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Friday Slide Show: The Music Makers
4 April 2025
We noticed a new mural appear on the green wall surrounding Laguna Honda Hospital. But it was a puzzle.
At first it was all big white blanks. And then the white blanks turned into color portraits. But of who?
There were rows of names below the mural that offered no help. And an introductory panel on the right that proclaimed the first two lines of Ode, an 1873 poem by the English poet Arthur O'Shaghnessy (in purple no less):
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.It took some digging but we finally found the Dreamers of Dreams Mural site.
Nico Berry, who conceived of the mural design, explains:
This mural elevates arts education in San Francisco's public schools and celebrates the outstanding arts educators who have inspired our young people in the classroom and beyond. The imagery include large-scale portraits of SFUSD arts educators from a variety of disciplines who have had a demonstrable impact on the youth of San Francisco. We solicited nominations from the SFUSD community and these 6 educators were chosen using a criteria designed to highlight a number of different priorities. These priorities included the number of nominations received, the number of students who have been positively impacted by the individual, a representation of a diversity of artistic disciplines and especially an eye toward arts educators who are -- like the late Ruth Asawa -- women of color or members of other marginalized groups who have substantially contributed to bringing arts education to underserved communities and students in the city. The featured educators are (in order from left to right in the design) Elvia Marta, Andi Wong, Monina Sen Cervone, Dr.John Calloway, Annette Ribeiro and Tara Siegel.
In a nod to Asawa's love of gardening, the mural includes a variety of flowers reminding us all to "give people their flowers while they're still alive." The types of flowers in the mural are a few of the ones found in Laguna Honda Hospital's garden, as well as apple blossoms which symbolize teachers and teaching. The portraits and flowers float above a purplish night sky, which alludes to the timeless and awe-inspiring quality of outstanding teaching and the ability to inspire students to think and dream beyond pre-conceived limitations.
We were a little puzzle by the claim the mural "elevates arts education in San Francisco's public schools" until we noticed the site has a donation page.
And what about our initial puzzle? Who did Berry say were these people?
Still Working on It. We saw a couple of painters working on the mural Saturday afternoon, after publishing the slide show on Friday.
Well, when the mural is finished (it's been raining), there will be a panel to the right with their names. And the Web site will feature their bios, too. None of that was done yet but Berry did reveal the names of educators being honored in the quote above.
Which we'll repeat for you. From left to right on the mural, you'll find Elvira Marta, Andi Wong, Monina Sen Cervone, Dr. John Calloway, Annette Ribeiro and Tara Seigel.
Arts Educators. Elvira Marta, Andi Wong, Monina Sen Cervone, Dr. John Calloway, Annette Ribeiro and Tara Seigel.
Of course, we had to have a little fun with it. We decided not to stand in the middle of Woodside, which is a four lane hill of traffic, and despite the wide sidewalk, it wasn't wide enough to get a shot that wasn't severely distorted. So we parked ourselves across the street, in the middle of a residential street, to take a series of shots.
But we were fighting reality. Which was the four lanes of traffic that provide something of a symphony as they whistle by. So we took a few more shots of the traffic obscuring the portraits. Just for laughs.
There will be a Ribbon Cutting Celebration on Thursday, April 10, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.
