September 20 - Happy Birthday, Judy Baca

nPosted on September 20, 2017

Wow! Check out Judith Baca:

nArtist.

nActivist.

nProfessor of Chicano/a Studies (University of Texas, Los Angeles)
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nProfessor of World Arts and Cultures (U. of Texas)

nArtistic director of Social and Public Art Resource Center (Venice, CA)

nDirector of the project that created one of the largest murals in the world, the Great Wall of Los Angeles

nThat’s a pretty amazing resume!

Above, Baca and her work in 1973.
Below, Baca and her work today.

nChicana artist Baca knew that all people should have a voice in public art, so she decided that “the people” could create murals all over Los Angeles, and she organized more than 1,000 young people to dream up and paint more than 250 murals. She encouraged youths from different ethnic backgrounds to explore their peoples’ histories and to come up with murals that could connect those histories to their own lives today.

nThis citywide mural project started in 1974.

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nAnother big project Baca took on, starting in 1987, was creating a huge-yet-portable mural called the World Wall. This mural promotes global peace.

nI wondered what Baca was thinking about the Tr*mp administration’s efforts to build a border wall and deport everyone from “bad hombres” to Dreamers. I was able to find a quote from her:

“Chicano is about resistance and affirmation of a culture. And I think [this administration is] giving many young artists purpose again and a kind of focus for their work.”

“Non-violent Resistance”

nFrom now until next January (January, 2018), the Getty Museum in Los Angeles will include Baca’s work in a special exhibit called Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. (LA can mean Los Angeles, Latin America, and Latinx Art.) Two other exhibits this fall will feature Baca’s work, and there are plans to extend the Great Wall mural and to add a viewing bridge, as well.

nHere is another quote: [Back in the 1970s] “they called me a teacher, a social worker, even a gang member – everything but an artist…This is not what art did. It did not intervene in social spaces…It was so foreign to the arts to be engaged in social justice action or affirmative action within a community.”