The Canal Arts operates five complemenary public arts initiatives:

1. Canal Family Art
The Canal Arts convenes Saturday morning family art events for Canal parents and kids, attended by over 4,000 to date, led by our teaching artists who also conduct a related program—our Mural Art Workshop.

2. Mural Art Workshop
The Canal Arts offers a course on art and design, mural history, technique and practice, for those interested in participating in our public art projects, for pay.

3. Canal-Marin Art Bridge Program
The most segregated place in the Bay Area, the Canal is unknown to most people in Marin, but they depend daily on its lively, at-risk, endangered community. Community engagement and collaboration are at the heart of our projects, especially in our Canal-Marin Art Bridge Program, introducing interested people in Marin County to the Canal community, to meet, to learn, to create art together, bridging cultures for an enjoyable time, with food, music, paint and fun.

4. Mural Creation
In 8 years, we have completed 13 mural projects with Canal community participation, with more to come. Our largest project, Peoples of the Canal, a Story of 20,000 Years, told on 20 interpretive exhibits over 2 miles of the S.F. Bay shoreline path, designed as an educational destination, will further increase awareness of this place, its history and its peoples, and The Canal’s importance to Marin.

5. Art Activism
The Canal Arts is active in promoting public art and effecting legislation for the city of San Rafael, beginning with the elimination of public art permit fees, the establishment of a public art review board to better process public projects and public policy that acknowledges the right of private property owners to create public art without city approval.