Gualala Arts Center

EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTION

The Gualala Arts Center is a genuine anomaly: a full-scale regional arts organization in a town of fewer than 600 people that has been mounting exhibitions, concerts, and community programming since 1961. The center's main gallery rotates shows by North Coast artists working in painting, sculpture, photography, and craft, and its outdoor amphitheater hosts live music through the summer.

OPERATOR STORY

Gualala Arts was founded in 1961 by a group of artists and community members who believed that cultural life should not require driving to a city. More than six decades later it remains entirely community-supported, with a volunteer base and donor community drawn almost entirely from the North Coast. Its longevity is a measure of the depth of the artistic community that has made this remote stretch of coast its home, and the kind of cultural institution that would be remarkable anywhere else.