Metta Yoga San Rafael has been selected by the City of San Rafael Downtown Business Improvement District for a Mural on our wall! The City of San Rafael awarded us a grant of $4,000 for this project. We need to generate an additional $8,000 to complete the project.

The purpose of our mural is to uplift the downtown San Rafael business district and build engagement and connection with the downtown area of San Rafael.

MURAL CONCEPT

We have painted the entire side wall of our studio on Cijos Street in our Metta blue, which has transformed the area and drawn a lot of positive feedback. Our vision is to paint a nature-inspired wall of birds, a lotus, and other flowers, local plants, and butterflies leading you all the way up to Fourth Street. The lotus flower is a symbol of transformation and rebirth: because lotuses rise from the mud without stains, they are often viewed as a symbol of purity. Since they return to the murky water each evening and open their blooms again each morning, lotus flowers are also symbols of strength and resilience. We have been in San Rafael for the past five years and have put down our roots in the area. We have moved from a space across the road on Cijos Street where we experienced first-hand some of the challenges of homelessness and city infrastructure disruption and have worked our way through these issues, so incorporating the lotus feels appropriate for us as we celebrate the opening of our new expanded studio.

RELEVANT TO LOCATION & COMMUNITY

We have moved into a new space in San Rafael and are hoping to lift up the area around Cijos Street with community, vibrancy, and connection. We are a community-focused studio and have collaborated with a wide range of San Rafael businesses over the past five years including Urban Remedy, Pond Farm Brewery, F45, the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, San Rafael BID, Pink Owl Coffee, and Salon B. We are planning to connect with Youth in Arts and Autistry Studios around the mural to host creative art workshops inspired by the art. We are also hoping to do an unveiling through the SR Chamber of Commerce with Mayor Kate Colin. We plan to continue our community engagement and invite more students and partner organizations into our expanded space. We hope that a mural on the exterior wall of our studio will help to bring more people in and highlight the efforts and resilience of small businesses in San Rafael.

EQUITY & INCLUSION

We hope that the mural we are proposing will invite a diverse range of people from the city of San Rafael to Cijos Street and into our studio - and at the same time will help to beautify and improve our local area. We see the mural as a continuation of our yoga beyond the yoga mat. We are a women-owned and run business and we’re excited to be partnering with a local, female artist on this mural.