Mare Island Art Studios a Top Bay Area Destination for Art Lovers
Creativity blooms at former naval shipyard
STORY AND PHOTOS BY Steve Martarano
Artist Priscila Soares , a native of São Paulo , Brazil , in her public space at the Mare Island Art Studios .
Vallejo ’ s Mare Island is full of eclectic , under-the-radar destinations , with the Mare Island Art Studios as a must-see stop . The “ island ” is actually a 4-milelong , 1-mile-wide peninsula , 20 miles north of San Francisco off Highway
37 . It ’ s the former site of the first U . S . Naval installation on the West Coast , established in 1854 , and later became the Mare Island Naval Shipyard before it closed in 1996 .
Today , Mare Island is fully open to the public and features about 300 homes and apartments , more than 100 businesses , and Touro University , dotted among the remnants of the old naval base .
Mare Island ’ s only art collective was founded in 1999 by artist Tim Rose as Coal Shed Studios and was located
26 comstocksmag . com | February 2022