The Public Art Network is pleased to recognize Judy Baca, founder and
artistic director of SPARC: Social & Public Art Resource Center, as
the recipient of the 2010 Public Art Network Award. After accepting her
award, Ms. Baca will also make a keynote presentation.
The 2010 Americans for the
Arts Half-Century Summit will celebrate the
accomplishments and advances of the
arts over the last half-century by bringing together over 1500 leaders
from the across the country to discuss what strategic actions will make the
arts relevant and valuable in rapidly changing American communities as we look
to the future. This audience will include and engage local, state, regional and national arts
leaders and the partners and constituents that make their work possible
including but not limited to: artists, elected officials, foundation and
corporate representatives, volunteers, patrons, activists, journalists,
educators, economic developers, and urban planners. The purpose of this
convening is to celebrate, network, and prepare leaders to guarantee a vibrant
future of the arts in America as a united field.
Judy Baca is a native Angeleno, a visual artist, arts activist,
community leader, and educator. Baca is best known for her large-scale
public organizing murals. Her art involves extensive community
dialogues and participation. Baca founded the first City of Los Angeles
mural program in 1974. In 1976, she founded the Social and Public Art
Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, CA. SPARC is a socially relevant,
activist minded and spirited organization, and at the heart of what it
believes is that art is a tool for social change and
self-transformation. Baca’s true signature piece is The Great Wall of Los Angeles.
As a site of public memory, the Great Wall is one of Los Angeles’ true
cultural landmarks and one of the country’s most respected and largest
monuments to interracial harmony produced with the participation with
more than 400 inner-city youth, 40 ethnic historians, and hundred of
community residents.
Baca and SPARC continue to work on The World Wall: A Vision of The Future Without Fear,
which consists of 8 10 ft. x 30 ft. portable mural panels on canvas.
This 240 ft. mural addresses contemporary issues of global importance:
war, peace, cooperation, interdependence, and spiritual growth. As The World Wall
tours the world, eight additional panels by artists from eight
countries are added to complete this visual tribute to the “Global
Village-An Arena for Dialogue.” To date, Finland, Russia,
Palestine/Israel, and Mexico panels have been added; Canada is
currently being worked on.
To advance the field of muralism, in
1996 Baca created the UCLA/SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital/Mural Lab, a
research, teaching, and production facility based at SPARC. She serves
as a full professor in the UCLA Chicano/a Studies Department and World
Arts and Cultures Department. She is currently working on the Cesar
Chavez Memorial at San Jose State University; the Robert F. Kennedy
monument at the Old Ambassador Hotel site, which will become the RFK
Learning Center for K-12; the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in San
Diego; and a digital painted mural for the Richmond Arts Center.
