The Bank of America branch at 750 Bridgeway went up in 1956. It closed to walk-in customers in May 2019, and the City of Sausalito bought the building the following year. The teller stations and partitions came out during the buildout that began in September 2022. Starting Friday, October 30, nearly 300 artworks by 207 artists will hang in their place.
That show is the SCA Open 2026, the second annual juried exhibition at the Sausalito Center for the Arts. Admission is free, and it runs through Sunday, December 6. It also shows how Sausalito's art calendar works now. The town once counted down to one big outdoor weekend each year. Today it has a permanent room downtown that is open five days a week, and this fall that room is getting more interest from artists than at any point since it opened.
The Festival Stepped Back, and Its Foundation Helped Build the Room
The Sausalito Art Festival dates to 1952. In December 2019, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that it would take a year off after a 67-year run. The foundation cited limits on access to its preferred bayside site, more competition for music acts and higher security costs. The Marin Independent Journal reported in May 2021 that the 2021 festival was canceled because Marinship Park, its traditional site, was unavailable and organizers could not secure a suitable replacement in time. The most recent update on the Sausalito Art Festival Foundation's site is labeled 2023. It says the foundation was producing other arts events in the meantime and still intends to bring the festival back.
Some of that energy went into 750 Bridgeway. According to the center's own history, the Sausalito Center for the Arts began in 2021 as a coalition of the festival foundation, the ICB Artists Association, Marin Open Studios and local community, business and arts leaders. The city later chose its proposal to turn the old bank into an arts center. The center signed its lease with the city in August 2022. It opened with a ribbon cutting on February 16, 2023, with an exhibition called "Spotlight Sausalito," which the Marin IJ's arts listings showed at 750 Bridgeway that month.
Marin Magazine reported in October 2025 that the festival foundation is a founding partner that contributes funding, equipment and expertise. Its Art Weekend Sausalito benefit helped raise money for the center, and the foundation gave the center a Leonard Kaprielian Grant in 2022. The same article described the SCA Open as the clearest example of the center carrying the festival's legacy forward.
The location has a history of its own. The Sausalito Historical Society notes that in 1966 and 1967, the festival set up in the parking lot next to the Bank of America. Six decades later, the art has moved inside the building that stood beside it.
Year Two Drew a Much Bigger Field
The inaugural SCA Open ran from October 19 to November 16, 2025. The center called it one of the largest showcases of its kind in the Bay Area. This year's numbers are larger on every count the center has published.
| SCA Open 2025 | SCA Open 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Artists submitting | 590 | Nearly 1,000 |
| Works submitted | 1,482 | 2,250 |
| Artists selected | Not published | 207 |
| Works on view | Not published | Nearly 300 |
| Run | Oct. 19 to Nov. 16 | Oct. 30 to Dec. 6 |
Only about one in every seven or eight entries made the walls. The center describes the jury as three people from three parts of the art world: a museum, a gallery and an educational institution.
- Nancy Lim is associate curator of painting and sculpture at SFMOMA. She previously held curatorial positions at the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
- Danielle Fox founded SLATE Contemporary Gallery in Oakland in 2009, still directs it and runs SLATE's public art program.
- Chester Arnold is a Bay Area painter who has taught at area colleges for more than three decades. His work is in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art and SFMOMA.
The full list of 207 artists is on the SCA Open 2026 page. It's a good place to look for neighbors and familiar Marin names before you go.
Seeing the Show on Halloween Weekend
The show's opening run overlaps with Halloween Sausalito on Caledonia Street, a 10-minute walk from the gallery. The center's regular hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., except during scheduled evening events. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so you can visit the gallery in the afternoon and still make it to the parade. Here is the weekend in order, based on the center's listing and the Downtown Sausalito Halloween page:
- Friday, Oct. 30, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The SCA Open's first day at 750 Bridgeway.
- Saturday, Oct. 31, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The gallery is open for the regular day.
- Saturday, 4:30 p.m. Caledonia Street closes from Bridgeway near Johnson to Bee Street until 9 p.m. Caledonia between Bee and Locust also stays closed until 9 p.m.
- Saturday, 5 to 5:30 p.m. Drop off carved pumpkins at Robin Sweeny Park. The contest takes up to 26 entries, and LED tea lights are welcome.
- Saturday, 5:45 p.m. Parade lineup at the Station 1 Firehouse, Johnson and Caledonia. The parade leaves at 6:00 sharp and trick-or-treats at participating businesses and homes along Caledonia.
- Saturday, about 6:15 p.m. The parade ends at Trick or Treat Lane on the Robin Sweeny Park basketball courts, where sponsors hand out treats.
- Saturday, 6:30 p.m. The Howl'O'Ween Dog Costume Contest, sponsored by Soulmates, starts at Litho and Caledonia. Entry is free with no registration. Prize categories are Best Little Dog under 25 pounds, Medium Dog at 25 to 49 pounds, Best Big Dog at 50 pounds and up, and Best Couple for a human and dog.
- Sunday, Nov. 1, 3 to 6 p.m. The SCA Open's opening reception at 750 Bridgeway, free and open to the public.
Sausalito Parks & Recreation, the Caledonia Street Merchants and local community groups sponsor the Halloween events. If you can't make Sunday, the artists' closing reception is Sunday, December 6, from 3 to 5 p.m.
Caledonia Has Its Own Version of This Story
The SCA Open isn't the only time this fall that an old Sausalito tradition came back in a new form. On October 17, the city held "A Toast to Sausalito" on Caledonia Street, a free beer, wine and spirits festival with art, vendors, family activities and live music. The city's event page calls it a tribute to the former Caledonia Street fair and Taste of Sausalito.
The street fair came back as a one-day festival run by the city. The art festival's spirit lives on in a juried show indoors, which runs for five and a half weeks instead of one weekend. That longer run gives residents more chances to see the work: nearly 300 pieces on view across six weekends, in a downtown building where the doors open at 11 every day except Monday and Tuesday.
Next, Art on the Excelsior Stairs
Sausalito's next public art project won't be inside a gallery. The Marin Independent Journal reported that on October 5, the City Council voted to accept a donated mural for the Excelsior Stairs on Bridgeway, across from Viña del Mar Park. The paper said the mural could become Sausalito's first new public art in more than 30 years.
Sausalito artist Raylene Gorum will paint the risers of the stairway's 52 steps. Gorum also designed the "All Our Children United" mural on the Highway 101 underpass between Sausalito and Marin City. Her design shows two women embracing a globe of the western hemisphere, along with imagery from wine-growing regions. Gabriela Mistral, the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean writer, appears at the bottom, and a Sausalito woman appears at the top beneath a flower-filled arbor. The design honors Viña del Mar, Chile, which became Sausalito's first sister city in 1960.
"This is going to spark more projects in town and this is a spectacular start to that," Mayor Steven Woodside said, as quoted in the Marin IJ.
The project still needs funding. The nonprofit Sausalito Sister Cities is sponsoring it, with a $100,000 budget. As of the Marin IJ's October 12 report, it had raised a $5,200 county grant and a $10,000 donation. Board member Robert Miros said the group plans to "sell steps," recognizing donors at certain giving levels with a specific step. The goal is to raise the rest and paint the stairs by next spring.
The Excelsior Stairs are on Bridgeway, not far from 750 Bridgeway. For now, the risers between their 52 steps are still gray cement.
If Sausalito's arts calendar is one reason you love living near downtown, I'm happy to talk about what that kind of everyday access means for your home's value. Kris Klein can put together a thoughtful, local home valuation whenever you're ready.
