Original Artists Will Restore Balmy Alley Murals Under $129,294 City Grant

Balmy Alley, the mural-lined block off 24th Street in the Mission, is getting a city-funded restoration. A team led by artist Tirso Gonzalez and art conservator Yano Rivera has been awarded up to $129,294 through San Francisco’s Community Challenge Grant program to restore six murals and paint a new one, Mission Local reported on July 10, 2026.

What the grant covers

The award funds restoration of five murals in Balmy Alley plus one in the mini park at 24th and York streets. Several of the original artists are returning to work on their own paintings, among them Juana Alicia Araiza, Betsie Miller-Kusz, Irene Perez, Hector Escarraman, and Josue Rojas.

Perez is restoring “Coyolxauhqui has Something to Say,” which she painted in 1972 and which honors the Aztec moon goddess. A mural by Araiza depicting Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran archbishop assassinated in 1980, is also on the list. Gonzalez plans a new mural on the wall of Taqueria Vallarta at the alley’s 24th Street entrance, showing a rural scene from Jalisco with the corn god and a reference to Mexican bands in the Mission.

The work is not scheduled yet. Gonzalez and Rivera are still collecting permission from the Balmy Alley property owners, who have to approve restoration of murals painted on their homes and garage doors.

Where the money comes from

The Community Challenge Grant was created by a 1991 voter initiative that directs part of the city’s business gross receipts tax into a fund for neighborhood improvement projects. City Administrator Carmen Chu said the city distributed $3.3 million across 25 projects this year, chosen from more than 100 applications, with individual awards capped at $150,000. The Balmy Alley award is listed as “Balmy Alley Revive & Thrive,” with Mission Murals as recipient and Brava for Women in the Arts as fiscal sponsor.

Two other Mission mural projects were funded in the same round: $76,410 to Precita Eyes Muralists to restore the 1975 “Fantasy World for Children” mural at the 24th and York mini park, and $150,000 to Mission Housing Development Corporation for two youth murals in Wiese Alley.

Visiting Balmy Alley

Balmy Alley runs one block between 24th and 25th streets, east of Harrison. It is a public street, free to walk, with no gate or hours. The murals began in the 1970s, when a group of women artists known as the mujeres muralistas started painting the alley; work in the 1980s addressed the wars in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, and more recent murals take up gentrification and policing. The alley has been a continuously maintained mural program since 1984.

Precita Eyes Muralists, based at 2981 24th Street, runs guided mural walks that include the alley. The closest station is 24th Street Mission BART, about four blocks west, and the 48 Quintara/24th Street bus runs along 24th Street. For more on the surrounding blocks, see our guide to the Mission District.

Reporting from Mission Local and ABC7 News, with grant details from the city’s Community Challenge Grants program.

Photo: Fabrice Florin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.