For more information, videos of the challenges, and the proposals led by LAUSD students, visit:
Sparcinla.org
Digitalmurallab.com
Judybaca.com
www.aspeninstitute.org
SPARC Hosts International Guest Artist from Scotland:
Welcome Richie Cumming
Sponsored by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, National Galleries of Scotland, the British Council, and Creative Stirling
A Message from our International Guest:
“I applied to the Cultural Exchange International programme to fund a period of study/work at SPARC as I wanted to learn about the impressive history of an organisation who have been producing public artworks in complicated social and political contexts for over 30 years.
As an artist and as Outreach Officer for the National Galleries of Scotland, I work with communities across Scotland to produce work which is of social interest and relevance, work that gives people a public platform to express their thoughts and concerns about issues that affect them. I felt SPARC could provide me with evidence and a renewed confidence and conviction of the importance of artworks presented and produced by and for communities outwith the confines of galleries and art markets. I was also interested in learning production methods utilised by the UCLA@SPARC Digital Mural Lab in order to apply them to future productions I am involved in with the Blameless collective.
I am blogging about my LA experience here and there is information, films and images of the National Galleries of Scotland’s Outreach project, The Nation//Live currently on display in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery here.” – Richie Cumming
Winter 2014 classes have begun for Professor Judith Baca’s Chicano Studies and World Arts and Culture Classes.
Beyond the Mexican Mural Winter 2014
Students attending the Winter 2014 Beyond the Mexican Mural studio class will continue to expand upon the theories and histories they learned in their fall semester course work. Professor Baca’s Beyond the Mexican Mural classroom exercises and workshops encourage students to find their inner creativity and shared histories. The following exercise was conducted on the second week of class. By visually representing the common struggles and memorable events in their lives, the students were able to create groups based on common themes. These common themes such as Art, Identity, Gender, etc, were then presented back to the class in uniquely engaging and creative ways formulated by the students. Future course work will involve artistic projects located both in the digital mural lab and off site, as in the case of the “Emancipation Portrait Project” at the Judy Baca Arts Academy.
New Social Media and Activist Art
Advanced telecommunications and the worldwide expansion of popular media usage have created an emerging “global media culture.” Simultaneously, accessibility and an expanding capacity for non-artists to generate films, graphic designs, and artworks which can be communicated widely and instantly has also created a cross-pollination of national and international cultural traditions. A capacity now exists for a local issue to become viral and global in very short period of time fueling a new international activism through the internet.
This class focuses on hands-on learning and production experience as essential to a full understanding of modern media. We encourage students to apply their theoretical knowledge by helping to build usable products in the lab that support their graduate research interests, then to evaluate and challenge these tangible projects through critical inquiry.
This class promotes a pragmatic style of humanistic and social scientific scholarship that prepares students to think critically and productively about media form, content, and context while learning to effectively use social media.