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.
Arbetet är inte planerat ännu. Gonzalez och Rivera samlar fortfarande tillstånd från Balmy Alley-fastighetsägarna, som måste godkänna restaurering av muraler som målats på deras hem och garageportar.
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.
Två andra Mission-muralprojekt finansierades i samma omgång: $76,410 till Precita Eyes Muralists för att restaurera 1975 ”Fantasy World for Children”-muralen vid 24th and York mini park, och $150,000 till Mission Housing Development Corporation för två ungdomsmuraler i 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. Muralen började på 1970-talet, när en grupp kvinnliga konstnärer känd som mujeres muralistas började måla alléen; arbete på 1980-talet behandlade kriget i Guatemala, El Salvador och Nicaragua, och mer moderna muraler tar upp gentrificering och polisering. Alléen har varit ett kontinuerligt underhållet muralprogam sedan 1984.
Precita Eyes Muralists, baserat vid 2981 24th Street, driver guidade muralerpromenader som inkluderar alléen. Den närmaste stationen är 24th Street Mission BART, cirka fyra kvarter västerut, och 48 Quintara/24th Street-bussen kör längs 24th Street. För mer information om omgivande kvarter, se vår guide till the Mission District.
Grant details from the city’s Community Challenge Grants program. The awards were reported in July 2026 by Mission Local and ABC7 News.
Photo: Fabrice Florin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
