About |
The Canal Arts nonprofit, affiliated with a coalition of organizations*, was founded in 2019, to serve San Rafael’s Canal community in the creation, teaching and the promotion of collaborative public arts, to visually enliven and inspire an environment that is considered the most segregated community in the Bay Area, a least healthy environment, long underserved and with few amenities. We are inspired by the examples of cities around the world that have been nourished by the flowering of visual art in their midst, and the conviction that art is an essential element for good life.
Beginning with murals created for Canal Alliance, we have funded and completed five, and have an additional eight murals funded and/or in progress in 2024-5, most created by immigrant professional artists assisted by Canal residents. The Canal Arts is affiliated with Storek Studio/Architecture, providing funding, management and design guidance. We produce inspiring documentary videos for each of our projects.
We have organized online art forums with Canal kids and professional Marin artists exchanging ideas on art, and we conduct Canal Family Art Saturdays, in partnership with the community volunteer organization, Voces del Canal; these events have introduced us to talented artists to engage in our projects.
While the Canal, with its essential workforce, is largely invisible to many in Marin, a new program of The Canal Arts, is the Canal-Marin Art Bridge, a response to Marin groups, especially parents and kids, interested in learning about the Canal, where it is, its people and its history, who come for a visit over an art activity, with food, music and the beginning of acquaintance and connection.
Our most challenging and exciting public arts project underway is the telling of a history of 20,000 years, told over a 2-mile stretch of the S.F. Bay shoreline path, Peoples of the Canal, on 20 interactive interpretive exhibits, from the Ice Age to the crisis of Climate Warming. Much of it will be the story of our partners, the Coast Miwok, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, and more recent migrants, the project to be completed in 2025. We are seeking funding to supplement grants from the State Coastal Conservancy, Indians of Graton Rancheria and other generous donors.
*Canal Alliance, Dominican University, San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, Multicultural Center of Marin, Marin Society of Artists, Art Works Downtown, Marin Open Studios, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Marin Arts , Team Works, Parent Services Project, Marin School for Environmental Leadership, Voces del Canal, Storek Studio/Architecture, East San Rafael Working Group