Grant will help edge Ohlone mural with native plants


A $5000 grant to Friends of Ohlone Park (FOOP) from the University of California Chancellor’s Community Parknership Fund will honor the Ohlone people for whom the park is named, by adding a border of native plants around the four-sided mural at Hearst and Milvia.

The border will also help complete the vision of California Indian artist Jean La Marr, who painted the mural on a concrete structure that ventilates the BART tracks that run under the park.

Under the grant, FOOP will partner with UC’s Botanical Garden to choose plants; the garden will also donate some plants. The university’s Phoebe Hearst Anthropology Museum also will create a webpage about the Ohlone for park visitors to access via an informational sign with its link posted near the mural.

Funds are still being sought to add other elements, including rocksrepresenting local Native American petroglyphs and the holes worn by women pounding acorns and other seeds.