View this post on Instagram
This month is Women’s History Month, a time to commemorate and encourage the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. We are so excited to celebrate the Chicana visual artist and muralist Judy Baca whose lifelong work of creating meaningful art that connects others and shares untold stories of our history. Judy truly embodies the strong female spirit – a warrior!
On March 21, 2023, President Biden awarded muralist Judy Baca the National Medal of Arts for her monumental impact on public art in America. Judith Francisca Baca’s collaborative work has turned forgotten histories into public memory, pioneering an art form that empowers communities to reclaim public space with dignity and pride.
“The National Medal of the Arts recipients include renowned painters like Judy Baca and — who has made a canvas out of our — out of communities all across America, especially her beloved Los Angeles. Her groundbreaking murals depict the strength and scope of human nature and tell the forgotten stories — tell the forgotten stories, bringing public space to life and tell the — and tell a fuller story of who we are as Americans,” said President Biden in the recognition ceremony.
Judy is a Los Angeles-based artist, muralist, and founder of the first City of Los Angeles Mural Program in 1974, now known as the Social and Public Resource Center (SPARC) community arts organization. SPARC’s mission is to produce, preserve, and promote activist and socially relevant artwork; to devise and innovate excellent art pieces through participatory processes; and ultimately, to foster artistic collaborations that empower communities who face marginalization or discrimination.
View this post on Instagram
Under Baca’s creative direction, over 400 young people and artists created the Great Wall of Los Angeles (also known as The History of California). It is one of the largest murals in the world, stretching over half a mile and taking about ten years to complete. The mural includes imagery to highlight themes such as immigration, as immigration, exploitation of people and land, women’s rights, class distinctions, racism and racial equality, and the struggle for gay and lesbian rights. The murals feature Native Americans, Latinos (focusing on those with Mexican heritage, sometimes self-identified as Chicano/a), African Americans, Asian Americans, and Jewish Americans in creating California’s rich and diverse culture.
Murals can do some amazing work in the world, because they live in the places where people live and work, because they can be made in relationship to the people who see them, because the people themselves can have input, if it’s done in a profound way. And that’s what I intend to keep doing as long as I’m standing here on earth,” Judy stated in an article in The Guardian.
Presently, Judy serves as the Artistic Director of SPARC, and she also leads the UCLA@SPARC Digital/Mural Lab, where UCLA students collaborate with community members to create public art for public settings.
Congratulations, Judy Baca!!!