Mendocino Art Center Workshops
Mendocino Art Center, 45200 Little Lake St, Mendocino, CA 95460
About
Mendocino Art Center Workshops offer art workshops in a wide variety of mediums and skill levels, taught by both local and visiting artists. The program includes events such as a Plein Air Festival with daily wet paint sales and a Quick Draw event, as well as a jewelry residency for artists. The campus also hosts year-long residencies, short-term artist-in-retreat programs, and a Winter Greenhouse Residency, along with a shop and gallery featuring art from local and visiting artists and selling supplies for workshops.
Nearly 70 years ago, Bill and Lucia Zacha, together with neighbors and fellow artists, transformed a fire-damaged estate into the Mendocino Art Center. The current Executive Director is Dav Bell. The Mendocino Art Center describes itself as a gathering place for artists, a hub for community care, and a spark for renewal, and it states that it is located where redwoods meet the ocean on Coastal Pomo land. The center recognizes that its campus is on unceded Coastal Pomo land and honors Local Pomo, Yuki, and Cahto peoples as stewards of the land, and it offers free lifetime membership to Indigenous folks, including options such as workshop fee waivers or use of the land its campus occupies. It runs a Mutual Thriving Campaign to support artists and neighbors seeking creative community. The campus is described as a handmade campus of studios, galleries, and theater, with small apartments for visiting artists, gardens, and a ceramics studio with electric, gas, and wood-fire kilns. Members receive a 10% discount on all workshops and shop purchases and an invitation to display work in an annual Member’s Exhibition. The Mendocino Art Center states that it envisions itself as a refuge for artists and a regenerative force for the wider community, welcoming those historically excluded from creative spaces, upholding social and ecological justice in its work, sharing skills for climate resilience and community care, and caring for its campus buildings, tools, and studios so they can serve artists for the next 70 years.
Last updated July 3, 2026.
Nearly 70 years ago, Bill and Lucia Zacha, together with neighbors and fellow artists, transformed a fire-damaged estate into the Mendocino Art Center. The current Executive Director is Dav Bell. The Mendocino Art Center describes itself as a gathering place for artists, a hub for community care, and a spark for renewal, and it states that it is located where redwoods meet the ocean on Coastal Pomo land. The center recognizes that its campus is on unceded Coastal Pomo land and honors Local Pomo, Yuki, and Cahto peoples as stewards of the land, and it offers free lifetime membership to Indigenous folks, including options such as workshop fee waivers or use of the land its campus occupies. It runs a Mutual Thriving Campaign to support artists and neighbors seeking creative community. The campus is described as a handmade campus of studios, galleries, and theater, with small apartments for visiting artists, gardens, and a ceramics studio with electric, gas, and wood-fire kilns. Members receive a 10% discount on all workshops and shop purchases and an invitation to display work in an annual Member’s Exhibition. The Mendocino Art Center states that it envisions itself as a refuge for artists and a regenerative force for the wider community, welcoming those historically excluded from creative spaces, upholding social and ecological justice in its work, sharing skills for climate resilience and community care, and caring for its campus buildings, tools, and studios so they can serve artists for the next 70 years.
Last updated July 3, 2026.
Is this your business? There is no cost, but you will be asked to sign up or log in.