Community Cultural Development

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

“From the Neighborhood to the Global”

Professor Judy Baca 2. Instructional Format: SEM with LAB

1. TIE Code: SEM
3. Applicable Caminos: III (History, Culture, and Language of the Americas)

Short Description

A course in artist’s approaches to transformations of local and global communities through aesthetic practices in; visual arts, spoken word, visual performance, music, and dance that include participatory audience inclusion and foster civic dialogue and community advocacy and activism. A course on the issues of cultural democracy based in cultural retention and affirmation. Case studies of artist’s projects in Community Cultural Development will provide contemporary examples of an evolving field of work and the basis for critical analysis.

Required Texts

Cleveland, William. Art and Upheaval. Oakland, California: New Village Press. 2008. Print.

Cleveland, William. Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in America’s Community and Social Institutions. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. 1992. Print.

Adams, Don, and Arlene Goldbard. Community, Culture and Globalization. New York,

NY: Rockefeller Foundation, Creativity & Culture Division, 2002. Print.

Bringhurst, Robert. A Story As Sharp As a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and

Their World. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1999. Print.

Silko, Leslie M. Almanac of the Dead: A Novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

Print.

Garfield, Joey. “Steve Powers.” Juxtapoz May 2012: 36-47.

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program 1/31/12

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

Boal, Augusto, and Adrian Jackson. The Aesthetics of the Oppressed. London: Routledge,

2006. Print.

Beyerbach, Barbara, and R D. Davis. Activist Art in Social Justice Pedagogy: Engaging

Students in Global Issues Through the Arts. New York: P. Lang, 2011. Print.

Broyles-González, Yolanda. El Teatro Campesino: Theater in the Chicano Movement.

Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994. Print.

Cockcroft, Eva S, and Holly Barnet-Sánchez. Signs from the Heart: California Chicano

Murals. Venice, Calif: Social and Public Art Resource Center, 1993. Print.

Baca, Judy. “La Memoria De Nuestra Tierra: Colorado.”Aztlan: a Journal of Chicano

Studies. 30.1 (2005): 195. Print.

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

From the Neighborhood to the Global

Dear, M J, and J D. Dishman. From Chicago to L.a: Making Sense of Urban Theory.

Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2002. Print.

Lippard, Lucy R. The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society. New

York: New Press, 1997. Print.

Doss, Erika L. Spirit Poles and Flying Pigs: Public Art and Cultural Democracy in

American Communities. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995. Print.

Vega, Marta M, and Cheryll Y. Greene. Voices from the Battlefront: Achieving Cultural

Equity. Trenton, N.J: Africa World Press, 1993. Print.

Lacy, Suzanne. Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Seattle, Wash: Bay Press,

1995. Print.

Felshin, Nina. But Is It Art?: The Spirit of Art As Activism. Seattle: Bay Press, 1995.

Print.

Dear, M J. Geohumanities: Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place. London: Routledge,

2011. Print.

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program 1/31/12

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

Requirements
20% Bi-Weekly: 1-page single-spaced analytical papers on readings will form the basis of case studies with citations of artist’s projects, critique and analysis (via Artist interviews and site visits) of the success of the work. Case study reports on local, national or international artists working in the field will be due every other week and include; analysis of the social issue the artist intends to address, interdisciplinary methodology and approach to the problem via the arts, intended audience, anticipated outcome, aesthetic outcome, success of the artwork both in process and product.

50% Lab work: Research project proposal including project description with interdisciplinary methodology and intended audience, outcome analysis in two artistic disciplines i.e. spoken word, visual arts, music.

30% Public presentation: of student designed Community Cultural Development project that includes an abstract with analysis of community and issue, project outline/methods, proposal/aesthetic outcome, annotated bibliography, and audience analysis, economics, proposed methods of evaluation.

WEEK ZERO

Tuesday January 9th

Community Cultural Development

What defines it? Review of Practices that have engaged community in the process of art making across discipline. Common elements through varied approaches to:

• The social purpose
• The participatory practice for audience inclusion
• The transformational outcome
• The economics of the production
• The teaching moments
• The democraticization of artistic process
• The examination of the myth of the sole creator.Review of case studies:
  Each week a case study will be reviewed from list provided along with student researched case studies. Artists invited to speak, as they are available.

  Readings:

  “Community, Culture and Globalization”; Chapters 1-6

  “Americans for the Arts: Institute for Community Development and the Arts”; selected

  readings

  http://www.artsusa.org/information_services/research/institute_community_development/default.asp

  Downloadable PDFs

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program 1/31/12

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

• Arts Programs for At-Risk Youth: How U.S. Communities are Using the Arts to Rescue Their Youth and Deter Crime
• Building Creative Economies: The Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainable Development
• The Arts in Times of Trauma
• Cultural Development in Creative CommunitiesWEEK ONE

  WEDNESDAY January 16th

  Collaboration

  What is the proper role for the issue and audience?

• When is it a marketing tool and when is it authentic?
• The single author in-group process: the monument builder, medieval-renaissance
• The artist parachuted in to a trouble spot: The celebrity model
• The teacher proselytize: The missionary model
• The human megaphone: The artist as a tool for amplification for local voice
• The artist as teacher:
• The artist as peace activist locally and internationally
• The artist as a facilitatorCase Study:

  The Great Wall of Los Angeles J.R.; Graffiti artist
  Film: Exit Through the Gift Shop

  Readings

  “Steve Powers.” Juxtapoz article.

  WEEK TWO

  WEDNESDAY January 23rd

  The Ethics of the Collection of the Human Narrative

• Who owns it?
• Who has the right to propagate it?Case Study:
  A Window between Worlds (AWBW): using art to help end domestic violence. Since 1991, AWBW has provided creative expression as a healing tool for over 74,000 battered women and their children in crisis shelters, transitional homes, and outreach centers throughout the United States.

  Guest speaker:
  Cathy Salser: is an artist, overcame severe battering experience and founded Window between Worlds. Kathy will show the work of battered woman and children.

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

From the Neighborhood to the Global

Readings:
“A Story Sharp as a Knife the Classical Haida Mythtellers and their World” Haida Guai Reader
Native American Oral Traditions and Archeology Article
“Artivism”

Student Activity

Students continue to present their own research in a media rich method.

WEEK THREE

WEDNESDAY January 30th

The Issue of Quality

What does quality in aesthetics entail in collaborative process? Who judges it? Is quality a euphemism for non-inclusion of artists of color who deviate from the art world canon in aesthetic or concept?

• Is the worst design a design by committee?
• Incorporation of multiple voices in a single design.
• Conflict meditation as inherent in the creative process.
• Process versus object critiqueCase Study:

  Los Angeles Poverty Department

  Student Activity

  Presentations of the epiphany workshop in teams.

  Readings:

  “The Aesthetics of the Oppressed.” Selected readings.

  UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

  From the Neighborhood to the Global

  WEEK FOUR

  WEDNESDAY February 6th

  Evaluation

  What are effective ways of evaluating the successful product and/or the outcomes of such work? Where does the story go from here?

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program 1/31/12

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

• New methods of art criticism incorporating process versus stand alone object.
• Beyond the story, what is the benefit to those involved?
• Can art change lives? How?
• What models become sustainable?Case Study:

  Meirle Ukeles, NYC Sanitation Dump work, “Garbage Truck Ballet” Vik Muniz, “Waste Land”

  Readings:
  “Activist Art in Social Justice Pedagogy.” Selected readings.

  WEEK FIVE

  WEDNESDAY February 13th

  Community Art

  What is Community Art? Is Community Art bad art?

• Can works by children be public monuments?
• Do we need 99% bad art to propagate one percent brilliant? What is theequation?
• Art Education models for student generated work.Case Studies:

  The art of the Chicano Movement: Posters, Murals, Teatro Liz Lerman and Lerman Dance Company

  Readings:

  “Teatro Campesino Theater in the Chicano Movement.” Selected readings. “Signs From The Heart: California Chicano Murals.” Selected readings.

  WEEK SIX

  WEDNESDAY February 20th

  The Excavation of the Land and Memory from the Conceptual Model by Judy Baca

  The engagement of analytical research to define the history of the site back to its geological formation i.e. the current agricultural fields of Central Coast of California formed by glacial movement formulating a valley are among the most fertile in the world. The site is also home to Chumash burial sites and to 90% Hispanic farm working population living below the poverty level and working full time in the Guadalupe Fields.

• Whose memories matter?
• Contested spaces
• Constructed realities

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program 1/31/12

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

From the Neighborhood to the Global

Case Study:

“La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra.” Denver International Airport, Denver, CO. Chicano Park. Barrio Logan, San Diego, CA.

Readings:
“La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra.” Atzlan Journal.

“Chicago to LA: making sense of urban theory, Post border City: Cultural Spaces of Bajalta California, and The Postmodern Urban Condition.” Selected readings.

WEEK SEVEN

WEDNESDAY February 27th

The Spirit of the Site

Examination of a process of the excavation of land and memory. The spirit of the site includes the environmental and human history of living creatures and events of the site. In the Guadalupe example the site was populated by Chumash and considered sacred.

• How is memory honored?
• The ethical issues artists face in public projects.
• Erasing to construct?Case study:

  Guadalupe, California
  Appleshop: Appalachian music, performance
  The Nahualt University and Mascarones theater company of Mexico

  Readings

  “The Lure of the Local.” Selected readings. “Spirit Poles and Flying Pigs.” Selected readings.

  WEEK EIGHT

  WEDNESDAY March 6th

  Ethics and the Role of the Artist

  Current enactments on the site; i.e. the current enactments on the California fields of Guadalupe California site are agribusiness’ cultivation of year round bumper crops. A shopping mall is proposed to replace an agricultural site and an artist is sought to do a public artwork for the mall to mitigate community outrage at the development.

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program 1/31/12

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

• What is the artist’s role?
• How can an artist become a spokesperson for the community?
• What are the implied ethics?Readings:

  “Voices from the Battle Front.” Selected readings.
  “Whose Monument Where? Public Art in a Many-Cultured Society.” p. 131-138

  WEEK NINE

  WEDNESDAY March 13th

  Artist’s intervention at the site

• What is the artist vision for the site?
• The land as a canvas for an individual: the contrasting works of James Turrell,Edgar Heap of Birds, Patricia Johanson and others
• Post apocalyptic visions in the build environmentCase Study:

  James Turrell, “Roden Crater”
  Edgar Heap of Birds at the Wadsworth Anthenuem Patricia Johanson, “Cyrus Field”

  Readings:

  “But is it Art: the Spirit of Art as Activism.” Selected readings. “Geohumanties: Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place.” Selected readings.

  From the Neighborhood to the Global

  Community Cultural Development Projects

  Poetry for the People By June Jordon
  Teatro Campesino
  The San Francisco Mime Troupe
  Art of the Chicano art movement: Posters, Poetry, murals, Liz Lerman and Lerman dance company

  LAPD Los Angeles Poverty Department: John Malpede
  Activism Chela Sandoval, Gabriel works of Judy Baca in the Digital mural lab The Great Wall of Los Angeles Mural Project
  Contemporary Graffiti Work

• JR and supergraphics in Latin American favelas
• Banksy various international works
• Retna and Mac in Los AngelesDigital story telling by Joe Lambert

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program 1/31/12

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art:

Appleshop: Appalachian music, performance
The Nahualt University and Mascarones theater company of Mexico
A Window Between Worlds: Works of battered Women Artist Kathy Selzer Meirle Ukeles: NYC Sanitation Dump work. Garbage Truck Ballet

Submitted by: Professor Judith F. Baca Expressive Arts Track in the Ph.D. Program

UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies Community Cultural Development in Public Art: