Judith F. Baca
Artist, educator, activist
Born: Los Angeles, California
One
of America’s leading muralists,
Judith Baca believes that art is a tool for social change and
self-transformation, capable
of fostering civic dialogue in the most uncivil places.
“Break
the mold! Have the biggest vision you can! If you can’t
dream it, it cannot occur.”
Raised
in a strong, all-female household, Baca was especially influenced
by the values of her grandmother, a Mexican
herbal healer. In 1974,
Baca founded the City of Los Angeles’ first mural program,
and in 1976 she co-founded the Social and Public Art Resource
Center, which promotes community-based, participatory public
arts projects.
Since 1980 she has been a professor at the University of California,
first at Irvine and since 1996 at UCLA.
“I
want to use public space to create a public voice for,
and a public consciousness
about people who
are, in fact, the majority of the population but who are not
represented in any visual way."
Baca’s The
Great Wall of Los Angeles engaged hundreds of
culturally and economically diverse 14-21 year olds, including
gang members, as well as scholars, oral historians, artists, and
community members. Baca calls the depiction of America and California’s
ethnic history “the largest monument to interracial harmony
in America.”
|
