Events
Join us for upcoming events on our campus to see art, meet artists, and support the work of the Mendocino Art Center.
Momím Wené: Medicine Water
September 25th through November 2nd, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday October 11th, 2025, 5-7pm
Closing Reception during Native Arts Expo 9: Saturday October 24th, 2025
4-6pm (Artist Talk 5-6pm)
We are excited to be the featured exhibit during the Native Arts Expo 9 on October 24th and 25th, 2025. Join us for the artist panel and closing reception on October 24th, from 4 to 6pm.
Momím Wené: Medicine Water is an art exhibit about tribal relationships and the stories of our people and our waterways. With the changing of times, these tribal histories vary throughout California Indian Country.
The Momím Wené: Medicine Water exhibit will be flowing across Central California to the home of the Coastal Pomo where we will be incorporating their regional voices to the continuing story of Medicine Water.
Participating artists include Carson Bates, Deerstine Suehead, Eric Wilder, Jessica Proctor, Steven Saffold, Shanti Parks, Lyn Risling, Skye Innerarity, Melissa Melero-Moose, Siranika Johnson, Raymond LeBeau, Michelle Napoli, Billy Hawk Enos, Crystal Pagal, Vince LaPena, Anthony Burris, Petee Ramirez, Delana Galvan, Tiffany Adams, Jacinda Tayaba-Cordero, Jacky Calanchini, Kat Solares, Jacquelyn Ross, Jamie Lanouette LaPena, Jeanette Innerarity, Jeremy Peconom, Kai LaPena, Koppa Enos, Malissa Tayaba, Meyokeeskow Marrufo, Silver Galleto, Victorio Shaw, and Viola LeBeau.
Please join us! Sitapáy’omís,
Playing With Fire
E.A.R.T.H. Lab SF present:
Playing With Fire
A Documentary Film by Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle
Screening and Filmmaker Artist Talk: Dec 4th at 6pm
USA | 2025 | Documentary | 71 min | Color
“Fire is one of our greatest teachers. It can destroy, but it can also illuminate a path forward. In these turbulent times. Playing with Fire offers a sense of hope, ecosensual pleasure and connection.”
Ecosexuality is a conceptual art innovation that we have developed since 2008. It shifts the metaphor from “Earth as Mother” to “Earth as Lover” to inspire a more reciprocal relationship between humans and the non-human realms. By incorporating this concept into our films, we engage our viewer’s imaginations, add humor, and celebrate the Earth’s delights to draw meaningful attention to urgent environmental justice issues.
Icons Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle – partners for 23 years - from their redwood forest home during the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fires in Northern California. But the wildfire is just the beginning of their transformative journey, as they craft a cinematic documentary reckoning with the power of fire - with its capacity to destroy and renew. Created through an ecosexual lens (imagining the Earth as a lover), this vibrant story weaves a tale of resilience, queer love, and environmental awakening, narrated by a mythic white peacock. Instead of fighting fire, can we learn to live with fire?
Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency documents the couple’s adventures in the wake of disaster, while also honoring the broader communities impacted by ecological and social fires.
Enlisting a collective of artists, Indigenous elders, witches, formerly incarcerated firefighters, and educators, Stephens & Sprinkle examine the ways in which queers - and all humans - can support the health of the Earth. The film features an electric score by experimental music composer Guillermo Galindo, Lady Monster’s fire tassel-twirling burlesque, a dangerous full-body fire stunt by the artist Cassils, a volcanic fire-play massage with sex educator Barbara Carrellas, and an empassioned ritual by performance poet Guillermo Gómez-Peña.
Partially narrated by Boulder Creek’s mythical white peacock Albert, the film includes the cremation of Annie’s mother’s body, an ecosex scene in a burnt forest, and a ceremonial Wedding to Fire by the river —a symbolic embrace of the very element that threatened to destroy them.
Playing with Fire is Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle’s the third film in their trilogy of groundbreaking queer environmental documentaries. It started with Goodbye Gauley Mountain–An Ecosexual Love Story (2013), which critically investigated mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) in West Virginia, focusing on the people and communities affected and the corporations employing this extraction technique. Their second film, Water Makes Us Wet-An Ecosexual Adventure (2017), explored the pleasures and politics of water, and its conservation, commodification, and sustainability. Building on the international acclaim and success of their first two films, this third chapter is their most epic and daring yet—fusing art, activism, and intimate storytelling in a touching journey through crisis, change, and renewal.
This film dares to imagine a future not just of survival, but of rebirth. It is an urgently creative call-to-action as the climate crises worsens, and a powerful portrait of queer resilience in the face of a world in flames.
KelpFest 2025
KelpFest 2025
A Coastal Festival of Art, Science, Food, Film & Community to support Kelp Forest Resilience
North coast ocean celebration comes back to the Mendocino Coast Oct 3-6.
The once-thriving bull kelp forests that stretched from Monterey to Alaska have seen dramatic declines in recent years due to climate shifts, ecological imbalance, and human impact. In response, KelpFest! 2025 returns this year from October 3–6 to celebrate the resilience of coastal ecosystems and the community efforts working to restore them. This multi-day event, set against the stunning backdrop of the Mendocino coastline, invites visitors and locals alike to explore the ecological, cultural, and artistic significance of kelp through a packed schedule of immersive events.
The festival kicks off on Friday October 3 in Fort Bragg, where a Blue Economy presentation and multimedia exhibit at Town Hall explores sustainable marine practices and innovations along the working waterfront. As the sun sets, the town comes alive with a special KelpFest-themed edition of Fort Bragg’s First Friday Art Walk—local galleries feature kelp-inspired artwork, while businesses stay open late with music, tastings, and festivities.
Saturday October 4 begins in Mendocino with the vibrant Seaweed Spectacle Parade, a community procession that winds from Portuguese Beach to the Mendocino Art Center in celebration of marine life, creativity, and coastal culture. The parade is hosted by Flockworks, a local non-profit working with Mendocino schools to bring the science curriculum of kelp forest ecology into the classroom and will dedicate their after-school art program at the start of the year to work with children on costume design for the parade. At the Mendocino Art Center (MAC), festivalgoers can explore new exhibits, including Momim Wene, bringing together Indigenous arts that honor the sacred waters, and kelp basketry by Lucy Traber, interactive games and scavenger hunts, and a dance performance titled All Dripping in Tangles Green. Tables will be hosted by over ten local groups who will share information about their most recent kelp restoration efforts on the North Coast. That evening, The Nature Conservancy & Above/Below hosts the Senescence Celebration at the MAC—an evening of contemporary coastal art, food, wine, and music inspired by the completion of another year’s growth of the kelp forests and the beginning of a new season of renewal.
Sunday October 5 offers a deep dive into science and culture, starting with a morning bluff-top tour of the Big River Kelp Recovery Project, hosted by The Nature Conservancy and featuring drone demonstrations and kelp canopy mapping. Following, Xa Kako Dile & Indigenous Community Initiatives hosts a Native Food Festival & Market in Caspar at Fortunate Farms, celebrating Indigenous foodways and ocean stewardship. In Fort Bragg’s Noyo Harbor, the Noyo Center for Marine Science opens its doors to the public on Sunday with a full day of hands-on exploration, ocean mural installations, and an in-depth Kelp RISES presentation. The afternoon also includes a ticketed Ocean Aquaculture Panel and Reception, bringing together researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of ocean food and restoration.
Also on Sunday, North Coast Brewing Company & Alleyway Art Project unveil a new public art installation—a gray whale alleyway mural—with a reception in the Sequoia Room at the Pub featuring the artists with food and beer offered by the Brewery. That evening, the Mendocino Film Festival will screen Sequoias of the Sea and Finding Forests, a pair of compelling films exploring kelp forest ecology on the North Coast, followed by the filmmakers’ remarks.
KelpFest! concludes on Monday, October 6 with a morning ribbon-cutting at the Ice House in Noyo Harbor and a new kelp mural reveal. The festival closes with an immersive tide pooling and wild urchin harvesting session at Greenwood Beach, timed with the super moon rising over the Pacific.
KelpFest! 2025 is produced by a regional coalition of artists, scientists, educators, and ocean advocates, including Above/Below, Word of Mouth Magazine, Noyo Center for Marine Science, The Nature Conservancy, Flockworks, Mendocino Art Center, the City of Fort Bragg, MendoParks, Xa Kako Dile, The Mendocino Film Festival, and Visit Mendocino. Support comes from The Nature Conservancy, The Ocean Protection Council, California Sea Grant and the Spirit of Max Foundation.
A finalized schedule, including registration for select ticketed events is now available at northcoastkelpfest.org. Most events are free and open to the public.
For all press inquiries and to request media kits or high-resolution images, contact Jade Fogle at jadefogle@me.com.
Download high-resolution images, logos, and media materials here.