The Marin Center's holiday season opens on Thursday, November 19. That is the day Bartolini Gallery opens "Industrial Art & Magic: Recent Work from the Marin Model Shop Alumni." The show brings together more than a dozen former members of Industrial Light & Magic's Marin Model Shop. These are the people who built creatures, miniatures and starships a few miles away on Kerner Boulevard. The county lists the exhibit as running "during Holiday Light Spectacular," and its dates cover the full light season and then some.
The hours tell a different story. Bartolini Gallery's posted hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The lights come on at 5 p.m. If you plan one evening at the fairgrounds, you'll see the lights and miss the most local thing on the campus this year. To see both, you need a weekday plan, and one day of the week works better than the rest.
Four schedules on one campus
From late November, four separate operations share the Marin Center grounds at 20 Avenue of the Flags. Each keeps its own hours.
| Attraction | Dates | Hours | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial Art & Magic, Bartolini Gallery | Nov. 19, 2026 to Jan. 29, 2027 | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Monday to Friday |
| Pronzini Christmas Tree Farms, Fairgrounds | Nov. 22 to Dec. 25, 2026 | 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. | Daily |
| Holiday Light Spectacular, Fairgrounds | Nov. 27, 2026 to Jan. 3, 2027 | 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. | Daily, including holidays |
| Agricultural Institute of Marin farmers market | Ongoing | 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Sundays and Thursdays |
The gallery is the odd one out. It's the only attraction closed on weekends. It also closes on the county holidays listed on its page, and it shuts an hour before the light display starts. The light show runs every night, rain or shine, unless lightning or high winds force a cancellation. The county posts any closure on the Holiday Light Spectacular page.
The model makers come back to San Rafael
The exhibit carries more weight in San Rafael than it would anywhere else, because this is where the model shop worked. ABC7 News reported that after Star Wars, George Lucas moved the ILM shop from Van Nuys to a nondescript building on Kerner Boulevard. He later moved the company to the Presidio in San Francisco in 2005. A Kerner Group announcement published by SHOOT describes the San Rafael site as the home of ILM's physical-effects and camera-engineering departments since 1977. After ILM moved its digital-effects team, the Kerner operation was sold in a management-led buyout in 2006.
The physical shop lasted only a few more years. The Mercury News reported in September 2011 that Kerner Optical had closed, effective immediately. A month later, the Marin Independent Journal reported that the model shop at 3140 Kerner Blvd. was among the assets going to auction. In 2023, ABC7 reported that 32TEN Studios, then operating on the former ILM campus, was going out of business. The company pointed to the declining use of miniature practical effects in film production.
So the Bartolini show is the craft returning to the town where it was practiced. A few of the names on the county's list carry well-documented credits:
- Lorne Peterson joined ILM in 1975 to work on the original Star Wars. He shared the Academy Award for visual effects for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, according to Cal State Long Beach.
- Adam Savage told How It Works that he spent five years at ILM, working on Star Wars Episodes I and II, A.I., Galaxy Quest and Terminator 3, among others.
- Bill George is an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor who won his Oscar for Innerspace and an Emmy for The Ewok Adventure, according to ILM's own podcast transcript.
The county's list also includes Leigh Barbier, Jean Bolte, Jett Green, Michael Lynch, Jeff Mann, Michael Murnane, Randy Ottenberg, Tony Sommers, Kim Smith and Melanie Walas. The work isn't movie memorabilia. The county describes paintings, sculpture, scale models, creatures, mixed-media pieces and "imaginative constructions" the artists have made since leaving the studio. Michael Murnane's "Love Chest" and Jeff Mann's "The Queen's Ascent" are among the pieces previewed.
Year two moves the lights an hour later
The Holiday Light Spectacular is new enough that its schedule is still changing. In its 2025 announcement, the county called that edition its "first-ever holiday light festival." That season ran November 28 through January 4, from 4 to 9 p.m. daily. The 2026 season runs November 27 through January 3, and it starts at 5 p.m.
Under last year's 4 p.m. start, the light display opened right as the gallery's posted hours ended. This year leaves an hour between them. The trimmed hour matters most on a short December afternoon, when someone leaving the gallery at closing has to wait out the dusk before the display lights up.
Other details carry over or are spelled out on the county page. The display is walk-only and can't be viewed from a car. Leashed pets are welcome outdoors, and the paths are accessible throughout. Parking is free in the lots by the Exhibit Hall and the Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, and the Exhibit Hall lot has EV charging. The county recommends entering through the Exhibit Hall at 20 Avenue of the Flags. A concessionaire sells sweet and savory food and nonalcoholic drinks, and there's a free holiday craft activity every night.
The Showcase Theater film nights all fall on Saturdays, when the gallery is closed:
- Hook, Saturday, November 28 at 6 p.m.
- Ghostbusters, Saturday, December 19 at 6 p.m.
- James and the Giant Peach, Saturday, December 26 at 5:30 p.m.
- The NeverEnding Story, Saturday, December 26 at 7 p.m.
Opening night, Friday, November 27, includes a juggler performing with glow-in-the-dark pins.
Thursday lines up best
Put the four schedules side by side and Thursday is the only day when all of them can be open. The farmers market sets up in the Veterans' Memorial Auditorium parking lot from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The gallery opens at 10. The Pronzini lot is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Then the lights come on at 5. Between November 27 and December 24, a single Thursday covers produce, the model makers, a tree and the light walk without leaving the Avenue of the Flags. Just check the gallery's holiday closures before you go.
Weekends offer a different combination. Sunday brings the farmers market to the Pit Parking Lot, and The French Market Marin sets up in the Armory Lot on Sunday, December 13. The tree farm and the lights are open both weekend days, and Saturdays add the films. On no weekend day can you see the ILM alumni show.
The exhibit's own calendar softens the problem a little. It stays up through January 29, nearly four weeks after the lights come down on January 3. A quieter January weekday visit, once the holiday rush on the grounds is over, is still an option.
Fourth Street on the first Saturday in December
For a downtown stop, Fourth Street makes a natural pairing on Saturday, December 5. That afternoon, the City of San Rafael and the Downtown Business Improvement District put on the 45th-anniversary Winter Wonderland, from 1 to 6 p.m. The city lists it under a new date this year. Along the way is Alioto's Focacceria at 1574 Fourth St., which chef Alexander Alioto reopened in August as an Italian deli in the former Kitchen Table space. The Marin Independent Journal reported that it serves sandwiches and pinsas, plus fresh pasta and sauces to go, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Winter Wonderland ends at 6, an hour after the fairgrounds lights come on.
More on the towns we follow across the county is on our Marin neighborhood page.
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