For over 50 years, the Sonoma Community Center has supported the artistic and educational life of the city, by sponsoring public programming. It offers classes in pottery, painting, music, yoga, jazzersize and various elements of personal development. Its large auditorium regularly supports theater performances, movie nights, and gallery shows. The artist-in-residence program brings recognition and support to professional and student artists. The space also functions as an incubator for non-profits, and many local groups have gotten their start here: including the Boys and Girls club of Sonoma. Volunteers and members are welcome, check the website for details.
The Montessori School of Sonoma consists of a single-story wooden building on a 3-acre campus. Its curriculum is designed for children ages one to ten, and is based on the methods of Dr. Montessori. In addition to its educational offerings, it provides child care for infants and school-aged children.
In back of Sonoma City Hall is the Sonoma Valley Visitors Center. Offering complimentary maps of the plaza, and information about local wineries, shops, galleries, gardens, food, and lodging, it's a useful stop for anyone coming to wine country.
The building sits at the end of Sonoma Park's green, where patrons can linger, drink wine, take a walk, or rest on bench before one of the two duck ponds. There are public restrooms outside the building.
Project Fit America is a public charity that works to keep kids healthy and fit. The goal is to work with communities to bring in funding, equipment, teacher training and ultimately add fitness to school curriculums. Playgrounds, pole climbs, balls and other equipment is provided.
Located on the northern end of Sonoma City, Sonoma Acres is a full-care nursing home. It is housed in a striking mid century building complete with a rock wall, fireplace, and three and a half acres of gardens. It is an entirely private facility, accepting no medicare funding. It has only 32 beds in both private and shared rooms. It specializes in patients with dementia issues and offers a high ratio of nurse care per patient (one and half hours per day more than state regulations). There is a full-time activity director for the facility, which offers art classes, current events classes and religious events. There is always a liscenced nurse on the premisise and it offers short-term respite and hospice care.
The Old Adobe School is a private preschool housed on the grounds of Sonoma's First Congressional Church. This nonprofit secular school, founded by board member John Larson, enrolls children who are between the ages of 2 and 5, and has an after-school child-care program.
The school has a creative, hands-on curriculum, in which children engage in activities to learn concrete skills. As the website states, "You may find children making a number chart out of the fruit they brought for lunch, cutting plants for flower arrangements or creating bubbles to study the properties of water."
The Arts Guild of Sonoma is a non-profit organization serving as a public gallery for local and Bay Area artists. Founded in 1977, the guild is the longest continually operating artists' cooperative in California and is housed in a welcoming gallery on East Napa Street in downtown Sonoma. The Arts Guild is a major contributor to the local art scene in Sonoma and maintains ongoing artist exhibits that rotate once a month and are open to the public. Works include oil paintings, jewelry, photography, sculpture and pottery.
Additionally, the guild strives to "pick up the slack" of lacking art education in local schools and offers community art mentoring and outreach, and annually produces the "Small but Grand Works," exhibit, a summer mentoring program for Sonoma Valley High School students.