The Industrial Center Building at 480 Gate 5 Road went up in 1942 as the Marinship "Mold Loft." Shipbuilders drew plans and cut templates there for the Liberty Ships built in the yards next door. Artists started moving into the big open rooms in the 1950s, drawn by the space, the natural light and the cheap rent. Today the building holds three floors of professional studios. This weekend nearly all of those doors open at once.
Many longtime residents still expect that to happen in December. ICB/ART's own About page says its Winter Open Studios has welcomed the public on the first weekend of December since 1968. The calendar now says otherwise. The organizers call the 2026 edition The Big Open. It starts with an evening preview Friday, November 13, from 5 to 8 p.m., and the studios are open Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The new date also puts the biggest open studio of the year on the same Saturday as free live demonstrations at the Sausalito Center for the Arts on Bridgeway. For one day, the town's two main ways of showing art run through overlapping hours at opposite ends of the main road.
How a December tradition ended up in mid-November
The move happened last year, and it went mostly unnoticed. As recently as 2024, Winter Open Studios kept its usual slot and ran December 6 through 8, with a Friday preview and public hours on Saturday and Sunday. In November 2025, Patch reported that the event would run November 15 and 16 that year, "giving guests more time to discover artwork before the holiday season."
The 2026 dates keep the November slot and add the new name. On the ICB's events page, the association calls The Big Open "our biggest event of the year." Anyone who saves the first weekend of December out of habit will find the hallways quiet. The ICB's next listed public event is Artists at Work, Saturday, February 6, 2027, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
At Gate 5 Road, you meet the artists in the rooms where they work
Open studios make sense here because of how many artists work in the building. Patch's 2025 report put the ICB community at more than 180 artists. This year the association says nearly 100 of them will open their studios. The Eventbrite listing puts the number at more than 100 and lists painting, sculpture, photography, fiber, printmaking and jewelry. The ICB artists open their studios to the public like this once a year.
The basics for the weekend:
- Cost: Free. The organizers ask visitors to reserve a free ticket on Eventbrite.
- Parking: Free at the building.
- Access: ADA access is from the bay side. The ICB's visitor page lists handicap parking and an elevator.
- Pace: "Come for an hour. Stay for the afternoon. Bring the family," is how the organizers put it.
Friday's preview runs for three evening hours. Saturday and Sunday each run for six. For anyone who wants to buy, the preview is a quieter first look, and the weekend leaves time to come back and decide.
On Bridgeway, more than 200 artists picked from nearly 1,000
Downtown at 750 Bridgeway, the Sausalito Center for the Arts is in the middle of SCA Open 2026, its annual juried exhibition. The show runs October 30 through December 6. The scale of the selection sets it apart from the ICB. According to the SCA Open 2026 page, nearly 1,000 artists submitted 2,250 works this year, roughly 40 percent more submissions than last year. More than 200 artists made it in, with nearly 300 works on the walls.
The center chose three jurors from three corners of the art world:
- Nancy Lim is associate curator of painting and sculpture at SFMOMA.
- Danielle Fox directs SLATE Contemporary Gallery in Oakland.
- Chester Arnold is a Bay Area painter whose work is in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art and SFMOMA.
On Saturday, November 14, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., six artists from the show will demonstrate their materials and methods at the center. The center lists clay, painting, glass, printmaking and sculpture among the media. Admission is free. The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The same Saturday, side by side
| The Big Open at ICB/ART | SCA Open 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 480 Gate 5 Road | 750 Bridgeway |
| Saturday, Nov. 14 hours | 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Demos 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
| Who is showing | Nearly 100 working studios | More than 200 juried artists |
| How work was chosen | Each artist shows their own studio | Three jurors picked from nearly 1,000 applicants |
| Cost | Free, with a reserved ticket | Free |
| Run | Nov. 13 to 15 only | Through Dec. 6 |
The last row matters most for planning. The SCA exhibition stays up for three more weeks after Saturday. The ICB studios are open for one weekend. Saturday is the one day both include something live, with the artists in their studios at one end of town and the demonstrations at the other.
Doing both in one day
Marin Transit's Route 61 stops at Bridgeway & Gate 5 Road and at downtown stops including Bay Street & Bridgeway. The schedule linked on the route page dates from April 2026, so check the current times before you go. For drivers, the City of Sausalito warns that downtown parking can fill fast on weekends. Municipal Lot 5 at Bridgeway and Locust offers three free hours.
One way to run the day:
- Start at the ICB at 11 a.m., when the studios open and the free parking lot is easiest to use.
- Have lunch nearby at Le Garage, 85 Liberty Ship Way, a French-leaning bistro on the waterfront near the ICB.
- Head downtown in the early afternoon, catch the SCA demonstrations before they end at 4:30 p.m., and see the exhibition while you're there.
- If you'd rather leave the ICB until Sunday, it keeps the same hours, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Le Garage is also taking reservations for Thanksgiving, with a $75 three-course prix fixe served all day on November 26, if Saturday's lunch turns into planning for later in the month.
What follows on the calendar
Moving the open studios also changed the order of the town's arts dates for the rest of the season:
- November 21 and 22: Free gift wrapping on purchases over $30 at the SCA Gallery Store, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- November 28: Sausalito Art & Harbor Days, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Tracy Way, Ferry Landing Plaza and Gabrielson Park.
- December 3: The fifth annual Holiday by the Bay tree lighting at Tracy Way Plaza.
- December 6: The artists' closing reception for SCA Open 2026, 3 to 5 p.m.
- December 12: The Lighted Boat Parade, 6 to 7:15 p.m., on the waterfront at Gabrielson Park.
- January 8 to February 6, 2027: Art Life, the center's fifth annual figurative exhibition, curated by Susan R. Kirshenbaum.
The first weekend of December, which the ICB's Winter Open Studios held for decades, now closes out SCA Open 2026 with its reception on December 6.
If a piece from Gate 5 Road or Bridgeway comes home with you this weekend, the next question is where it goes: which wall, what light and what scale. Drew Thomas brings design and construction consultation to that question as well as to the home itself. If you'd like a second opinion on hanging, lighting or framing a room around new art, Marin Life Elevated is glad to help. Let's Connect.
