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Biographical Sketch: Judy Baca
As a visual artist, Judy Baca is best known for her large-scale murals,
which involve extensive community organization and participation and
address multicultural audiences. In the internationally known Great
Wall of Los Angeles in the Tujunga Wash Flood Control Channel, Baca
designed a work which incorporated 40 ethnic scholars, over 400
multicultural neighborhood youth, 40 assisting artists, and over 100
support staff to paint a half-mile long pictorial representation of the
ethnic history of California. Along with many other mural projects, Baca
has employed her community organizing techniques to make the World
Wall: A Vision of the Future without Fear, seven dual-sided 10 x 30
foot portable mural panels on canvas. The 210-foot mural in seven parts
addresses contemporary issues of global importance: war, peace,
cooperation, interdependence, and spiritual growth. As the World Wall
tours the world, additional panels by artist from seven countries will be
added to complete this visual tribute to the "Global Village."
As an arts activist, Baca founded the first City of Los Angeles mural
program in 1974, which produced over 250 murals and hired over 2,000
participants in its ten years of operation. In 1976, she founded the
Social and Public Arts Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, California,
where she still serves as Artistic Director. In 1988, at the request of
then Mayor Tom Bradley, she developed another Los Angeles Mural program
based on the model of the Great Wall. Entitled Great Walls Unlimited:
Neighborhood Pride, it operated under contract with the City's Cultural
Affairs Department and has produced 73 murals in almost every ethnic
community in Los Angeles.
She is a founding faculty member of the new California state University,
Monterey Bay, and serves as a senior faculty member at UCLA's Cesar
Chavez Institute. She lives and works in Venice, California.
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