2013 Latino Spirit Award Honoree - Judith F. Baca (Achievement in the Arts)

May 06, 2013

Pictured: Asm. Susan Talamantes Eggman, Sen. Ricardo Lara, Judith F. Baca, Speaker John A. Pérez, Asm. Jimmy Gomez

Judy Baca is a world-renowned painter, muralist, community arts pioneer, scholar and educator who has been teaching art in the UC system since 1981. She founded the first City of Los Angeles Mural Program in 1974, which evolved into a community arts organization known as the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). SPARC was has been creating sites of public memory since 1976.  She currently serves as its artistic director and focuses her creative energy on the UCLA@SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital/Mural Lab, employing digital technology to co-create collaborative mural designs.  Baca’s public arts initiatives reflect the lives and concerns of populations that have been historically disenfranchised, including women, the working poor, youth, the elderly and immigrant communities.  Through a lifetime of achievement, Baca has stood for art in service of equity for all people.  She is a role model for us on the integration of one’s ethics with creative expression, never compromising and never flagging in her devotion to a practice that is committed to public education for all.