The Art Bloc Sausalito is a community arts space on Sausalito's working waterfront, one of the last of its kind on the West Coast. Across 800 square feet of light, tools, and texture, we make room for people to gather, make things with their hands, and remember that creativity is something we do together.

Why third spaces matter

A third space is a place that is neither home nor work. It's where you can show up as yourself, sit beside someone new, and leave a little more connected than you came. After the pandemic, as so many of us grew isolated and screen-bound, those places started to feel less like a luxury and more like a lifeline. Art Bloc exists to be one of them.

A note from our founder

I grew up in community spaces.

I've been taking art classes since I was six, almost always in the affordable, open-door places: community centers, libraries, the back tables of craft stores. They were rooms where a kid with a little curiosity could simply begin. At my Waldorf school, learning happened with the head, the hands, and the heart, and I think I've been looking for that combination ever since.

As I got older, I kept finding my people in shared rooms. A clubhouse in my apartment complex. Warehouse concerts and shows in San Francisco, where art and music felt alive because we made them together. The collective The Hivery. The ICB community here in Sausalito. Each of those places gave me something I couldn't have found alone.

What I learned is that creativity doesn't only need talent or time. It needs a place. A room with the door open, the tools out, and someone saying come in, you belong here.

That's what I wanted to build with Art Bloc. A salon for our time. A hearth on Gate Five Road where people can gather, make things with their hands, and be a little braver together.

Rachael Staudt, Founder

Two years of gathering

Since opening in 2024, Art Bloc has become what we hoped it would be: a hearth people gather around.

We've carved wooden spoons, painted, and drawn the figure. We've made corsets, wrapped rocks, and bound accordion books. Monthly poetry salons fill the loft with voices. Death cafés have made room for honest conversation about what matters most. Panel discussions, improv nights, and makers printing on gently loved garments have all found a home here.

Along the way we've learned what it means to truly hold space. We think of Art Bloc as a brave space, not only a safe one: a place where people can take creative risks, say true things, and be met with care.

We're also honored to work on ground with a history. Gate Five Road has long been part of a creative lineage that includes Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, and Lew Welch. We see ourselves as one more chapter in that story.

Becoming a nonprofit

In June 2026, The Art Bloc Sausalito became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

This was a big step, and a clarifying one. What began as a small business had become something larger: a shared resource that belongs to the community as much as to any one person. Becoming a nonprofit lets us protect that. It means building a board of people who love this place, keeping programming affordable and accessible, and opening the door to grants and donors who believe in the arts as a public good.

The journey has asked for patience, paperwork, and faith. It has also brought new people into Art Bloc's circle, and it has given the space a future that doesn't rest on one pair of shoulders.

About Rachael

Rachael Staudt is an artist, writer, and the founder of The Art Bloc Sausalito. She brings together a background in art, community-building, and business, including years as a data analyst, and approaches her work with an analytical eye and an artistic heart. She serves as Board President of Art Works Downtown in San Rafael and has worked with the Economic Council of Sausalito to preserve affordability and access for creatives here.

Her artistic outlook took shape in university, when she broke the "rules" of a class exercise and her professor held it up as an example of what not to do. He later became her mentor. The lesson stayed with her: less preciousness, more honesty, more freedom.

Come as you are

Whether you're a working artist, a curious beginner, or returning to creativity after years away, there's a seat for you here. Take a workshop, join a salon, rent the space for your own gathering, or help us keep the hearth lit by supporting our work.