We are a city of
nations: a myriad of peoples from all over the world joined by a sprawling
network of freeways and shared geography.
Los Angeles 2010
brings even more diversity and global economic struggles combined now with
local downturns that doubly affect Angelinos. Our schools face challenges to educate diverse children in a
nearly bankrupt state, as those under 18 have become the largest segment of our
population.
The arts play a
critical role in the up lifting of the human spirit and the expression of our
deepest shared values as people. They can bridge difference between people,
articulate a vision of hope and change for a community. They can, through creative collaborative
processes, teach us how to live and work together in the most productive ways.
In this next year, we
at the Social and Public Art Resource center will bring together another group
of youth to work on the restoration of my ½ mile long mural on the history of
California Mural called the Great Wall of Los Angeles Mural which focuses on
the contributions made by immigrants and populations of color in the Los
Angeles area. This work now 33 years old in some areas will be completely
restored and a new interpretive Green Bridge built over the site which will
serve as viewing station with interpretive panels. Our plans to extend the mural will empower another generation
of youth to continue beyond my lifetime to interpret our evolving history.
In addition in 2010,
we will create two interactive Digital Murals: Tiny Ripples of Hope and Seeing
Through Others Eyes and install them in the new Robert F. Kennedy K-12 Learning
Center on the site of the historic Ambassador Hotel. This work will through new touch screen technology and
geomapping offer the images of the mural to allow students to delve into the representations
in the mural of the issues defined by Robert F. Kennedy as the most salient
issues of the 1960’s and also of our time:
War,
Healthcare, Poverty, Intolerance, Environment and Education
The
UCLA/SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital Mural Lab and LAUSD RFK Learning Center will
collaborate to produce a multi-layered interface program, which will enable
students to interact with the library murals through touch screen technology to
explore the mural’s content and accompanying curriculum. The students will
expand through real life application the social justice curriculum by social
action in their communities that is recorded and shared. The interactive
curriculum based program will use the digital murals as a launching pad to link
to bibliographies, articles, images, and recorded interviews collected and
geo-tagged during the artist’s research period and the student’s own
exploration in their own diverse neighborhoods creating a virtual map of issues
in the City of los Angeles.
These represent only a
portion of the services SPARC will continue to offer in 2010
Judy Baca
Professor
Judith F. Baca
UCLA Cesar
E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies
