Any port for A Ship in the Woods

A Ship in the Woods, a nonprofit arts collective, set sail from the north end of Del Mar in July following the expiration of their lease after about five years at the location. The wooded residence served as home to founders R.J. Brooks and Dan Fauchier, assistant director Addison Stonestreet, and curator Lianne Mueller, as well as a live music, art, and creative space that hosted over 50 events and more than 80 residencies. Since their departure, the collective has continued to curate events around town as they search for a new port.

“One of the most important things we are looking for are beautiful grounds with trees and land, ideally about an acre or more,” says Mueller, a Bay Area native who has been curating with the group for about a year. “We like interesting features: big boulders, wild cacti, trees, any kind of setting that would be inspiring to artists, scientists, and musicians. Music has become such an integral part of what we are doing. A big thing we have our eyes on is a recording studio, something like Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree. We want to have perfect sound but also make it a place where there’s a sense of warmth and collaboration.”

How soon are they looking to relocate? “Yesterday would be great,” Mueller says. “Basically, nothing is going to stop us. We just want to create experiences: on the beach, in city and national parks, galleries. ‘Unexpected’ is a big part of what we do, but we don’t have a show without music now. We are interested in building an advisory board of musicians and recording engineers to maintain the studio. We’ve also found two grant writers, so we are no longer self-funded, but we are all volunteers, all 10 to 15 of us. We are planting our roots. I don’t want people to think that we are in anyway leaving [San Diego]. We are here. We have a plan. Everything is right around the corner.”

On August 15, from 5 to 10 p.m., Mueller and Rebecca Webb are co-curating a fundraiser event announcing their Indiegogo campaign to raise $100,000 by the end of the month. Here/Hear will be held at Space 4 Art and features multimedia exhibitions from Lana Kaplan, Adam Belt, Francisco Eme, Gabie Strong, Matthew Hebert, Tim Mullen, Andrew Hunter, and live performances from Hexa and PRGRM.