Canal Alliance Mural Project Delayed until August

The mural planned for the blank stone wall on the on 91 Larkspur St. will be put on hold until August 9.

Although business owners and residents in the Canal neighborhood support the mural, only two planning commissioners, Charles Pick and Viktoriya Wise, attended Tuesday night’s meeting. Since there were not enough votes to approve the project, Pick and Wise decided to move the item to the Aug. 9 agenda.

“We’re sorry that we don’t have a full board here, but we think we’ve figured out a way to make the best of this situation,” Pick said to the Canal Alliance students who worked on the mural.

With a $15,000 grant from the Marin Community Foundation, literacy nonprofit ForWords teamed up with Canal Alliance students to design the mural for the neighborhood.

The proposed 22 by 28 foot design shows a central face composed of different colored puzzle pieces sprouting out of a sunflower. A diploma rests in one of its eyes. Behind the figure, a vibrant road twists up, revealing heros like Che. Below, students work together to break down a brick wall that divided them from other students playing sports.

“We’ve spent many Fridays for months working with the kids on themes for the mural,” ForWords Board President Gail Siegel said.

The students researched the history of murals in Latino culture and went on field trips to San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood to hunt for ideas.

“Some of the students never crossed the bridge before,” Siegel said.

Members of the muralist association Precita Eyes, a group responsible for many murals in San Francisco and Oakland, helped the students decide on the concept–education and peace.

“Here’s group of kids who may not always have the same resources [as other students in Marin], but they have the same vigor and determination and we have learned so much from them,” ForWords co-founder Larry Siegel said.

A total of 35 middle and high school students worked on the project. To many of them, the mural held different personal meanings: freedom, diversity, education, their ancestors.

“What the mural means to me is the everyday barriers that we all go through and the education that we are all pursuing to reach,” said Adriana Cruz, who worked on the project and will be a junior at .

Some commissioners were concerned about graffiti and vandalism, but Canal Alliance Executive Director Tom Wilson believes the mural will do more to prevent graffiti in the neighborhood.

“People have been very supportive,” he said, “and [the mural] signals the presence of an important group of people in our community.”