Longtime local presence Marin Open Studios (MOS) recently welcomed Kina Lamblin as the new Executive Director. Experienced in nonprofit management and as an artist herself, Lamblin succeeds longtime executive director Kay Carlson in the role. We chatted with Lamblin to learn more about her transition into the role and her vision for MOS. Lamblin will continue many existing initiatives such as their Diversity Program, which has established alliances with Canal Alliance Mural Artists and the Marin City Arts and Culture Center, she says.
What plans do you have coming into the position?
Lamblin: I’m coming into an organization that’s 32 years old and I’m really grateful to the outgoing Executive Director, Kay Carlson, and her co-founder Peggy Haas who supported her from the beginning, and her other co-founder Tim Rose, who was an artist who started it 32 years ago. It’s exciting to basically pick up where they’ve gotten to and keep going, and some of the efforts on the “keep going” side are to bring more art from artists who are working hard in their studios in Marin out into the public so that people walking by at a downtown center or shopping center or Marin Art & Garden Center or Marin Community Foundation, can see the art that different artists are working hard in their studios every day to make.
We just finished a fall gallery exhibit showcase for over 100 artists at Marin Art & Garden Center and we are just starting a new one for winter that’s up and running.
How do you plan to bring new artists in?
Lamblin: I think just the excitement around the Marin Art & Garden Center’s gallery’s exhibits has brought many more artists than we typically would have had registered, including lots of new artists. I think when artists see that we are connecting the MOS artists with the community, they want to be part of it.
And one of the ways that I’m working hard to help them do that is to find more shared spaces where artists without home studios or rented studios in some of the art buildings around the county, who are artists but don’t feel like they can open their homes or don’t have studios, have shared spaces where they can participate in Open Studios. Along those lines, providing more equity, more opportunity to artists that aren’t typically involved in Marin Open Studios.
What do you think makes an artist successful at MOS?
Lamblin: Signing up and then participating. There are lots of ways that Marin Open Studios helps an artist go from being sort of a new or emerging artist or somebody just coming into the professional stage with their art. One is they have — on our year-round website — a profile that they can create where they can put up all their art, they can modify and add more art to it throughout the year, so it’s not just the two weeks in May kind of experience for the artist, it can be their website, their profile where they sell their art.
We have a really robust social media outreach program and newsletters and emails and that sort of thing promoting the artists. And we also give free workshops for our emerging artists of how to basically step into a role as a professional artist and how to promote your work but also how to give a professional appearance to our gallery shows and how to follow up with people who are interested in your art.
I saw that you’re an artist yourself, a sculptor. How will your own work and passion in the arts influence what you do?

Lamblin: I also come from a family of artists so I think just that degree of familiarity, like I grew up around artists. My mother was constantly exhibiting in galleries and group shows and such in San Francisco and she was an art teacher so she brought up a lot of emerging artists that she taught.
I guess as an artist myself I appreciate how much the work is internal. You and your art and your studio if you have one and your home if you don’t, it’s such a personal, internal experience and then that step of bringing it out into the world is a big one. And Marin Open Studios really helps people make that step.
It’s good for us to collaborate, basically. It’s good for artists to see each other and see each other put their work out and see somebody else come along and see someone love some other artist’s work.
What drew you to this position?
Lamblin: The arts. I feel like in this moment in time, in humanity, the art is what connects us the most to who we are as a species and to each other. It’s just a really good way to connect people and a really good way to get people in touch with the important parts of being human. It just feels like art right now is part of what the world needs and the opportunity to be involved in a nonprofit that’s helping artists get their work out there and helping the public see their work and doing more and more of that, is what drew me to this job.
How will your previous experience with nonprofit work carry over into the position?
Lamblin: As a founding member of the Bay Area Urban Debate League, I functioned with the other board members at first like the Executive Director because we didn’t really have one. So I’m used to working with many different partners. I’m used to — because of that nonprofit work — working with the people you serve, the people who fund the organization, the government entities that you have to interact with to make it roll smoothly, foundations and the public who get to come and watch and see what’s going on in your organization.
What are you most excited for coming into this position?

Lamblin: Bringing more people into the Open Studios themselves and the galleries, and bringing more of the artists who work so hard throughout the year, bringing more of their work out into the public to give beauty and inspiration to our community.
When did you become involved with Marin Open Studios? Why?
Lamblin: I’ve lived in Marin for 18 years and I’ve seen the Marin Open Studios signs and I’ve gone to Open Studios with friends and even people I didn’t know, and I was involved with in in San Francisco as well and I am involved with it because I think that it’s an essential part of our culture that art is being made and we don’t have — other than museums — that many opportunities for the public to see the art being made in their own community.
Dates to Look Out For:
- A show at the Marin Community Foundation in Feb. 2025
- An ongoing, rotating exhibit at Bon Air Shopping Center in the windows
- Open Studios season May 3-4 and 10-11
- Open Studios Gallery Showcase at Sausalito Center for the Arts April 25 through May 11
- Benefit for Art in SCA Gallery April 26