Exploring the Land and Its Peoples
Across a nearly 80-foot-wide triptych at Ackerman Union, Judith Baca, muralist and UCLA professor emeritus, portrays early Westwood and leaders who inspired UCLA.
Panel 1
Westwood in the 1920s: Wildlife includes the last California grizzly bear, the bald eagle and the coyote who, according to the Tongva, races the L.A. River in vain.
In 1881, State Sen. Reginaldo Francisco del Valle helped establish the Los Angeles State Normal School, the forerunner of UCLA and its iconic Royce Hall. The 75-ton Founders’ Rock is now located near Murphy Hall.
Panel 2
The central panel depicts peoples integral to UCLA through a circle of activists portrayed against a backdrop of historic conflict and peaceful protest.
The circle includes a traditional image of Toypurina, a Tongva/Kizh rebel who resisted colonial rule; civil rights champion Angela Davis; and labor organizers Dolores Huerta and María Elena Durazo.
Panel 3
Global past and future: From the classical arches of the inspirational School of Athens, to the observatory where Nobel Prize winner Andrea Ghez revealed the heart of the Milky Way.
The scene is threaded with neural network-like rhizome roots, illustrating how UCLA knowledge is shared with world communities and offers the potential to change the world.
Credits:
Art by Judith F. Baca. Photo of installed art by David Esquivel.