A visit to Southern Humboldt will not be complete without stopping by the Mateel Art Gallery, which offers a quality sample of this astonishingly rich and diverse art community. Established in 1991 to market local arts and crafts, the Mateel Arts Cooperative has developed the gallery as a focus for fine art, student art, and art related creative expression of many kinds.

There are usually about 30 members in the gallery who supply the all-volunteer staff and display their work. Artists come and go over time but a mixture of painters, potters, woodworkers, jewelers, photographers, and fiber artists continue to offer a selection of fine art, fine crafts, gifts, and special exhibitions.

Arts Alive is an example of the kind of support the Mateel Arts Cooperative works supply to art and artists in Southern Humboldt.

The natural beauty of the area has attracted an unusually large population of artists whose work expresses not only what they see but what they feel living here. Visiting the Mateel Art Gallery offers a glimpse into creativity influenced by dramatic redwood groves, wild coastal seascapes, peaceful bucolic pastures, quiet streams, and raging rivers.

The gallery is located on the corner of Redwood Drive

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and Church Street in the Jacob Garber Square. In a small space it offers visitors a wide variety of gifts and mementos of a very special kind. Art endures and preserves the best parts of our lives. Art is a keeper.