News
Preserving "The Great Cloud of Witnesses"
WALLS OF GENERATIONS: At left, faded newspaper clip from 1992 of Precita Eyes artists Susan Cervantes and Selma Brown painting the mural that rings the top of The Great Cloud of Witnesses, inside the Ingleside Presbyterian Church. At right, Cervantes' son Suaro atop a scaffold 25 years later, preserving the giant collage.
Panorama of The Great Cloud of Witnesses of the Gymnasium.
Rev. Roland Gordon, pastor of the Ingleside Presbyterian Church and Community Center (1345 Ocean Ave.), calls it his "living wall and history lesson."
The San Francisco Historic Preservation Committee calls it an "awe‐inspiring" work of folk art that "serves as an extraordinary, unparalleled visual documentation of national and San‐Francisco‐specific African American history."
The "Great Cloud of Witnesses" is a mural unlike any you've ever seen. Looking for a way to inspire community youth, Reverend G. pasted a single newspaper clipping of his hero, Muhammad Ali, to the wall of the church gymnasium in 1980. Over the past 37 years, the collage has expanded to cover, from top to bottom, the entire gym, fellowship hall, stairways, hallways, bathrooms, basement, and meeting rooms -- basically, everywhere but the sanctuary. The collage‐mural consists of newspaper and magazine clips, photos, flyers, posters, prints, poetry, painted murals, and a dizzying array of objects that celebrate heroes and history.
Precita Eyes muralists Suaro Cervantes and Ernesto Paul spent several weeks recently working on "the cloud," cleaning, sealing, and resisting the temptation to read the wall-to-wall scrapbook as they were working on it.
Ringing the top of the gymnasium wall is a sunset-colored fringe with the portraits of 10 civil rights leaders. This mural was created by an earlier Precita Eyes crew — Susan Cervantes, Selma Brown, Ronnie Goodman, Marta Ayala, and Patricia Rose. Suaro Cervantes remembers accompanying his mother Susan to the church, back in 1992.
The monumental collage-mural was granted SF historical landmark status last November. But it is not open to public yet, says Rev. G, "unless you want to stop by during church services, when you're more than welcome to attend."
The San Francisco Historic Preservation Committee calls it an "awe‐inspiring" work of folk art that "serves as an extraordinary, unparalleled visual documentation of national and San‐Francisco‐specific African American history."
The "Great Cloud of Witnesses" is a mural unlike any you've ever seen. Looking for a way to inspire community youth, Reverend G. pasted a single newspaper clipping of his hero, Muhammad Ali, to the wall of the church gymnasium in 1980. Over the past 37 years, the collage has expanded to cover, from top to bottom, the entire gym, fellowship hall, stairways, hallways, bathrooms, basement, and meeting rooms -- basically, everywhere but the sanctuary. The collage‐mural consists of newspaper and magazine clips, photos, flyers, posters, prints, poetry, painted murals, and a dizzying array of objects that celebrate heroes and history.
Precita Eyes muralists Suaro Cervantes and Ernesto Paul spent several weeks recently working on "the cloud," cleaning, sealing, and resisting the temptation to read the wall-to-wall scrapbook as they were working on it.
Ringing the top of the gymnasium wall is a sunset-colored fringe with the portraits of 10 civil rights leaders. This mural was created by an earlier Precita Eyes crew — Susan Cervantes, Selma Brown, Ronnie Goodman, Marta Ayala, and Patricia Rose. Suaro Cervantes remembers accompanying his mother Susan to the church, back in 1992.
The monumental collage-mural was granted SF historical landmark status last November. But it is not open to public yet, says Rev. G, "unless you want to stop by during church services, when you're more than welcome to attend."
Other Precita Eyes restoration projects:
SAVING FACE: Detail from the restoration of "500 Years of Resistance," St. Peter’s Parish at 24th St. and Florida. The mural was created in the mid-1990s by Salvadoran muralist Isaias Mata, and restored by the artist in 2012.
* Mission Health Center (2016): Created in the 1970s by Michael Rios and Graciela Carrillo, the murals are located at 240 Shotwell St. * "Sí Se Puede" (2014): Created in 1995 at the Cesar Chavez Elementary School (825 Shotwell St.). More information here. |