Metro Station Metate Benches at Wilmington Station (2009)

Metro Station Metate Benches at Wilmington Station 2009

Designed by Prof. Baca for the Wilmington Metro Station and produced in the Digital Mural Lab. Three benches in the shape of “metates” with embedded porcelain corn.

The UCLA@SPARC Digital/Mural Lab led by UCLA Professor Judith F. Baca is the leading research, teaching and production facility in the country devoted to the creation of large-scale digitally generated murals, public art productions, and community cultural development practices.

The Lab is located in a community setting (the Old Venice Police Station) at the non-profit, Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) founded in 1976. (SPARCinLA.org)

In a sequence of 8 courses offered in three departments at undergraduate and graduate levels, students work in community settings with local community members on important issues engaging their imagination and academic research to produce permanent public artworks that tell the stories of diverse communities.

While dreaming hopeful solutions, these public artworks articulate solutions to difficult problems such as low achievement in the LAUSD schools, immigration, dropout rates, racial violence, substance abuse and economic disparity in Los Angeles neighborhoods.