The 'cultural desert' of Silicon Valley finally gets its first serious art gallery

For all its billionaires and enviable lifestyles, the west coast's tech elite have never embraced the art world, artists say - until now

Silicon Valley got its first major contemporary art gallery this week because Laura Arrillaga Andreessen - prolific art collector and heir to local real estate baron John Arrillaga - decided it was a little weird to have art sales in her house.

"I didn't come and say I'm going to make Silicon Valley like art. It just happened," said Marc Glimcher, who runs the influential Pace Gallery and was in town to fete the opening of his new Menlo Park location.