Gualala Arts Center
A nonprofit arts campus on 11 redwood acres — two galleries, a sculpture garden, and a performance hall, free to visit.
- Mon 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Tue 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Wed 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM · Today
- Thu 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Fri 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Sat 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Sun 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Along Highway 1
Leg times are driving estimates along Highway 1.
South to north along Highway 1: Stewarts Point Store, then ~5 min to Sea Ranch Lodge, then ~15 min to Gualala Downtown, then ~25 min to Point Arena Downtown. Gualala Arts Center is the venue on this page.
Nearby
A short drive
- River Bend Kayaks 0.3 mi S
- Gualala Point Regional Park 0.5 mi SW
- Gualala Pizza & Bakery 0.5 mi NW
- Vue Kitchen 0.5 mi W
Arts Center
Gualala Arts Center grew out of a 1961 garden-themed art show staged by two local women, Betty O'Neil and Kathy (Rubel) DiMaio, which became the annual Art in the Redwoods festival and, in 1965, the nonprofit Gualala Arts, Inc. The current campus at 46501 Old Stage Rd. was built substantially with volunteer labor and now holds the Elaine Jacob Foyer, Burnett Gallery, Coleman Hall, and an outdoor Sculpture Garden across roughly 15,000 square feet on 11 acres of redwoods. It's a working nonprofit — a 12-member board, staff, hundreds of volunteers, and over 1,600 activities a year — on land that is the ancestral home of the Pomo of Kashia and Manchester-Point Arena tribes.
Gualala Arts also funds scholarships for local high school seniors and brings concerts, plays, and art classes into the public schools. It's linked to the seasonal Whale & Jazz Festival and other rotating programming beyond Art in the Redwoods — check the current events calendar rather than treating any date here as fixed.
Before You Go
- Admission: free — no entry fee for the galleries or grounds
- Hours: daily, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.; call (707) 884-1138 to confirm around holidays or private events, since Coleman Hall is also rented out
- Budget: 30–60 minutes for the galleries and sculpture garden; longer if a concert or workshop coincides with your visit
- Accessibility: wheelchair-accessible entrance
- Dolphin Gallery hours differ: Thursday–Tuesday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., closed Wednesdays — don't assume it matches the main campus schedule
What visitors say
- Bigger than it looks from outside — visitors are often surprised by the scale of the galleries and performance spaces for a town this size
- The redwood setting is the draw — the outdoor sculpture garden and amphitheater are the most-mentioned, most-photographed part of a visit
- A real performance venue — concert- and theatergoers describe the hall and acoustics as well above what they expected walking in
- Easy with kids or a dog — an unhurried stop, especially paired with the on-site trails
- Google's aggregate rating is 4.7 from 167 reviews