A Spanish-style building from the Art Deco era serves as a lovely and appropriate home for the Novato Arts Center and Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. The structure was built as the centerpiece of the Hamilton Army Air Field, which later became Hamilton Air Force Base. When the base was decommissioned in 1974 and the area turned residential in the early 1990s, the city worked with its Civic Arts Commission to brainstorm how to use the facility as an epicenter for artists. After the City Council decided to create the Novato Arts Center in 1999, the building gradually morphed into studios, classrooms and gardens only a year later. Since then, the local arts organization has provided a series of juried shows, regional and national exhibitions, member exhibits, lectures, workshops and classes. The gallery and gift shop opened in 2000 and adopted the Marin MOCA name in 2007. The city arranges for a leasing agent to oversee the rentals of the 24 art studios in the three-building complex in Hamilton's "downtown" area. Visitors are welcome to swing through and talk to the artists at work, although many do not have regular studio hours. The complex also is home of the nonprofit Artists of Marin MOCA, previously known as the Art League of Northern California and even earlier known as Indian Valley Artists. It was the Indian Valley group that spearheaded the effort to create a Novato Arts Center back in 1995.