the Bayview Operahouse Environmental Education Program

In 2001, the Bayview Opera House (BVOH), thanks to the generous support of the San Francisco Urban Resources Partnership, expand their current environmental education program, The Children’s Mural Program (CMP), to include four fieldtrip with "hands-on" workshops given by a wide array of unique collaborators (see below). These four fieldtrips include outings to The Bayview Opera House, Heron’s Head Park, San Francisco’s City Hall and Hunters Point Shipyard. This new component of our program we have called, BEEP, for BayviewOperaHouse Environmental Education Program. Our distinguished collaborators provided "hand on" "on-the-ground" experiences that are fun and designed to enhance critical thinking among fifth grade students who took our painting program, CMP, in the fourth grade.

Additionally, both fourth and fifth grade teachers participating in CMP and BEEP! wanted an integrated environmental education curriculum that would enhance learning and streamline lesson planning. The SFUSD, willing to assist the BVOH and its teachers to provide the highest quality lessons and hand-on experiences possible for its students and teachers, will be reviewing our newly created lesson plans created for BEEP! that meet both California State and District Content Standards for Fifth Grader in Science, Language Arts and Physical Education.

To accomplish all these objectives, everyone recognized that this effort would take many years to fully integrate, and will require a high degree of commitment and work by everyone involved. But, as the remarks of our collaborators and funders presented below suggest, everyone is committed, and, frankly experienced, in accomplishing the many tasks needed to create BEEP!
The BVOH, committed guide this expanded, integrated CMP/BEEP to its highest possible end, received comments such as "SPECTACULAR!" "Outstanding!" "Terrific!" in our final evaluations from teachers, collaborators and students alike in our first year of presenting BEEP! and we look forward to many more years of ongoing success and learning in newly created expansion of our environmental education program, The Children’s Mural Program. We are very proud of our successes and very grateful to all those who made our first years so great. Their remarks are outlined here:

Remarks from Our Funder and Collaborators for BEEP!
(The BayviewOperaHouse Environmental Education Program)

The San Francisco Urban Resources Partnership (Our Funder)
The San Francisco Urban Resources Partnership would like to extend its congratulations to the Bayview Opera House Environmental Education Program for the completion of its pilot project. The BEEP! program truly uses its community as a learning laboratory, linking traditional environmental education efforts with the more current ecological health and justice issues facing local families. We commend your efforts to instill a sense of stewardship for natural resources and environmental health among the youth of this community. We are proud to consider the BEEP! program as one of our 2000-2001 grantees.

Sara McKay, Program Coordinator

Bayview Opera House, Artist/Instructors
The Bayview Opera House is very happy to have the opportunity to bring the 350 young people who participated in our Children’s Mural Program as fourth graders, who are now participating as fifth graders in our new program BEEP!, to the Opera House to meet our artist/instructors. This new, second year curricula expands our environmental education program in such a way as to provide hand-on experiences related to the environment. Our environment at the Opera House is DREAMS. As the cultural hub of the Bayview Hunters Point community, we are most interested in providing numerous avenues for children in our neighborhood to express their dreams though their creativity. Our instructors in Visual Arts, Drama, Hip Hop and Jazz Dance, Music Appreciation, Capoeria and Congolese Dance loved introducing hundreds of new faces to our stage, where they learned about the many free after-school and summer classes that we offer on an ongoing basis. As a result of our new BEEP! program, we look forward to receiving many new students and welcoming back our regulars who endeavor for clear minds, healthy bodies and creative spirits.

Ivory Morton, Associate Director, Bayview Opera House, Inc.

Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ)
It was a pleasure to share the beauty of Heron’s Head and our restored wetlands with so many of our young people. In addition, I hope the Water Quality Monitoring helps them see the connection between the health of our community and the health of our environment.

Patrick, Rump, Head Naturalist, Heron’s Head Park

San Francisco Planning Department
The Planning Department's reason for participating in the BEEP program is to help educate youth about planning issues, and to continue its tradition of engaging in the communities that it serves. The Department believes that the value of early engagement in planning issues by youth would help expose them to issues that will affect them and their environment. Such engagement is also an avenue to expose youth to the planning profession.

Samuel Aseffa, Architect and Urban Planner, SF Planning Department

The U.S. Navy recognizes our responsibility to clean up and properly dispose of these materials that are present at Hunters Point Shipyard. We are spending many millions of dollars, and devoting many thousands of man-hours towards this effort. We want to convert Hunters Point Shipyard to a place were jobs are created and where people can live and play.

Ken Rado, Commander, Civil Engineer Corps, U.S. Navy, Executive Officer, EFA West

The Citizen’s Advisory Committee for Reuse of Hunters Point Shipyard
As Chairman of the Mayor's Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), I commend the Bayview Opera House Children's' Mural Project (CMP) for its ongoing efforts to educate elementary school students about the environmental clean-up and reuse of the shipyard. The dedication of the artists, teachers and Bayview Opera House staff to enriching the lives of our youth through art and science deserves the highest praise, and the enthusiastic participation of the children produces a new batch of brilliant artwork year after year that is a joy to behold. The new shipyard is very important to the future of Bayview-Hunters Point, and will bring many new opportunities to community residents. By educating today's youngsters about the clean up and reuse of the shipyard, the Children's Mural Program is preparing tomorrow's citizens to participate in and take advantage of the redevelopment process in years to come. The new expanded CMP curricula, BEEP!, gives children a first hand look at the shipyard and those transforming it. We wish the Bayview Opera House every success in building this new program as successfully as they have the Children’s Mural Program and the children every possible benefit from it.

Scott Madison, CAC Chairman

SMWM Architects
SMWM wants the children and families in the Bayview Hunters Point area to understand why the Shipyard is important for their community and how they can be involved in its development. It is also a way that the children can meet with the people who are involved with the process and ask them any questions that they might have.

Karen Alschuler, Lead Urban Planner for Hunters Point Shipyard

Lennar/BVHP Partners
Congratulations on bringing the children and young people of Bayview Hunters Point together with Lennar/BVHP, the City, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and others to discuss the clean-up, planning and redevelopment of the Hunters Point Shipyard. This will help teach children and young people that by working together in partnership with the BVHP community, they can chart their own destiny. Together we can create a clean Shipyard and at the same time create jobs, income, as well as, new shopping, social and cultural opportunities for the BVHP community and the residents of San Francisco at large. We are happy to have this unique opportunity to work with you and others to set an example for resolving difficult problems, cooperatively and to our mutual benefit. Together we can bring about an exciting and long awaited cultural and economic renaissance in BVHP. What an important example to set and what a powerful lesson and legacy that we can leave for the youth of BVHP and the City.

Roy Willis, Operations Director

San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is happy to be part of the Bayview Opera House Environmental Education Program. As a new addition to the Hunters Point Shipyard Team I personally look forward to working with the Bayview Hunters Point community on the implementation of its re-use plan and to the day when it is safe for the children of Bayview Hunters Point to work, live and play in the Shipyard. Thank you for letting me be a part of this wonderful annual event.

Don Capobres, Project Manger - Hunters Point Shipyard Redevelopment Project

AreaTetra Tech, EMI
Tetra Tech EMI is an environmental management company that takes pride in assisting the Bayview Hunters Point community. Taking the time to teach the fifth graders of the Bayview community soil sampling gives the company the opportunity to help educate the youth of the importance of cleaning up the Shipyard in a fun and interactive setting. Along with assisting with the BEEP program, Tetra Tech EMI has been participating in a pen pal program with Charles Drew Elementary School for the past seven years.

Carolyn M. Hunter, Community Relations Specialist

Remarks from On-Going Funders and Supporters of the Children’s Mural Program

Shipyard Trust for the Arts (STAR)
Shipyard Trust for the Arts (STAR) salutes the Bayview Opera House Children's' Mural Project on its ninth years of successful programming in community elementary schools. STAR is an organization working with the nation's largest community of fine arts professionals at Hunters Point Shipyard. Shipyard artists have been an important part of the Children's' Mural Program since it was started by one of our own, Heidi Hardin, in 1992. We are proud that our artists are making a contribution to the community by working with neighborhood youth and their teachers.

Scott Madison, Shipyard Trust for the Arts

The Mural Resource Center
The Children's Mural Program shines, from the Shipyard at Hunter's Point to the skyline of San Francisco. By now, thousands of children have painted their way into awareness of the natural environment, or written in their own words their responses to the changes in our earth. The Children's Mural Program has made this all possible, and the Mural Resource Center is proud to have been a part of such an ambitious and comprehensive project. We applaud its nine years of hard work, and we hope to see it continue well into the future.

Betsie Miller-Kusz, Director

Hitachi America, Ltd.
Hitachi America. Ltd.'s Community Action Committee is proud to once again support the 2001 Children's Mural Program. Hitachi recognizes the importance and valuable service that the Bayview Opera House offers to the community by sponsoring this unique environmental art program. It is admirable to offer a curriculum so rich in vision and scope to the children most affected by the transformation of their own neighborhood. You are helping to develop solutions to our toughest and most complex social challenges. Hitachi wants to Inspire the Next... You inspire us all.

Beth Moseley, Administrative Specialist


SF Redevelopment Agency
The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency has and continues to support the Children's Mural Program. The positive experiences of the children in this program and their sharing of their environment with others through their art are invaluable to the community. As the City and in particular, the Bayview Hunters Point community, moves toward reuse of the Shipyard and revitalization of the surrounding neighborhoods, the Agency sees the Children's Mural Program as having a vital role in interpretably chronicling our progress.

Stanley Muraoka, Project Manager, Bayview Hunters Point/India Basin

Anna Waden Library
The Bayview Branch of the San Francisco Public Library is happy to be one of the sites for the Children's Mural Project. We participated in this same project a few years ago and were quite pleased with the panels that were installed at the entryway into the library. This year, the panels will be placed on most of the exterior walls of the branch and we know it will give the library a festive appeal on the outside, complimenting the welcoming atmosphere that exists on the inside. Thanks to Heidi Hardin for asking us to be a site again for the mural, and thanks to all the children that participated in painting the mural this year. We at the library are very proud to exhibit your artwork.

Linda Brooks Burton, Branch Manager, Bayview Branch