travels with toby

Before we moved back to Los Angeles, I created a wish list of things I wanted to do. And I keep adding to it. I added the Great Wall of Los Angeles after reading about it in an article of free things to do here. This freebie is so cool!!

Created by SPARC, Social and Public Art Resource Center, The Great Wall is a half mile mural representing the history of ethnic peoples of California from prehistoric times to the 1950s. This section was completed in 1978. It is located at Oxnard Street and Coldwater Canyon Avenue in the southeastern corner of the San Fernando Valley in the Tujunga Flood Control Channel, also known as Tujunga wash.

Conceived by Judith Baca, SPARC’s artistic director and founder, it began in 1974 and was completed over five summers and employed 400 youth and their families. There is an article on SPARC’s website written by Baca where she describes how the Mexican social mural movement inspired muralists in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Her work painting murals with at-risk youth led to the creation of SPARC. The Great Wall was SPARC’s first project. In 2013 SPARC received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to continue the work on the Great Wall to add the remaining four decades of the century, the 1960s thru the 1990s.

One video that I found on SPARC’s website by Ernestine Jimenez who worked on the mural. It was particularly moving because she tells the story of being involved in this project such that it kept her out of trouble. “If it wasn’t for this mural, I don’t know where I’d be.” Speaks volumes, truly.

We visited twice because we didn’t know the how long it was on our first trip. I didn’t research it prior to going the first time, did so afterwards and learned it was a half mile long. We started at the more current end, at the corner of Oxnard Street and Coldwater Canyon, and worked our way backwards. On our second trip, we started at the beginning and followed it to where we stopped the week before. So interesting and so many great scenes. There are several spots with lists of the artists and I’ve included a photo of one of those.

Following is a brief snapshot of some of the murals that I hope you will enjoy. Starting with the beginning of time from our second visit.

The next gallery is from our first visit and I don’t think I took these photos in order.

If you’re in Los Angeles, do pay a visit to the wall. The art and the stories behind the art are so inspiring.

The Great Wall of Los Angeles

“The purpose of any monument is to bring the past into the present to inspire the future.” ~ Judy Baca