Restoration of Landmark Mission District 24th Street BART Plaza Mural Starts Work

July 19, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: TODCO Group, todcoplanning@todco.org, 415-896-1880

San Francisco, CA

Restoration of Landmark Mission District 24th Street BART Plaza Mural Starts Work

The “modern” BART Bay Area mass transit system was the pivotal post-WWII infrastructure necessary to transform San Francisco into a corporate and finance headquarters of the Pacific, generating enormous new wealth for the elite and the powerful. While passing through working class districts of San Francisco and Oakland on its paths to commuter suburbs, it threatened the Mission District with bulldozer redevelopment and gentrified displacement of its people. In 1973 the Latino community arose in response, the Mission Coalition Organization, and other groups, to protest, oppose, and stop that top-down agenda for the future for their Latino neighborhood. (Protest Video Link: https://youtu.be/rCsinrUGzTQ). This revolutionary energy ignited a new era of Mission Latino community art and culture still embodied in surviving murals today throughout the neighborhood. The landmark 24th Street Station BART Plaza mural “BART” painted by Michael Rios with Anthony Machado and Richard Montez in 1975 following that seminal year of BART’s birth, powerfully depicts the crushing load of the elite BART vision on the shoulders of the Mezo-American peoples de La Misión.

Michael Rios and associates are now beginning the mural’s three week full restoration process sponsored by the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District (https://www.calle24sf.org), coordinated by Precita Eyes Muralists (https://www.precitaeyes.org), and funded by a $140,000 grant from the TODCO Group (www.todco.org). Rios, now 75 years old and TODCO’s Artist In Residence, was first inspired as a young Latino artist by the great muralists of Mexico, Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros. In 1974 he brought his vision for the Mission neighborhood’s new BART station plaza to San Francisco Arts Commission President Ray Taliaferro, and with logistical support from the Commission and a $7,500 grant from the National Endowment For The Arts Michael and his two colleagues completed the work. “I wanted to show that without the workers, the people of community whose work supported it, just like the concrete pillars holding up its elevated tracks, BART could never have been possible.” Erik Arguello, President of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District describes the mural’s significance to the Mission community. “The Bart Mural illuminates the indomitable spirit of our people, capturing our unwavering determination and the pivotal role we play within the entire San Francisco Bay Area. The mural depicts the struggle and resilience of our workers and our community as a testament to our unwavering strength and perseverance.”

Rios has created murals throughout the Mission District throughout the last 50 years, an early founder of the renowned San Francisco Latino muralist movement.

TODCO, a San Francisco nonprofit focused on civic impact and community building for South of Market communities grew from a movement of Central City tenants and owners who joined forces to prevent redevelopment’s displacement of poor and elderly residents in the 1960s and 70s. Now TODCO is an affordable housing developer with 1,400 tenants living in 8 affordable SOMA residences. TODCO’s Community Arts Initiatives include the 6th On 7th Photography Workshop (https://www.6thon7th.org) and its 6th On 7th Gallery at 7th and Mission Streets. The Workshop’s newly published book Secret San Francisco is now available. To learn more, visit the TODCO website and or follow TODCO on social media @TODCOGroup across all platforms. www.todco.org