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Press Release - SFMTA Muni Art Kick Off 2023

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and San Francisco Beautiful (SFB) will kick-off the eighth year of Muni Art in January 2023, with the theme,“Sights of San Francisco.” For the first time, the project collaborated with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) for the artist competition and 826 Valencia for the poetry competition. The five winning local artists and poets will have their original work displayed on 100 Muni buses beginning January and running through April 2023. 

The 2023 Muni artists are: 

Alice Wu                                 10th Grade 

Annie Aguilar                          11th Grade 

Isabel Lombardi-Coronel        11th Grade 

Natalie Deiner                         12th Grade 

Vilma Ramirez                         11th Grade  

All of the student artists are enrolled in San Francisco public schools.  

The five local poets and poems are: 

Abner Valencia, “What You Get at Bernal Heights” - Age 16 

Jake Dominguez, “I Like Chinatown” - Age 8 

Jennifer Lopez, “The Wondrous San Francisco Zoo” - Age 10 

Maya Van Artsdalen, “The Botanical Gardens” - Age 13 

Vanessa Rodriguez, “The Rhythm of Baker Beach” - Age 9 

All student poets are enrolled in free programming at 826 Valencia's Mission Center. 

“We thank San Francisco Beautiful and the talented student artists for this wonderful opportunity in enhancing inside and outside our vehicles. The Muni Art program is like an aesthetic-art-show-on-wheels andassists our agency in working towards full ridership during thecity’s economic recovery,”said Jeff Tumlin, Director of Transportation. 

“Since I created Muni Art in 2015, I always wanted to work with art and poetry students in our local schools,” said Darcy Brown, Executive Director of San Francisco Beautiful. “This is our eighth year of Muni Art, and San Francisco Beautiful proudly presents these talented students to the Muni riders of San Francisco”.  

"We are blown away daily by the ideas, writing and visualimagery created by SFUSD students,and we are excited to share their talent with the city,” said SFUSD Supervisor of Visual and Media Arts, Emily Aldama. “We want San Francisco youth to know that theircreativity is seen and celebrated beyond their school walls, plus SFUSD teens are some of the most frequent users of public transportation, so it just felt right to work together on this. We really appreciate SFMTA, San Francisco Beautiful and 826 Valencia, as well as all the art teachers who supported thestudents. This has been such an inspirational collaboration among so many in service of elevating student voice and artistry." 

"Sharing student writing with the local communityis an integral part of our work at 826 Valencia,” said 826 Valencia Executive Director Bita Nazarian. “We are thrilled to be partnering with San Francisco Beautiful, SFMTA, and SFUSD to amplify the voices of San Francisco youth poets and artists." 

"Arts education is critical in preparing students for the 21st century and we are thrilled for our students whose work will be displayed prominently on Muni buses," Superintendent Dr. Matt Wayne said. "We’re thankful for our SFUSD Arts staff and educators for their guidance and to the City and our community partners for uplifting our students’ creativity." 


About the SFMTA 
Established by voter proposition in 1999, the SFMTA, a department of the City and County of San Francisco, oversees the Municipal Railway (Muni), parking and traffic, bicycling, walking and taxis. With five modes of transit, Muni has approximately 700,000 passenger boardings each day. Over 1 million people get around this city each day and rely on the SFMTA to ensure safe and reliable travel by transit, walking, bicycling, taxi and driving. 

311 Free language assistance / 免費語言協助 / Ayuda gratis con el idioma / Бесплатная помощь переводчиков / Tr giúp Thông dch Min phí / Assistance linguistique gratuite / 無料の言語支援 / 무료 언어 지원 / Libreng tulong para sa wikang Tagalog / การช่วยเหลือทางด้านภาษาโดยไม่เสียค่าใช้จ่าย / خط المساعدة المجاني على الرقم 

San Francisco Beautiful  

Contact: Darcy Brown 

415-307-7707 

About San Francisco Beautiful 

Founded in 1947 to save the iconic cable cars, San Francisco Beautiful is the only organization that continues to protect the unique neighborhood character, civic beauty and liveability of San Francisco. sfbeautiful.org  

About San Francisco Unified School District 

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is the seventh largest school district in California, educating over 57,000 students every year. www.sfusd.edu 

About 826 Valencia 

Established in 2002,826 Valencia is a nonprofit organizationdedicated to supporting students who live in under-resourced communities in San Francisco with their writing skills. Get involved at826valencia.org.