Judith "Judy" Francisca Baca

Born: 1946

Country of Birth: USA

Nationality: USA

Ethnicity: Hispanic

California State University Northridge MFA 1969 & MFA 1979

""I thought to myself, if I get my work into galleries, who will go there? People in my family hadn't ever been to a gallery in their entire lives. My neighbors never went to galleries...And it didn't make sense to me at the time to put art behind some guarded wall." (wikipedia.org); "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." (wikipedia.org); "I draw on skills not normally used by artists. I've learned as much as I've taught from the youth I've had the good fortune to know by working alongside of them". (wikipedia.org); "I am beginning to believe I am a political landscape painter. I have always known the value of art as a tool for transformation both personal and political. What I have had to learn through being attentive to my own curiosities and artistic focus, is that I choose often to use land as my method of recording memories and stories in my paintings and murals." (judybaca.com); “I am an interdisciplinary artist and scholar who works in large-scale monuments produced for public sites, locally, nationally and internationally. I have in the process of creating my work been engaged in the development of collaborative methods to arrive at consensus between communities in conflict. Often this work has the intention of reclaiming the “commons” or sites of public memory for communities. My recent work has included the development of new multimedia and technologically based methods of community engagement and visualization through the use of film, 3D animations, augmented reality and social media. My artworks have moved increasingly toward the architectural in scope and scale.“ (judybaca.com); "On a spiritual and emotional level, mine has been a community of women, some within my own culture but many not." (americanart.si.edu); "

— Judith "Judy" Francisca Baca

Field of Study: Visual Artist

Institution/Corporation: SPARC; UCLA

Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: California State University Northridge (2018); Member: Mural Rescue Project

Awards: 2023 LACMA Art+Film Gala Honors Judy Baca, sponsored by Gucci and Audi; 2021 National Medal of Arts, the highest presidential honor awarded to artists in the USA, Wa, D.C.; 2017 ARTNEWS Cover feature “The Underrated Issue” Spring 2017; 2018 Phenomenal Woman Award at CSUN, California State University, Northridge; 2017 Tardeada for Museum of Social Justice, Recognized as a Social Justice Leader, Monterey Park, CA; 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award, National Association of State Colleges and Universities, San Diego, CA; 2016 Great Wall of Los Angeles National Register nomination from the state office of historic preservation; 2015 United State Artists Fellowship USA Rockefeller Fellow in the Visual Arts; 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award, California State University, Northridge; 2014 Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Judy Baca artifacts in permanent collection; 2013 Latino Spirit Award for Achievement in the Arts /The California Latino Legislative Caucus; 2012 University of California Studies Consortium Award; 2011 Trailblazer Award, Cornerstone Theatre Company, Los Angeles, CA; 2011 Judith F. Baca Arts Academy in South Central Los Angeles named by LAUSD; 2011 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education: Outstanding Latino/a Cultural Award in Fine Arts; 2010 National Award in Public Art Americans for the Arts; 2009 InnerCity Struggle "Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez Activist Scholar Award" October 2009, Los Angeles, CA; 2009 Judy Chicago’s “Through the Flower” Feminist Pioneer Award for contributions to feminist art movement; 2009 Corky Gonzalez's Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios & Champions of Change Award, Denver; 2009 California Senator Jenny Oropeza Artist of Distinction Award – April 2009; 2009 Invited to the White House for Arts, Community, Social Justice and National Recovery Briefing - May 2009; 2008 Imagining America – Keynote Address, Los Angeles, CA; 2007 UCLA Latino Alumni Association: Madrina Award, Los Angeles, CA; 2007 The Brian P. Copenhaver Award, Innovation in Teaching with Technology, UCLA, May 2007; 2006 KCET Local Hero of the Year Award: Women’s History Month, work currently being featured on KCET; 2004 Featured in May 24th issue of People Magazine, “Back to the Wall, Artist Judith F. Baca“; 2002 The County of Santa Clara’s Commission on the Status of women award for Outstanding Female Role; 2001 Hispanic Heritage Awards, Educator of the Year Award recipient at the John F. Kennedy Center, D.C.; 2001 Liberty Hill Foundation, 2001 Creative Vision Award recipient at annual Upton Sinclair Dinner; 2001 California Community Foundation, selected as one of 85 Unsung Heroes of nonprofit community; 2000 CA Women’s Museum, Honored in “Unforgettable Women” exhibition in museum, Smithsonian Institute;

Achievements: 1976 co-founder and artistic director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, California; director of the mural project that created the Great Wall of Los Angeles, which was the largest known communal mural project in the world as of 2018; 1987 she began painting The World Wall: A Vision of the Future Without Fear, a painting that showed the world with no-violence; 1988 Mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley commissioned her to create the Neighborhood Pride Program, a citywide project to paint murals, & employed 1,800 at-risk youths & painted 105 murals; 1996 created La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra ("Our Land Has Memory") for the Denver International Airport; while at California State University, Monterey Bay from 1994 to 1996, co-founded the Visual & Public Arts Institute Department; 1993 co-founded UCLA's Cesar Chavez Center for Interdisciplinary Studies; 1998 served as a master artist in residence with the Role of the Arts in Civic Dialogue at Harvard University; early works included projects with moveable panels that travelled to other countries where additional panels were added;1970 became director of Las Vistas Nuevas & used teenagers who were in trouble with police to paint over 500 murals in L.A.; 1976 the US Army Corps of Engineers hired her to paint a mural in the Tujunga Wash & it currently covers 2,754 feet & is expected to be over 1 mile upon its completion