San Francisco Travel - Discover the Mission District's Murals
With over 600 murals, San Francisco streets are a parade of
vibrant and radiant murals that are painted on building walls
and facades, fences, garage doors and more. The colorful Mission
District is the epicenter of San Francisco murals with the
greatest concentration of murals in San Francisco. The San
Francisco Mission neighborhood's love affair with murals stems
from the Mexican roots of the Mission District community. The
Latino community began to move into in the Mission neighborhood
in the 1950s and 60s. Early in the 1970s, resident muralists
started following the traditions of the great muralists of the
1920s and 30s, perhaps the most famous of which was Diego
Rivera. Discovering the murals of the San Francisco Mission
District is discovering the hopes and passions, joys and
tribulations of the people. The Precita Eyes Mural Arts and
Visitors Center (located at 2981 24th Street) is a great place
to begin your exploration of the murals in the San Francisco
Mission neighborhood. The Precita Eyes visitors center offers
three guided mural tours on Saturday and Sunday for between $10
and $12 for an adult. You can arrange private group mural tours
in advance. In addition, the Precita Eyes Visitors Center has a
Mission mural map of nearly 90 murals that you can use to
explore the neighborhood on your own. At Precita Eyes, you can
purchase mural-themed items, such as post cards, candles,
posters and books. Precita Eyes also sells mural arts supplies
in case your are inspired to paint your own personal mural on
your living room wall. For more information, contact Precita
Eyes at http://www.precitaeyes.org/ or (415) 285-2287.
Located a block from Precita Eyes between Treat Avenue and
Harrison Street, Balmy Alley has a concentration of more than 30
vivid murals painted on fences, building walls and garage doors.
In the neighborhood densely packed with murals, Balmy Alley is
at the center of it all. Muralists began working in San
Francisco's Balmy Alley as early as 1971. Many of the original
murals are still there as well as many murals that have been
painted over the intervening years. The Balmy Alley murals are
very diverse both stylistically and in the subject matter. Some
of the murals feature cartoon-like illustrations that playful
and juvenile. Other murals along Balmy Alley grapple with
difficult subjects, such as a memorial to people who have died
from AIDS or depictions of political strife and war in Latin
America. Another mural honors the great muralist Diego Rivera
and his wife, the painter Frida Kahlo. And another is a tribute
to women muralists of the Mission District. One colorless mural,
depicts two men and a woman jumping through a barbed-wire fence
lined with keys. The woman has her hand held high, making the
peace sign. Elsewhere in the Mission District on Harrison at
19th Street, mixed among blocks of warehouses and running along
a wall for nearly a block in San Francisco's Mission
neighborhood is a mural titled "Carnaval." As the name implies,
the Carnaval mural is a representation of the Carnaval
celebration, a multicultural dance and music festival that has
its roots in Latin America and the Caribbean. The San Francisco
Mission District has been hosting a Carnaval Festival since
1978. Created in 1994 by Joshua Sarantitis, Emmanuel Montoya,
Carlos Loarca and others, the radiant Carnaval mural is as
dynamic and colorful as the festival that it portrays. The
Women's Building (located at 3543 18th Street) boasts two walls
of a dramatic mural that pays homage to women. Created by a team
of seven women muralists, the "Maestrapeace" mural portrays
women and feminine archetypes of multiple world origins. The
Goddess of Light and Creativity adorns the top of the 18th
Street facade with the waters of life flowing beneath her and
transforming into fabric designs from around the world. The
mural features such notable women as Georgia O'Keefe (an
innovative American artist) and Rigoberta Menchu (a Guatemalan
of Mayan decent and Nobel prize-winning activist). The names of
many more famous women are inscribed in the mural's colorful
patterns. The mural is meant to be inspiration and educational,
illustrating the contributions women have made to human history
and society. The Women's Building provides resources and
services to organizations that support women and girls from
multi-ethnic and multi-cultural backgrounds. For an
informational key to the mural, step inside the Women's Building
or contact them at http://www.womensbuilding.org/ or
(415) 431-1180. A colorful world of murals and culture awaits
you in San Francisco's Mission District, so get out there and
explore.