It’s been a tough year for arts organizations and one of the oldest in the Mission District — the Galería de La Raza on 24th Street — is struggling.

Carolina Ponce de Leon, the executive director, sent out an urgent message today asking for donations to the 41-year-old art gallery. Sometimes institutions outlive their usefulness and vibrancy, but that’s not true of the Galería. It’s one of those places where finding interesting art, events and community is easy. Watch the video on the right to get a sense of its history.

Mission Loc@l began reporting in the community in the fall of 2008, and what’s been striking about the Galería is that it’s been genius at holding events that bring in long-term residents as well as newcomers interested in art, history and poetry. It’s been a sort of crossroads gathering place for the two communities to mingle and find common ground.

Ponce de Leon does this with exhibits that are compelling, but also with events like We Still Be Here, a series of evenings where oldtimers tell stories of what the Mission was like in the 1980s, or Lunadas of poetry and spoken word held during the full moon.

You can DONATE here. If you need to mail in a check, you can go here for more information.

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I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still here.

As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.

As founder and an editor at ML, I've been trying to figure out how to make my interest in local news sustainable. If Mission Local is a model, the answer might be that you - the readers - reward steady and smart content. As a thank you for that support we work every day to make our content even better.

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2 Comments

  1. Dear Mission Loc@l loc@s!!
    Thanks so so much for doing this, and for responding so quickly to our call for support. All of us at Galeria are incredibly grateful! The piece was nicely done, such generous words and that video is awesome! Can we get a copy of the video?

    You guys ROCK ROCK ROCK!!
    xox,
    Carolina & La Galeria Team

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    1. You’re welcome! And yes, feel free to use the video. If you need a copy we can get you one. Best, lc

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