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SAN FRANCISCO | Balmy Alley has been home to street art murals since 1972, when local resident Maria Galivez and children in a local child care center created the first piece of street art here. A year later, the all-female artist collective Mujeres Muralistas was founded, which focused on womanhood, beauty, and socio-political change. Several members of the collective painted murals here.
The second major wave of new art on Balmy Alley occurred in the mid-1980s, when the PLACA project arranged for 27 murals to be painted throughout the alley, focusing on a celebration of indigenous Central American cultures and a protest of US intervention in Central America. More recent murals have focused on topics like gentrification and police harassment, along with a continued spotlight on pioneering women. Today, Balmy Alley is home to the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco.
The artwork here is constantly changing, however many of the older murals remain and have been restored. Not for profit organisation Precita Eyes oversees restorations and new art work in the area, hold weekly art courses, and run artist-led street art tours in the Mission District. Balmy Alley provided the inspiration for the Clarion Alley Mural Project, who support and produce socially engaged and aesthetically innovative public art in the Mission District.
As a visitor to the Mission District, Balmy Alley provides an invaluable insight into some of the issues that residents have faced, and continue to face, over the years, and a unique insight into the Chicano/Chicana culture and history of the neighbourhood.