A Game
Changer for
San Rafael
by Bente Mirow
A
game changer has come
to town. San Rafael has
been re-baptized.
No longer: San Rafael, Marin
County town somewhere in
between beautiful visitor-rich
Sausalito and the Sonoma Wine
country, but “San Rafael, a Cali-
fornia Arts and Cultural District.”
The city reached its zenith in
2017 becoming one of 14 cities in
California to receive the desig-
nation in a new pilot program
initiated by the California Arts
Council.
Criteria for the highly competi-
tive competition required cities
to meet “high standards of co-
herence, vision, and purpose.”
According to Elisabeth Setten,
Executive Director at Art Works
Downtown, the judges described
San Rafael as “authentic, inclu-
sive, and surprising.”
The application process was
initiated and led by the City’s
Economic Development Director,
Danielle O’Leary, and the then
Economic Development Coordi-
nator, Tom Adams, along with
5 anchor partners: Art Works
Downtown, the California Film
Institute, Youth in Arts, City
of San Rafael’s Falkirk Cultural
Center, and the Downtown San
Rafael Business Improvement
District (BID). Gabriella Calicchio,
the Director of the Marin County
Cultural and Visitor Services for
the county of Marin, and the
chief advocate for the arts in the
whole county, participated in the
outreach sessions with the State.
Numerous other arts-related
businesses, non-profits, and
organizations headquartered in
San Rafael include the Belrose
Theater, Marin Society of Artists,
the Folkart Gallery, RileyStreet
Art Supply, Seawood Photo, Cop-
perfield’s and Rebound Books,
Bananas at Large, Marin Shake-
speare on 4th Street, Ali Akbar
College of Music, Marin Ballet,
Enriching Lives through Music
(ELM), Drawbridge, and Domini-
can University.
But before we get ahead of our-
selves, let’s stop for a moment
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Marin Arts & Culture