Ship of Dreams

The exhibition Ship of Dreams: Artists, Poets and Visionaries of the S.S. Vallejo is the story of how a decommissioned ferry boat became an important cultural crossroads in the history of California and America. Moored on the north side of Sausalito, California in 1949, the S.S. Vallejo became the dynamic home and cultural incubator for artists, musicians and literary luminaries such as Gordon Onslow Ford, Alan Watts, Jean Varda, Allen Ginsberg, Wolfgang Paalen and many others. This exhibition examines the contributions of the circle of S.S. Vallejo from 1949 to 1969 with important visual works of art by Onslow Ford, Varda, Paalen, Roberto Matta, Ruth Asawa, Lee Mullican, Fritz Rauh, Richard Bowman, J.B. Blunk and others. Ship of Dreams: Artists, Poets and Visionaries of the S.S. Vallejo is the first exhibition to survey the full spectrum of creative life aboard the S.S. Vallejo from 1949 to 1969. It was a pivotal period in the development of California and American culture with many of its thought leaders gravitating around this singular place on the edge of San Francisco Bay. This exhibition is a collaboration between SVMA and Lucid Art Foundation.