The Lower Haight Mural Collective, a group of local artists, galleries, merchants, sponsors, and residents, is planning to paint a giant mural along Haight Street next month — and they want your input.
The mural will adorn the northern wall of the UC Berkeley Extension building on Haight Street between Laguna and Buchanan. It’s intended to serve two purposes: emphasizing the Lower Haight’s identity as an artistic hub, and welcoming visitors to the neighborhood as they come up Haight Street from the east.
The only downer: the Extension building is likely to be demolished within the next couple of years, so this mural will be strictly temporary. But, temporary art is better than no art, no?
About a dozen artists, many of whom live in the neighborhood, have been selected to each design 10-foot sections of the mural. They include:
- Doze Green, a New York-based artist whose work you may have already seen on the Steiner side of Lower Haters Gallery
- Mars Martinez, an artist who lives on the 400 block of Haight
- Sonya Genel, whose work was recently featured at Revolver
- Romanowski, a local artist who painted the mural outside the Vapor Room
- David Choong Lee, author of several art books and teacher at the Academy of Art University
- Jeremy Fish, whose work has been shown around the world, as well as right here in SF at Fecal Face and FIFTY24SF
The entire mural will be painted on a single day — October 23rd. But to kick things off, the Mural Collective will be holding a community meeting this Wednesday night, September 29th, at 7:30pm at Cafe International. At the meeting, they’ll be answering questions like:
- What is the Lower Haight Mural Collective?
- Who are the artists?
- What will the art look like?
- Will there be any part that community members can paint?
- When will they start painting?
- How can I get involved?
They’ll also be soliciting ideas for a slogan that will be scrawled on the wall to welcome folks to the Lower Haight. If you can’t make the meeting though, you can still make your opinion known — with our reader poll!
The Collective has come up with three possible slogans for the wall. Vote on your favorite below, or suggest your own. We’ll pass the results along to help them make a final decision.
Questions? Contact Anne Orr (orr [dot] anne {{at}} yahoo [dot] com). Otherwise, see you Wednesday night!