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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

SPARC Murals

The extension of the Great Wall of LA builds upon SPARC’s legacy of working alongside marginalized communities to create murals. As an employee of the Recreation and Parks Department in Los Angeles’ Eastside parks, Judy Baca began reaching out to youth to participate in the creation of murals. After organizing youth to make murals for multiple summers, Judy proposed The Los Angeles Citywide Mural Program to the board and became the program’s director after it was accepted. The program had an annual budget of $150,000 and from 1974 to 1978 helped produce 250 murals and employed over 1,000 artists and youth workers.

In 1974, SPARC was founded to support the work of the Great Wall of Los Angeles, a Citywide Mural project. The extension of the Great Wall builds upon the processes first developed in the first half-mile of the production of Great Wall’s which lasted from 1974-1983. Over the course of the Great Wall’s production over 400 youth alongside artists and community and academic scholars contributed to the process. During a time when a dearth of community resources were available to young people, the Great Wall provided youth employment, community building, artistic skills and leadership development opportunities. Research has always been an integral part of the Great Wall’s production and continues to be so.

In 1988 SPARC created the Neighborhood Pride Program, an extension of the Great Wall of Los Angeles throughout the city. The program produced roughly 105 murals, some still standing, in almost every ethnic community of Los Angeles. The program ran until 2002, lasting 14 years.
Below is a curation of murals that have been sponsored or created by SPARC overtime. These murals are highlighted because of their influence in the extension of the Great Wall. As our team prepares to touch on many topics throughout various decades, we draw upon work that has already been done by the legacy of SPARC and Judith Baca. To see a larger list visit our SPARC website by clicking here.

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Created in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1979 at El Taller Siquerios, a workshop for training muralists established by one of the great Mexican muralists David Alfaro Siquerios. Uprising of the Mujeres is a statement of political struggle led by women. udy Baca placed an indigenous woman at the forefront of political struggle against the prioritization of military spending, the formation of a police state at the expense of social welfare and the exploitation of workers to further capitalism.
Hitting the Wall. 1984. 20ft. x 100ft. Acrylic on Cast Concrete. Location: 4th Street off-ramp off the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles, California Baca’s 1984 Olympics mural, commemorates female marathon runners. “In it, a female runner with her arms outstretched breaks through a finish line and takes down a brick wall with her, revealing the L.A. skyline behind. The image of triumph wasn’t just another piece of street art. Far from it. It was commissioned for the 1984 games by the international Olympic Organizing Committee and designed to depict a national milestone – the first time women were allowed to compete in the games.” – LAist
Located at St. Elmo Village 4830 St. Elmo Drive Los Angeles, California. ARTIST Roderick Sykes has been involved in local community arts since 1970. he is the co-founder of St. Elmo Village, a neighborhood-based arts center in the mid-Wilshire are. ABOUT THE MURAL The mural depicts three faces, that of an African-American, an Asiana-American and a Latino, meant as a celebration of the ethnic diversity in Los Angeles. It emphasizes the importance of literacy, creativity and the role of the community in education.
Located at 7th Los Angeles, 690 Wilshire Place. ARTIST:Dong-IN Park, a native of Seoul, Korea, studied architecture at the College of Fine Arts at Hong-Ik University. He came to Los Angeles in 1974 after doing combat service in Vietnam as a solider in the Korean army. In 1991 his first mural, a portrait of Ansel Adams, was painted over for advertising. SUBJECT:The mural is made up of several panels depicting the plight of the newly arrived immigrant. Issues addressed include culture shock, loneliness, the rewards of hard work, and the blending of cultural differences.
Painted onWatts Tower Arts Center 1727 East 107th Street. ARTIST:Born in Compton, Richard Wyatt was first commissioned to paint a mural at the age of 14 by UCLA. He graduated from the university a few years later and has since exhibited widely and taught in various schools across the nation. His murals can be found scattered throughout the Los Angeles area, including pieces at Union Station, LAX, and Long Beach City Hall. SUBJECT:Cecil Fergusen is a legendary figure in the field of African American Art; he is known as the "community curator" and celebrated for his incredible rise through the ranks of the contemporary art world. Starting as a janitor for LACMA, he worked his way up to the position of curator. The first African American to hold the position, he encouraged ethnically based art and co-founded the Black Arts Council. His reputation for tireless support and advocacy for his cause has given him a wealth of loyalty and respect among his peers, the artists he has helped, and the entire African American community of Los Angeles.
Located in Downtown, Los Angeles under a bridge on 2nd and Toluca. ARTIST: Yreina D. Cervantez was born in Kansas and received a degree from UC Santa Cruz, and an MFA from UCLA. SUBJECT:The ofrenda, Spanish for "offering," is an alter made to made to honor a saint or important person. This ofrenda is made in honor of Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America. The offerings come in form of candles, calla lilies, a god's eye, and images of the workers for whose rights she fought for. On the right side of the piece, open hands display a poem by Gloria Alvarez. The mural is an homage to the strength of Latina women. It brings attention to the hardships of war and immigration, while highlighting the life and hope that endures through these struggles.
4375 Beverly Boulevard at Harvard Boulevard ARTIST: Born in the Philippines, Castillo studied art at the University of San Tomas. From a young age he wanted to be an artist but his traditional parents felt it was their duty to choose a career path for their four children. However, the young artist was determined to waylay their plans of making him into an architect. To support his studies in fine art, Castillo undertook commercial art, even doing fashion designs at the age of 15. Always very political, Castillo views himself as a social realism artist-which has gotten him in trouble at times. He was imprisoned during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship for distributing political prints, posters, and flyers to field and factory workers. “Artists don’t belong to any country. The artist’s work must reflect the community he lives in” –Orlando Castillo SUBJECT: This mural shows the U.S., represented as a woman with a torch, welcoming immigrants to help build California. Coming to America, or finding one's place in america, is one of the many themes muralists concentrate on in L.A. The struggle for survival as migrant workers, their perseverance in preserving their cultural knowledge, and their aspirations and dreams in this country are some prominent themes shown. The mural depicts the ways in which immigrants from his country and from other places in Asia have contributed to the economy and culture of California.
1974 Original by Willie Heron - ARTIST: Willie Herron III grew up in East Los Angeles, and has been long active in the Chicano art movement. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s with the “blood and guts and fists” style he uses to portray the barrio where he was raised and began drawing and painting. He had the ability to cope in a community where he sometimes had to “dodge bullets between brushstrokes”. “I began painting murals in Los Angeles with a conscious attempt at representing contemporary issues that confront the people of those communities in which my murals are located” –Willie F. Herron SUBJECT: For the 1990-91 Neighborhood Pride Program, as a tribute to Carlos Almaraz and to the historic struggle of the United Farm workers’ Union, Herron recreated No Compren Vino Gallo, one of the most artistically significant Chicano murals. The artist includes elements of Siqueiros’s mural imagery, and portrays the UFW boycott of Gallo wine; a company that uses grapes picked by workers who suffered horrible working conditions. The mural commemorates the UFW’s struggle for social justice and against dehumanizing agribusiness and corporate greed. The mural was exhibited at the Latino Lab at the former Los Angeles Theater Center (LATC) in 1991 until it was moved because the LATC closure.©SPARC
Painted on the Minority AIDS Project Building 5149 West Jefferson Boulevard (on Sycamore) ARTIST: Based in Huntington Beach, Linn-Hughes has spearheaded various art therapy projects. Among them, running a self-portrait photography workshop for people with AIDS and being the artist in residence at Orangewood Children's Home. SUBJECT:Text on the mural: I am your co-worker, I am the married couple who live down the street, I am your high school teacher, the woman you sit next to on the bus, the plumber who fixes your sink, the athlete you watch of television, the field worker who harvests your food, I am your brother, your sister, I am a person living with AIDS. The same text repeats in Spanish.
Located at Israel Levin Center Venice Boardwalk. The mural employs imagery from the Russian-Jewish painter Marc Chagall superimposed onto the Venice Beachfront. At the far left a rabbi is holding a torah on which is written, in Hebrew, the 5th Commandment, “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother.” A Chagall bird leaps from the flames and leads the viewer’s eye into the main section of the mural, where various characters and images from Chagall are placed onto the Venice Beach and boardwalk. A rabbi with a small rabbi standing on top of his head, indicates the many generations of teachers in Jewish history. Next to the fiddler on the roof the viewer sees the non-Chagallian character, an angel on roller blades representing contemporary Venice beach. He stands beneath a candelabrum of seven candles, referring to the seven-branched menorah and the extensive use of light in Jewish religion and culture. At the other end of the mural is a poem about overcoming obstacles called “Roots.” It is written by 95-year-old Dora Bayrack.
Located at Moe Hair Salon 3406 11th Avenue Los Angeles. This history of the Black Panther Party was originally selected as one of SPARC’s Great Wall Unlimited: Neighborhood Pride Murals. However, after opposition and political the conservative City Arts Commission, the mural was turned into an independent project and funded with private donations. The left side focuses on personal and institutional racist violence toward African-Americans. Depicted are images of the Klan and Bobby Seale bound and gaged, as he was during the Chicago 7 Trail of the late 1960s–above him is judge Julius Hoffman who presided in that case. Huey Newton and Angela Davis are also portrayed. The right side of the mural emphasizes the Panthers’ social projects, such as the Free Breakfast Program. From the mural: We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black People! We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. All power to the people! A special thanks is offered to Hair Expressions and the community for their war and loving support.
Located at BBF Broadway Building 351 South Broadway (at 4th St.) ARTIST Johanna Poethig was raised in the Philippines through high school and has lived in Chicago, San Francisco and Oakland since coming to the United States. Poethig received her BFA at the UC Santa Cruz and her MFA at Mills College (in Oakland, CA). Her public art works intervene in the urban landscape, in neighborhoods, on freeways, in parks, hospitals, schools, homeless shelters, cultural centers, advertising venues and public buildings. ABOUT THE MURAL “The architecture of the building really affected me because it’s so high off the ground and so much of the background is all those buildings reaching to the sky. Also, the whole context of being in Broadway, in a very Latino neighborhood, is so important to me. I started to look for symbols and artifacts from pre-Columbian America. The arms that are reaching to sky based on Peruvian gold work. The Aztec Calendar contains text by Octavio Paz about time and place. It’s trying to bring poetry to the idea of being at home and in exile at the same time. In the middle of a commercial LA landscape you have something that is talking about connecting us culturally and historically to our past and present.” -Johanna Poethig
Located at National Council of Jewish Women 543 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA West LA. This mural emphasizes the themes of community service, social actions and education that the National Council of Jewish Women of Los Angeles endorses. Wells depicts influential and prominent women of varied ethnic backgrounds building community and sharing struggles through the act of “breaking bread” together. Furthermore, it is both homage to the women it depicts and also a gesture to the community in support of multiculturalism. The women depicted from left to right are: Betty Friedan (author and activist), Barbara Boxer (senator), Hannah Senesh (poet and holocaust rescue mission fighter), Dolores Huerta (United Farm Workers Union co-founder), Lee Krasner (artist), Barbara Jordan (congresswoman and civil rights worker), Emma Goldman (anarchist and labor rights activist), young woman of the Ethiopian Jewry, Aung San Suu Kyi (elected president of Burma, was put under house arrest), Lillian Hellman (playwright), Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemalan human rights activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize) and Hannah Solomon (founder, National Council of Jewish Women). “Not Somewhere Else But Here” has been written about by scholars and art historians since the 1990’s. Paul Von Blum, a respected art historian, published an important article on it with the University of Wisconsin shortly after its creation.
Located at Carlota Park Apartments 227 East Avenue 41 Highland Park. ARTIST: Freeman is a self-taught artist. He moved to Los Angeles in 1974 while active in the Black Panther Party as an organizer. SUBJECT: The mural depicts to prevalent social ills: the senseless killing of young people and homelessness. The shaman in the center represents a healthy state of wholeness. Cesar Chavez represents vision being focused. The elderly are symbols of rich experience and wisdom. The spirits of Pancho Villa and Zapata are there to signify strength and courage. The mural’s title refers to the role of the spiritual in finding solutions.
Located on the exterior of the Local 11 Chapter Building, the mural represents the union’s members who have dedicated their lives to making the Los Angeles hotel industry successful. The mural showcases chefs, bellmen, washers and waiters, in their working environment, while simultaneously relating their presence and labor to the Los Angeles landscape. Sponsored by City of Los Angeles and Local 11. (1998)
Located at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex Cafeteria - At the request of Maria Elena Durazo, of the AFL-CIO collaborated with the UCLA Labor Center, Professors Kent Wong and Janna Shaddock Hernandez, the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex (MCLC) High School Students, and UCLA/SPARC DIGITAL MURAL LAB under Prof. Baca’s direction produced a new 18ft x 28ft digital mural for permanent placement in the downtown LA school with a 56% drop out rate. The work, sponsored by the Miguel Contreras Foundation, is installed in the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex cafeteria. Both UCLA students and MCLC high school students were assigned to create a mural in a 20 week period that commemorates the legacy of labor leader Miguel Contreras while visually representing the issues affecting the students of the Center, who come from neighborhoods with many conditions that impede high school graduation.
In 2017 Central Valley Mural Project and SPARC began the installation of eight murals throughout the Central Valley on health, wellness and social justice in immigrant and agricultural communities. Sponsored by the California Endowment, the SPARC team will be completing murals in Bakersfield, Lamont, Merced, Fresno, Armona, Tulare, Modesto, and Stockton. Partners include the United Farm Workers, ACT for Women and Girls, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, El Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño, El Concilio, Community Medical Centers-Stockton, We’Ced, and the Kings County Cultural Center.