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UC Davis Magazine

Volume 31 · Number 3 · Summer 2014

A passion for beauty

Photo: Margrit Mondavi holding a paintbrush in each hand and standing over a watercolor still life painint of fruit

Margrit Mondavi

Paints, brushes and a watercolor of a lobster decorate Margrit Mondavi’s desk. From a weathered newspaper page taped to the wall, the image of Robert Mondavi holds up a glass of red wine. A window opens onto a sunny courtyard, freckled with sculptures and people, backlit by a verdant landscape of grass, grapevines and oak trees.

“You know, there is so much beauty in the world, if we look for it,” said Margrit Mondavi. “So much.”

Infusing beauty into all aspects of life has been an enduring quest for Mondavi, who a half-century ago brought fine arts, music and great food to Napa Valley and today continues to foster the arts at UC Davis.

An ardent supporter of the university, Mondavi made a $2 million gift during The Campaign for UC Davis toward the construction of the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. She created scholarships to help students in the arts, humanities, and viticulture and enology programs. And she served as the co-chair of the volunteer Campaign Cabinet that led the $1.1 billion campaign.

Mondavi’s passion for beauty was not born of affluence. She traces its origins to her bohemian hometown of Orselina, Switzerland, and to her mother.

That passion guided her life even when she was a military spouse living in South Dakota, Washington, Germany and Japan, and later when she worked as a Napa Valley winery tour guide making $2 an hour.

Bringing art to everyday life can be as simple as adding a centerpiece to the breakfast table, she said. “It can be something homemade that has an aesthetic sense, that does improve your life and brings you joy. And then, of course, you share. You immediately share.”

Her desire to share beauty is what connected her to the wine business.

In 1964, three years after moving to Napa Valley, Mondavi and a friend hosted a concert at the Charles Krug Winery to benefit youth music programs. To put on the event, Mondavi borrowed a stage from a school and chairs from a church, booked a performer from the San Francisco Opera, and loaded her own piano into the back of her Volkswagen bus.

“We were so proud,” Mondavi said, chuckling. “We raised $2,000. That was a turning point in my life.”

Impressed by her work, Krug publicists offered Mondavi a job as Napa Valley’s first female winery tour guide. Soon, she was outpacing her male counterparts in wine sales. In 1967 she went to work at the new Robert Mondavi Winery and was quickly promoted to public relations manager. Through her efforts, the winery became home to a renowned summer musical festival, culinary school and an art collection.

The Mondavis, married from 1980 until Robert’s death in 2008, have made a similar mark on UC Davis — contributing to name the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.

Mondavi hopes the new art museum will similarly elevate the fine arts at UC Davis.

“Much in life is to be at the right place at the right time. And for me, to be with Robert Mondavi at the blossoming of the winery, it was the right time,” Mondavi said. “This is true now for UC Davis too. It is a flower that is opening with so many petals. Now with the museum becoming a reality . . . we are really telling the world — other universities, galleries and museums — we are here because we belong. UC Davis belongs.”

 

Sarah Colwell is senior manager of communications for UC Davis Development and
Alumni Relations.