Artists

Precita Eyes Muralists

PRECITA EYES MURALISTS MISSION STATEMENT

The Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center , established 30 years ago, is a multipurpose community based arts organization. The center sponsors and implements ongoing mural projects throughout the Bay Area and internationally. It has a direct impact on arts education in the San Francisco Mission District by offering eleven weekly art classes for children and youth (18 months through 19 years) and adults. These classes and community mural projects enable children, youth and adults to develop their individuality and confidence through creative activities and to experience unifying, positive social interaction through collaboration. Walking into the center during almost any day of the week, one could find children engaged in arts and crafts; artists drawing from the figure; students collaborating on a portable mural; a slide presentation to a group of educators or public school students; or an intense planning session for a new monumental mural project for the Mission District community. More than 20,000 students and tourists have walked from Precita Eyes as the starting point for the mural tours encompassing more than 80 murals in an eight-block walk. Precita Eyes is alive with purpose and ideas, and it is continually evolving to meet the needs of the individuals, young and old, that pass through its doors.

As an inner-city, community-based, mural arts organization, Precita Eyes Muralists work to enrich and beautify urban environments and educate the public about the process and history of community mural art. Working with a wide variety of neighborhoods and communities, we nourish one's inherent creativity and celebrate the beauty of their community. We maintain a deep commitment to collaboration. This dedication to the collaborative process ensures that the creative work produced is accessible, both physically and conceptually, to the people whose lives it impacts. We bring art into the daily lives of people through a process, which allows them to celebrate their beauty, discover their creativity, and reflect their concerns, joys and triumphs.

The Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Visitors Center is a project of Precita Eyes Muralists Assoc., Inc., a non-profit, tax exempt association of artists/muralists and supporters which evolved from a community mural workshop organized in 1977 by current director Susan Cervantes. Precita Eyes sees its role as part of a larger worldwide movement of community mural painting, and because of this, muralists from the center continue to participate in mural projects in other countries and have completed projects in Brazil , Spain , Germany , and Russia .

The seeds for the beginning of Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center were planted by the vision of artists coming from the San Francisco Mission District Community. Mural painting in California came primarily from Latinos/Latinas trying to reclaim their cultural identities through a people's art form. This process then was adopted by people from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds as a tool for community organizing and outlet for social expression.

The community mural process is accessible to everyone and can empower the people through art.