Award-winning Chicana artist Lorraine Garcia-Nakata is the talent behind the mural unveiled on October 23, at TNDC's affordable housing community, Casa Adelante. Completed in October 2023, "Make Things New" is a 4,000-square-foot series consisting of eight murals that wrap the courtyard in bright blue. The artist designed the mural to be a place of rest and contemplation, choosing the backdrop to welcome light into a shadowed space.
"We aren't trained from a young age to realize that our power is in the present," she said. "These paintings that you see here are not just paintings. Each one was designed and hand-painted, with each stroke coming forth from the sacred place that I enter as an artist. They affirm our ability and the necessity of envisioning, claiming joy, the bond between parent and child, indigenous, precious wisdom, transformation, new presence, and male contemplation."
Garcia-Nakata emphasized that she incorporated input from residents in the planning and execution of the artwork. After completing the initial images, she held a session with community youth and added their text suggestions and handprints to the work. Throughout the creation process, residents would visit to watch her work, including the late Eddie Kittrell, whom Garcia-Nakata honored in her speech during the unveiling.
"His energy is greatly missed, yet his handprint resides at the entrance of the door and it will be there," she said. "As with many of the handprints of the workers and the residents and the children – his handprint is here, and it will be here always."
The mural-filled courtyard leads visitors into an affordable childcare center, Precious Dreams Family Childcare. Garcia-Nakata drew inspiration from the young passersby as she worked, and directly overhead of the walkway, she painted her grandson smiling down at the visitors.
"My favorite memory is of every time I was walking past, Lorraine would be in a different part of the area just blasting her old-school music," shared Paulencia Binion, resident and owner of Precious Dreams. "We love to come out and sit here with the kids and just, you know, gaze at the artwork and feel a beautiful breeze."
Garcia-Nakata is an accomplished visual artist who has exhibited extensively since 1970. She is also an impactful activist and one of the founding members of the influential art collective, the Royal Chicano Air Force (1973). The RCAF painted murals throughout Sacramento, most notably the 1977 Southside Park Mural. To fund their programs and support farmworkers, they held dances, performances, and other fundraisers with promotional posters that visually incorporated the Chicano Movement.
Since 2017, Garcia-Nakata has been part of the Chairman's Advisory Committee at the Friends of the National Museum for the American Latino. She is also a founding member of the San Francisco Latino Historical Society. In 1997, she became part of the International Advisory for the Diego Rivera Mural in San Francisco City College, and in 1995 she was an Advisory Board member for the Kearny Street Art Workshop, also located in San Francisco.
"[The murals] are here to ground you," Garcia-Nakata said to the unveiling's crowd. "These murals are for you and the residents and the staff to find a moment to rest, reflect, find some peace, and really dive into and discover your own power."
This public art commission was made possible through a partnership between the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC), San Francisco Arts Commission, and Galería de la Raza.
Casa Adelante, located at 2828 16th Street, offers 143 affordable multi-family homes for 312 people in San Francisco. This includes 36 units set aside for people relocating from SF Housing Authority homes through the HOPE SF program. In addition to onsite support, Casa Adelante provides ample outdoor space, two community rooms, bicycle parking, and ground-floor space for Mission-based nonprofits: Galería de la Raza, which is dedicated to promoting Latinx and Xicanx art and culture, and HOMEY, which is dedicated to empowering youth and providing affordable childcare through the Felton Institute.
