Judith F. Baca, American visual artist, has dedicated over four decades to creating impactful public art. Her murals bring art into the daily lives of communities. In 1974, she established Los Angeles’ first mural program, which has produced over 400 murals, offered employment to thousands, and evolved into the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). She serves as SPARC’s artistic director, focusing on digital technology to advocate for social justice and participatory public arts projects through SPARC Digital Mural Lab.

Baca’s public art monuments reflect the interconnectedness of history, people, and place, emphasizing diverse struggles for rights and community ties to the memory of land. Her most renowned work is the ongoing Great Wall of Los Angeles, a half-mile mural in the San Fernando Valley that has engaged hundreds of youths and their families, artists, oral historians, and scholars since 1974.

Baca is now Professor Emeritus at UCLA, where she was a senior professor of Chicana/o Studies and World Arts and Cultures. In 2012, the Los Angeles Unified School District named a school for her, the Judith F. Baca Arts Academy, in Watts, her birthplace. Baca’s contributions have earned her prestigious accolades, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and United States Artist Rockefeller Fellowship. She has also received numerous awards—most notably, the 2021 National Medal of Arts, the highest presidential honor awarded to artists in the United States.