Join us Saturday, July 17 at 1pm for a walking tour to explore the ever-changing landscape of murals in the Tenderloin.
Co-Presented by Tenderloin Museum & CounterPulse
*Featuring artist talks by muralists and dance performances by CounterPulse*
*Departs from CounterPulse at 80 Turk St.*
About this event
Limited tickets! Get tickets via Eventbrite here.
A pantheon of community leaders realized in a precise hand with a comic fan’s flair emerges from a noisy backdrop of bright graffiti neons. A towering, kaleidoscopic, black-and white eddy churns out a 3D glinting prism in a jaw-dropping optical illusion. Cheerful trees and other friendly flora and fauna snake up the walls of SROs and around public park, situating the Tenderloin’s dense built environment as a living, vibrant, organic eco-system. Wherever you stand in the Tenderloin, there’s likely a mural in-sight; the neighborhood has always been a rich enclave of murals and public art, and throughout the pandemic and immediate years prior, the TL has exploded with dazzling new works. Whether community efforts organized by TLCBD, CounterPulse, and DISH, large-scale masterpieces by fine-artists with roots in the TL organized by Luggage Store Gallery, or the more fleeting street-level neighborhood tributes organized by Paint the Void, the Tenderloin is having a moment for murals that warrants a dedicated stroll with fresh eyes keen to notice the TL’s rich, dynamic visual culture.
Explore the ever-changing landscape of murals in the Tenderloin by taking the Murals of the Tenderloin Walking Tour, co-presented by the Tenderloin Museum & CounterPulse. The walk will weave through the heart of the neighborhood, surveying a range of new works and highlighting some of the TL’s historic legacy murals. CounterPulse has organized several site-specific dances to be performed in front of specific murals; CP will also be premiering a multi-panel mobile mural tribute to the Night Hawk Jazz Club. The Tenderloin’s most prolific muralist Sylvester “Slick” Guard Jr. will be present to feature his work at CounterPulse, GLIDE, and the future home of Yemen Kitchen. Other highlights include visits to several of the iconic Luggage Store murals made by Alicia McCarthy, Tauba Auerbach, Chad Hasegawa et. al. as well as newer work by Harumo Sato, Spencer Keaton Cunningham, and the recently completed tribute to beloved artist and SFAI professor Carlos Villa by Mario Ayala.