giant flowers, painted parasols, a bubble fountain and a giant artist cat puppet that will accompany the float in the parade. It's all made by the campers, who range in age from 7 to 13.

For some campers, participating in a parade was a big attraction.

Olivia Carlton, 9, said she signed up for the Nimbus float camp "because I thought it'd be really cool if I could be in the Fourth of July parade." She's never been in the Napa parade before, "so I kind of wanted to try something new."

"I just like for people to see my ideas, and I like painting and stuff," said Olivia. "I like drawing."

Olivia's friend, 9-year-old Mona Nahsohn, said she signed up for the parade camp because "I wanted to design a float with my bestie."

As part of the camp, Olivia and Mona each carved half a butterfly stamp to then print and make matching T-shirts to wear during the parade. At first, the two halves of their butterfly bodies weren't the same length, and the heads were different, so some edits were required to make the halves match.

"But it's still fun, and that's all that matters," said Olivia. "And it turned out great," added Mona.

Another camper, Emily Johnson, 12, said she signed up for camp because she thought it would be fun to design a float, "and also I want to be in the parade."

One thing she likes about the float camp is "you get to communicate with people and try to figure out what colors are right, and painting is just fun in general."

Emily said she would recommend the camp to her friends. "You get to be really, really creative and have your own ideas about what you're going to put on the float," she said.

She's looking forward to seeing the reaction of the people watching the parade.

"I hope they're gonna be like, ‘Wow, that's really cool,' and stuff like that. But constructive criticism is also accepted," said Emily.

Camper Evelyn Callnan, 11, who is the daughter of Nimbus staffers, said she likes camp because "you can meet a lot of new people, and it's next to the river, which I think is really cool."

"It's cool to see how fast a float can come together," said Evelyn.

Compromise during the design and build of the float is important, she said. If campers can't agree, "you gotta compromise because it's one float. You just have to choose what best would fit, and you can't really just cater to yourself."

With teamwork, "you feel really proud of the float that everybody made," Evelyn said, especially when walking in the parade itself.

Nimbus instructor and artist Andrea Cazares described the parade float camp as "magical."

"The whole experience of creating this float is all wonder and creativity," said Cazares. "It's always phenomenal to see what the kids design because it really is guided by the children."

Longtime Nimbus participant Allison Foster, 18, has been part of Nimbus programs since she was 5, and this is her fourth year as an instructor.

"I think it's really cool that the kids get the opportunity to make something that's truly theirs, and then show it off to the community," said Foster. "We're kind of tucked away in St. Helena, so it's also a really good way for Napa to learn more about Nimbus and see all the cool things that we do."

What is the secret to a successful parade float?

"I think if it's really entertaining (and) has a lot of color and a lot of detail, so that (from) far away, you can get the gist of it, but then, if you look closer," you can see other details and images, Foster said.

This isn't the only Nimbus camp in Napa, said Justin Ammon, Nimbus Arts' director of development.

Last week Nimbus hosted Farm Fresh Camp at the NVEF campus. Later this month, Nimbus will offer a River Camp in Napa.

The nonprofit, based in St. Helena, also offers programs at its Napa Riverside Studio at 101 S. Coombs St.

The parade float camp costs $400 per student. However, each year Nimbus Arts funds more than $10,000 in scholarships to help keep art camps and art classes accessible for everyone, according to Ammon.

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