Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los AngelesMain MenuResearch of the DecadesResearch1960s Illustration DevelopmentIllustration DevelopmentPlaylists of the DecadesPlaylistssparcinla.org185fc5b2219f38c7b63f42d87efaf997127ba4fcGreat Wall Institute - Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
Great Wall of LA Institute
1media/Screen Shot 2023-03-21 at 2.55.15 PM.png2023-07-19T18:47:10+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49128the process of the Great Wall of LAimage_header2023-09-15T19:07:48+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
The Great Wall of Los Angeles is one of LA’s cultural landmarks and one of the country’s most respected and largest monuments to inter-racial harmony. The Great Wall is a landmark pictorial representation of the history of ethnic peoples of California from prehistoric times to the 1950’s, conceived by SPARC’S artistic director and founder Judy Baca. Begun in 1974 and completed over five summers, the Great Wall employed over 400 youth and their families from diverse social and economic backgrounds working with artists, oral historians, ethnologists, scholars, and hundreds of community members.
Its half-mile length (2,754 ft) in the Tujunga Flood Control Channel of the San Fernando Valley with accompanying park and bike trail hosts thousands of visitors every year, providing a vibrant and lasting tribute to the working people of California who have truly shaped its history. In 2000 and 2001 SPARC received acknowledgement and support from the distinguished Ford Foundation Animating Democracy: The Role of Civic Dialogue in the Arts initiative and from the Rockefeller Foundation Partnerships Affirming Community Transformation initiative. As well funding from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2013 and 2014.
SPARC continues to work on the Great Wall we are in the next phase of designing the remaining four decades of the century.