Left Coast: California Political Art

Judith F. Baca (b. 1946) is a Los Angeles-based painter and muralist, community arts organizer, scholar and educator, who has been teaching art in the University of California system for over 28 years. She was the founder of 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). The organization has been creating and preserving sites of public memory since 1976. She continues to serve as SPARC’s artistic director and focuses her creative energy in the UCLA/SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital Mural Lab, employing digital technology to co-create collaborative mural designs. Baca’s commissioned murals span the state of California, with notable projects in Texas and Colorado as well. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally; artworks are included in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, among other public and private collections. More information on the artist can be found at judybaca.com.