Social and Public Art Resource Center
SPARC building, Venice, California
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| Abbreviation | SPARC |
|---|---|
| Motto | Creating sites of public memory since 1976. |
| Formation | 1976 |
| Founder | Judy Baca, Donna Deitch and Christina Schlesinger |
| Type | non-profit |
| Purpose | Creating and maintaining public art, engaging community collaboration for the arts |
| Location |
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| Website | http://www.sparcinla.org |
Coordinates: 33°59′30″N 118°27′31″W / 33.991606°N 118.458665°W
The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) is a non-profit community arts center based in Venice, California. SPARC hosts exhibitions, sponsors workshops and murals, and lobbies for the preservation of Los Angeles area murals and other works of public art. SPARC hosts several community programs and artist spaces, including the UCLA@SPARC Digital Mural Lab, a "comprehensive" archive, printmaking studios, an art gallery and a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) graduate program. According to its mission statement, "SPARC espouses public art as an organizing tool for addressing contemporary issues, fostering cross-cultural understanding and promoting civic dialogue."
Inspired by the Chicano art movement, SPARC was founded in 1976 by muralist and activist Judy Baca, (who continues to serve as artistic director), painter Christina Schlesinger, and filmmaker Donna Deitch. It was an outgrowth of the "Friends of the Citywide Mural Program", a community organization dedicated to supporting Baca's work with the Los Angeles Citywide Mural Program, a city-funded project to beautify city walls and divert the energies of youth in gang-afflicted areas. Almost immediately, censorship issues led to the artists realizing that they need to create an organization to back up their work. The initialism "SPARC" was chosen intentionally, as the organization was intended to "spark" "a movement toward identity and justice." Schlesinger suggested the idea of a spark because she was inspired by the work of the 1960s group, the Weatherman who used that phrase initially.
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