Valley Glen Tutors

About Valley Glen

Valley Glen tutors art tutors are incredibly proud of "The Great Wall of Los Angeles". This mural is credited as being one of the longest murals in the world at 2754 feet long. In total it covers 6 city blocks on Coldwater Canyon Avenue between Oxnard Street and Burbank Blvd. It is painted directly onto the concrete side of the Tujunga Wash, and has transformed an otherwise ugly part of the drainage system into a work of art. The work titled "The History of California" was designed by Judith Baca and executed by over four hundred of the community youths and local artists. It was her first mural and the "Social And Public Art Resource Center" (SPARC)'s first public art project.

The idea for the project was born in the early seventies. At the time, Baca was a consultant for the "Tujunga Wash Greenbelt Project" and was contacted by the "Army Corps of Engineers" about the potential of transforming the flood-control channel. Valley Glen tutors remember the wall as an eyesore. Baca creatively referred to the concrete wall along the river as "a scar where the river once ran". Confronted by the sheer scale of the project, and inspired by the wealth of local history, Baca came up with the concept to create a pictorial history of Los Angeles County, and as she had the space, she opted to go as far back as the prehistoric Mesozoic era.

Tutors in Valley Glen speak about the tremendous amount of preparation and efforts that were made in order to ensure the success of the project and note that Baca took the responsibility very seriously. Before the actual painting commenced, Baca went to Cuernavaca to study mural making techniques. She learnt about preservation, chemistry and the "polyangular theory" of mural painting. She was able to acquire and convert an abandoned police station and used it as the headquarters for this large-scale undertaking. It wasn’t until the late seventies that Baca was ready to begin work on the mural proper. By this time she had enlisted the services of fellow artists that included Isabel Castro, Yreina Cervantez, Judith Hernandez, Olga Munoz, Patssi Valdez, Margaret Garcia, Christina Schlesinger, Judy Chicago and Gary Tokumoto. They developed carefully each section of the “Great Wall” through a very thorough and coordinated effort. The process involved much research. They spoke with historical experts and even interviewed locals who lived through parts of more recent history. As a group they developed ideas and incorporated cultural, political and historic stories, so that the piece as a whole became the amalgamation of a vantage point rather than the view of one person.