Upcoming Exhibitions
Main Gallery
CONTEMPLATING THE NIGHT: Don Jolley’s Astrolabe Students with Astrophotography by Marsha Kirschbaum and Artwork by Bolinas - Stinson School Students
January 18 - January 19, 2020
This special two-day exhibition is a community celebration of our relationship with the night sky through art and science. The focus is the culmination of a yearlong museum astrolabe workshop for adults led by recently retired Bolinas Stinson School science and math teacher Don Jolley that began as part of last year’s Cosmic Wonders exhibition. An astrolabe is a complicated but elegantly efficient circular instrument used for centuries to understand the cycling of the heavens, and one’s own location in time and place. They were commonly used to guide navigation, and to predict solstices and equinoxes, and the seasonal calendar. For years, Jolley taught his 8th grade students to make astrolabes as a means of heightening direct experience of astronomy, ... Learn More
During his forty years in Bolinas, Tom Braun has been quietly creating with wood, glass, and other mediums. This exhibition is a overview of his output from his early years as a carpenter and stained glass artist, to his carved meditations in wood, and a recent astonishingly detailed model of a barn. His creations display skills that reach from structural complexity to understated organic shapes. Crafted with hand tools and finished with unique manual techniques, Tom’s meditative practice reflects the energy, insight, and dedication he puts into his art, and the deep satisfaction he reaps from creating finely crafted objects.
Gerald Ratto, Children of the Fillmore, No. 19, 1952, gelatin silver print, courtesy of Victoria Whyte Ball and Ken Ball. Main Gallery
THE GOLDEN DECADE: Photography at the California School of Fine Arts, 1945-1955
January 25 - March 22, 2020
The California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) in San Francisco (renamed the San Francisco Art Institute in 1961) was among a handful of institutions in the nation to offer an extensive program in photography and film during the period immediately following WWII. Established in 1945 by Ansel Adams, and taught by Minor White, the CSFA photography program raised the dialog around photographic practice to the level of a serious, focused study. Students were not only expected to be technically adept, but thoughtful and intentional about how they approached the world with a camera. The first decade of the program (1945-1955) gave rise to a unique group of photographers who went on to become accomplished artists and important contributors to visual ... Learn More
Detail of United States Geological Survey map, California Tamalpais Sheet, edition of May 1897, based on 1894-95 survey, with added outline of Rancho Las Baulines and modern town names. History Room
BOLINAS & STINSON BEACH: Sister Towns of Rancho Las Baulines
January 25 - August 16, 2020
The towns of Bolinas and Stinson Beach are true sisters. Born of the 1830s Mexican land grant Rancho Las Baulines, they share generations of common history. This exhibit highlights stories and characters from the evolution of these two communities through historic photographs, maps, and text sourced from the Bolinas Museum and the Stinson Beach Historical Society archives. Located in a splendid setting of abundance, the area grew economies based on agriculture and the activities of its residents and visitors, including many artists, writers, musicians, and naturalists inspired by the area’s beauty. The most important shared history is that of the 1960s and 1970s grassroots environmental activism that contributed to the protection of Marin County’s coastal land and ocean. Many of ... Learn More
Sally Robertson, "September Roses with Smoke Bush Foliage," watercolor on paper, 2019, 30.25 x 29. Lush and sensual, Sally Robertson’s masterful watercolor paintings conjure the feel of a delicate petal, the scent of sweet fragrance, or the sound of koi splashing in her beautifully curated garden. In our time of shortened attention spans and visual overload, to focus on a small view of nature, and then slowly render it in the challenging medium of watercolor, is rare. To create art from this process is magical and exceptional. Sally does this daily in her Bolinas home where her lyrical garden and art evolved together for over forty years. My watercolor paintings have developed over the decades; sometimes it is the morning light on a petal, which evokes a painting, other times a serene still life. I ... Learn More
Bottom: Jungle Garden Press books, left to right: "Magic Rabbit’s Book of Applied Magic Tricks" by Arthur Okamura, "Believe It or Not!" by Kay Ryan, "Pastimes" by Carl Dern and "Jig" by Marie Dern. Photo: Martin Ledyard. Unbound by the traditional book format, Marie Dern has been creating intriguing, witty and handsomely crafted handmade books for forty-five years; both of her own work and in collaboration with outstanding poets, writers and artists. This exhibition presents handmade books created with her letterpress. Type is set by hand with individual metal letters, or digitally sourced. Inked, the type and images are impressed into fine rag paper on her hand-turned press. Today in the digital age, this technique, originated by Gutenberg in the 15th century, is esteemed for the artisanal beauty that it lends to images and the written word. In 1974, after an education from University of California, Berkeley and the Sorbonne in Paris, Marie Dern started Jungle Garden ...
Steven Brock, "Salud Compadre," 1987, toned silver gelatin print, 14.25 x 14.25 inches. Gift of the artist While the museum always presents selections from the fine art collection in the Permanent Collection Gallery, we rarely focus on a particular medium or theme. This special exhibition highlights photographs by coastal Marin and Bay Area artists held in the museum’s collection, including a local scene by Ansel Adams (1902-1984) that has not yet been seen. The images are diverse; some mysterious, some abstracted, some quiet, and some jubilant, but all illustrating widely differing vantage points and interests.