Long before the MAH was a place for weekly epic crafting nights or blockbuster community exhibitions built by 186 local seniors, our building was home to something unexpected: the county jail.
Lifted up by the hands of community support, we transformed the site “from a place of incarceration to a place of inspiration,” as Bruce McPherson, major museum supporter, put it.
Go even further back in time in the very first episode of ‘That Was Weird’, a podcast from the MAH. Hosted by two local lifers (and MAH staffers) Marla Novo and Gabriel Kittle-Cervine, this new audio series from the MAH shares the people’s history of our strange and wonderful little beach town.
This first episode dives deep into the origin story of the MAH, beginning all the way back in the late 1970's. Marla and Gabriel sit down with the first Executive Director of the museum, Chuck Hilger, to discover how the MAH first came to be. They talk everything from when the art museum was housed in the second floor of the Downtown Library to what happened after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Stay tuned for episode two on April 25th.