• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Glen Park Association

Up-to-the-minute news from Glen Park

  • Home
  • Glen Park Association
    • About the Glen Park Association
    • Join the GPA
    • GPA Board Contacts
    • Bylaws
    • Neighborhood boundaries
    • Financials
    • GPA Meeting Minutes
  • News Stories
    • Glen Park News
    • Glen Park News archive
  • Greenway
    • About
    • Greenway Plan
  • GPA Grants Program
  • Crime & Safety
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Volunteer Sign Ups
    • Event Submission
    • Author Submissions

Completion of Burnside Mural is celebrated

October 3, 2022 by Bonnee Waldstein

Photo courtesy of San Francisco Public Works
Gum Tree Girl Joan Seiwald with sons Chris & Scott.
Sup. Mandelman presents Renee Berger with Certificate of Honor, to share with the committee.
Marina Perez-Wong (l.) and Elaine Chu, Burnside Mural+ artists.
Artist assistants Pablo Ruiz Arroyo and Amy Koehler (center) share the moment.
On September 17, one day before an unseasonal downpour hit San Francisco, the rain gods smiled upon Glen Park by waiting until after the opening ceremony of the Burnside Mural+.

Around 100 people including representatives from SF Public Works and City Hall turned out for the celebration. Among those joining in and delivering remarks were the family members of the Gum Tree Girls: the Seiwalds –Joan (the surviving member)–husband Bob and sons Chris and Scott; Kristen Arkush, daughter of Geri Arkush; and Marcus Theriault, son of Zoanne Nordstrom.

Beginning in March, Glen Parkers watched as the mural took shape on the retaining wall and staircase at the Burnside Avenue cul-de-sac.

Project leader and Glen Park resident Renee Berger got the idea when she spied the large green blank wall there: It “cried out for a visual narrative, one that would recall and honor some of Glen Park’s glory days and illustrious residents,” she said at the time.

The Burnside wall meets the western end of the Greenway via two lower stairways joining into one upper stairway. It’s one of the connectors of the Crosstown Trail.

Berger formed a committee to navigate the process of creating a mural and mosaic tiled stairway celebrating the history, plants and animals of Glen Park and Glen Canyon.  It is hoped that the mural will raise awareness, foster pride, nurture community connections and bring beauty and inspiration to the neighborhood.

The budget for the mural project was $40,000. The fundraising goal was met early on.

Twin Walls Mural Company (TWMC) was chosen for the project based on their demonstrated execution of wall projects all over the city and their resulting excellent reputation. Currently they have three installations at SFMOMA, one of which is featured on the museum website. They executed two more by other artists.

Partners in TWMC, Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong, have deep artistic roots. Both are San Francisco natives (Perez-Wong is third generation native) and women of color born to single-parent women from immigrant families.

In the Burnside mural, the Gum Tree Girls and Mother Nature are represented. Water is another element the muralists have been exploring and that theme fits with Islais Creek in Glen Canyon Park. For the most part the placement of the images is a kind of timeline starting from the bottom and snaking its way up through Glen Park history.

The next phase of the Burnside Mural+ project is the mosaic tiled stairway, which will cost considerably more than the mural and is estimated at about $220K. A key means of raising funds will come from individual donors of legacy tiles, which will honor someone dear to them and whose name will be engraved on the tile.

The cost of a pledged tile is estimated to be around $300. There is a limit of 200 legacy tiles, based on artistic considerations.

Supervisor Mandelman has awarded the project $28,000 toward further detailing of the design for the mosaic stairway.

The goal is to complete the project in 2024, the date being determined by several factors, such as fundraising, fabrication of the tiles, and the requirements of installation.

The pledge will serve as a donation to Burnside Mural+ via the fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Parks Alliance.

Pledges can be made on the website, www.gpmural.com

Mural detail. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Public Works

Filed Under: Burnside mural, Uncategorized

Primary Sidebar

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES

Arlington Path Beautification
Saturday, July 19, 10 a.m. to noon
Meet at 300 Mateo (x Arlington) for an exciting day of weeding, watering, seed collecting.
Tools, gloves and good company provided.


2025 Glen Park Night Market poster


 


Monthly cleanup on the Greenway
First Saturday of the Month (usually)
Click here to learn more


Friends of Glen Canyon’s
Glen Canyon Habitat Restoration
Every third Saturday 9:30 a.m to noon
Sign up here

Subscribe to this Newsletter

Sign Up for Glen Park Association News Updates:

* indicates required

Check It Out at the Glen Park Library

Click the above button or here to see all upcoming Glen Park Branch Library events. Subscribe to the Glen Park Library monthly newsletter to get events highlights in your inbox.

Glen Park Rec Center

Glen Canyon Park sign
Click the above button or here to see
the latest Glen Park Rec Center schedule.



Saturdays 3-4:45 p.m.
Questions? Call 415-239-4007


 

Renew Your Glen Park Association Membership for 2025

Join the Glen Park Association and help promote our community’s interests. Together, we can secure improvement funds, publicize neighborhood concerns and strive to speak as one voice on neighborhood and city issues.

Membership in the Glen Park Association is only $10 annually and can be purchased online.

Glen Park Association Advertising Sponsors

JE_Digital Small Space Ad
Diamond Heights Digital Ad
GPA Ad- Perez Construction ad 6.27.22 v Glen Park
moroco
Center for Creative Exploration - adult
JE_Digital Small Space Ad
Diamond Heights Digital Ad
GPA Ad- Perez Construction ad 6.27.22 v Glen Park
moroco
Center for Creative Exploration - adult
previous arrow
next arrow
Shadow

Current Weather & Air Quality

Glen Park featured on…

FacebookSF ChronInstagramTwitter

Join the Glen Park Association on Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
Glen Park Association is at Glen Park Greenway.
2 days ago
Glen Park Association

Saturday’s Glen Park Greenway Work Party is Cancelled.

“I’m very sorry to say that
we have cancelled our Work Party for this Saturday July 12, along with all organized volunteer activity on the Greenway until further notice.
As you may have read in the news, our fiscal sponsor, San Francisco Parks Alliance (SFPA), has shut itself down. Just as SFPA has shut itself down, the Greenway, as an organized part of SFPA, has also been “shut down.” We are busy looking for a suitable alternative fiscal sponsor that is willing to replace SFPA. That search is going well but it is a slow process. We had hoped to find temporary ways to enable the Greenway project to function responsibly as a community activity without a fiscal sponsor. Sadly, despite our best efforts and the help of many others in Glen Park, we have failed. That is why we must cancel our Saturday Work Party and discontinue future work parties and other organized volunteer activity on the Greenway (like weeding and watering) until further notice. We recognize that the Greenway is public open space and that the organizers of the Greenway project have no control over the activities of you or of anyone else on the Greenway. However, if you do venture onto the Greenway to satisfy your urge for outdoor recreation, please be aware that your activity is not in any way organized or sanctioned by the organizers of the Glen Park Greenway project. I’m well aware of the efforts that many of the
Greenway’s supporters are making to get the Greenway organized with a new fiscal sponsor and I’m confident that this will be arranged within weeks or perhaps a few months.
However long it takes, I will contact you with news of our progress.
Many thanks for all that you do for the Greenway.”

Nicholas Dewar, volunteer Project Director

#glenparkgreenway #glenparksf #sanfrancisco @rafaelmandelmand8 @danielluriesf @crosstowntrail
#crosstowntrail #sfparksalliance #publicspace #nature
... See MoreSee Less

Play
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • likes love sad 7
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 1

1 CommentComment on Facebook

Wonder what’s stopping just organizing it separate from that non-profit. It seems like the volunteers largely come from Glen Park.

Glen Park Association is at Laidley Street SFO.
6 days ago
Glen Park Association

It was a beautiful day for the annual #july4th celebration on Laidley street!

📷: Photos courtesy of Michael Waldstein

#glenparksf #sanfrancisco #laidley
... See MoreSee Less

It was a beautiful day for the annual #july4th celebration on Laidley street! 

📷: Photos courtesy of Michael Waldstein 

#glenparksf #sanfrancisco #laidley
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • likes love 13
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

Blog Roll

Coyote Yipps
Friends of Upper Noe Recreation Center
Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project
Open SF History
Sunnyside Conservatory
Sunnyside History
Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
Tramps of San Francisco
Upper Noe Neighbors

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in