Clarion Alley is a short street in the Mission District. It runs between Mission and Valencia streets and between 17th and 18th streets. The Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP) says the alley is 560 feet long and 15 feet wide.
Origins
A volunteer collective of six residents and artists founded CAMP in 1992. They were inspired by the murals that began in Balmy Alley in the early 1970s. Instead of choosing a single theme, CAMP’s founders focused on social inclusiveness and variety in style. The group says it has since produced more than 700 murals on and around the alley by artists of every background and level of experience, with an emphasis on emerging artists.
According to Wikipedia, the alley was originally called Cedar Lane and was renamed Clarion Alley around 1900. Founding CAMP members Aaron Noble and Rigo 23 lived there. Together they painted “Superhero Warehouse,” a series of depressed superheroes, on the side of the warehouse at 47 Clarion. The warehouse was once an Industrial Workers of the World meeting hall and later housed artists and musicians. It was demolished in 2001 and replaced by a parking lot for a condominium project, and it became a symbol of the neighborhood’s gentrification.
What CAMP is today
CAMP is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It describes its mission as producing “socially-engaged and aesthetically innovative public art” and using murals to carry messages about social, economic, racial and environmental justice. It has also produced large projects elsewhere, including internationally.
Murals on the alley change regularly, so a return visit rarely looks the same. Also in the neighborhood: Día de los Muertos in the Mission.