San Rafael High School

KSRH ("The Sound Difference") is a low power non-commercial radio station licensed to San Rafael, CA, broadcasting on 88.1 FM. The station is owned and operated by San Rafael High School, and is operated by high school students. All of KSRH's funding comes from the San Rafael School District. The station also airs PSAs (Public Service Announcements) which are broadcast at no charge per FCC law. KSRH's signal can be received in the neighborhoods of Downtown San Rafael, the Canal Area, Gerstle Park, and in Sun Valley. Its signal is 7 watts and is contained by the geography of San Rafael (with steep hills on three sides, and the San Francisco Bay on the fourth). KSRH's transmitting tower is 59 feet tall, and attached to the main building at San Rafael High School, which is 23 feet above sea level. As of the 2011 school year, KSRH is transmitting only pre-recorded shows due to changes to the class, but the station still broadcasts 24 hours a dayEach DJ is responsible for the content of their show, and several of the shows have unique names and themes.Alleged domestic terrorist Daniel Andreas San Diego is an alumnus of KSRH.

Terrapin Crossroads was a music venue,, bar, and restaurant active from 2011 until 2021 in San Rafael, California, founded by former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh.

Dominican University of California is a private university in San Rafael, California. It was founded in 1890 as Dominican College by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. It is one of the oldest universities in California. Dominican is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). More than 60 academic majors, minors and concentrations, including 11 graduate programs are offered with an average class size of 16. In fall 2020, Dominican had 1374 undergraduate students, including 354 transfer students. Ninety-one percent of students are from California, 6% are from other states and 3% from other nations. In fall 2020, 100% of incoming first-year students received financial aid, 68% identify as ethnically diverse and 23% are the first in their family to attend college. In 2019, Dominican University of California introduced a Test-Optional Policy, allowing first-year students applying for admission to have the option to submit SAT or ACT scores, beginning with the fall 2020 cohort. The university is a member of NCAA Division II and competes in the Pacific West Conference.

The San Rafael Transportation Center (also called C. Paul Bettini Transportation Center) is an intermodal transportation center located in downtown San Rafael, California. It is a primary transfer point for several local and regional bus operators, and a commuter rail station on the Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) system.

The Marin Shakespeare Company http://www.marinshakespeare.org was established in 1989 at Dominican College’s Forest Meadows Amphitheatre in San Rafael, California, by Lesley Schisgall Currier and Robert Currier. The original Marin Shakespeare Festival, founded by John and Ann Brebner, produced outdoor Shakespearean theatre at the Ross Art and Garden Center for 6 seasons from 1961 to 1967. That year the Forest Meadows Amphitheater was built for the Shakespeare Festival where it remained until 1972, before producing a final season at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts in 1973. In 1989, Robert and Lesley Currier came to Marin to revive the defunct festival. Their first production of "As You Like It" was performed at Forest Meadows in 1990. The company grew to offer three summer performances, education programming including summer camps and year-round classes, in-schools classes, Student Matinees, and the Teen Touring Company. In 2001 Marin Shakespeare Company celebrated the 40th anniversary of the founding of California's first outdoor Shakespeare festival. In 2003, the company began Shakespeare for Social Justice programs, with classes offered at San Quentin State Prison. Shakespeare for Social Justice has served 14 California State Prisons and Alameda Juvenile Hall. The program includes classes in Shakespeare, original writing/performing, and Acting for Veterans which allows military Veterans to tell their stories through theatre. Dozens of performances from inside prisons are available for viewing on the company's YouTube page. In 2023, under the leadership of Lesley and Robert Currier, the company opened the Center for Arts, Education, and Social Justice at 514 Fourth Street in San Rafael. Marin Shakespeare Company is listed as a Major Festival in the book Shakespeare Festivals Around the World by Marcus D. Gregio (Editor), 2004. The Marin Shakespeare Company is part of the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA).

New George's was a nightclub and concert venue located in San Rafael, California. History of the venue dates back to the 1920s when it was a recreational pool hall. The building was remodeled into a nightclub in 1977 and named New George's until it closed in 2003. It was during this time many famous artists performed at the venue, including Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Santana, Huey Lewis and the News, Bonnie Raitt and Melissa Etheridge.

The Canal Area comprises two neighborhoods of San Rafael, California, designated by the city as the "Canal Waterfront" and the "Canal." The Canal Area is bounded on the east by San Francisco Bay, on the north by the San Rafael Canal and on the south and west by Highways 101 and I-580 and by San Quentin Ridge. Land use is split almost evenly between residential and non-residential (commercial/industrial) uses. The Canal Area provides a substantial portion of the low-income housing in Marin County, one of the most affluent counties in the United States, along with Marin City. It is also the location of transportation and waste management facilities serving Marin County and the North Bay.

The Museum of International Propaganda is a non-profit institution that opened its doors in 2016 in San Rafael, California.

Simms Island is a former marsh island in San Francisco Bay. It is in Marin County, California; Its coordinates are 37°57′33″N 122°30′18″W, and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) gave its elevation as 13 ft (4.0 m) in 1981. It appears as an island on a USGS map in 1897; it is labeled in a 1954 map, but fully connected to the mainland.

Mission San Rafael Arcángel is a Spanish mission in San Rafael, California. It was founded in 1817 as a medical asistencia ("sub-mission") of Mission San Francisco de Asís. It was a hospital to treat sick Native Americans, making it Alta California's first sanitarium. The weather was much better than in San Francisco, which helped the ill get better. It was not intended to be a stand-alone mission, but nevertheless grew and prospered and was granted full mission status on October 19, 1822.

The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual American film festival founded in 1977.

The Marin History Museum is a museum with two locations in Marin County, California, US. It includes the historic Boyd Gate House, the museum's main exhibition space, in San Rafael, and the Collections Research Facility, in Novato. It is one of about a dozen US museums that has launched a mobile app to view the county's historic hotspots.