SPARC, The Social and Public Art Resource Center, is located in Los Angeles and aims to produce work that reflects the lives of its community. The organization was founded in 1976 by muralist Judith F. Baca, painter Christina Schlesinger, and filmmaker Donna Deitch. SPARC focuses on women, the working poor, youth & elderly, as well as newly arrived immigrant communities. Their main purpose is to examine what we choose to memorialize through public art. All of the work produced by SPARC is always a collaboration between artists and community members which allows art to rise from the community rather than being imposed upon it.

One of their most famous projects, “The Great Wall of Los Angeles,” is a huge mural that shows inter-racial harmony. It stretches for 2,754 feet in the Tujunga Flood Control Channel of the San Fernando Valley. There are park and bike trails as well providing easy access for visitors all year round. It stands as a tribute to the working people of California who have helped to shape its history.

SPARC received support the distinguished Ford Foundation Animating Democracy: The Role of Civic Dialogue in the Arts initiative and from the Rockefeller Foundation Partnerships Affirming Community Transformation initiative to continue working on the great wall which they did until the end of the 1990s. They have now built a park alongside the Great Wall which turns it into an international educational and cultural destination.

SPARC is an impressive organization that uses a participatory process that allows community members to create artistic and socially engaging pieces that give back to the community. They’ve made it onto the Los Angeles Times, and one of the founders, Judy Baca was invited onto Amy Poehler’s talk show this past April.

In today’s society, we are constantly fed with hundreds of images everyday. As a result, we often accept the images without questioning the meaning behind them, and also because photographs have historically captured truth. If used positively, images serve a positive function, as tools that effectively convey messages universally, without the hindrance posed by the language barrier. Nevertheless, we are often subjected to propaganda images that have been misused through their removal from their proper context. Often as a society we overlook how these images are being framed in newspapers or on posters, and accept them as the truth without questioning the true intent of the presentation. In actuality, most of the time, images in the media are posed by photographers and Photoshopped by editors, and most of the time, we are unaware of these changes and the meaning contained within these photographs.

It is important to know the way each photograph is being used. An interesting art project posted on Urban Arts Partnership, incorporated into two global history classes taught by teaching artist Elise Rasmussen and Ms Delgado, helps students understand the usage of media photographs more fully. Throughout the year, students are incorporating photography and the visual arts to illustrate historical concepts and eras from the curriculum. One global history class, which explores student political revolutions around the world, utilizes photography to understand the roots of revolution and how it affects people. The students work together in groups to create propaganda posters that relate to specific revolutions. They present these to the class and explain their usage and background to their fellow students. Studying historical propaganda photographs and remaking them allows students to grasp the concept that not all photographs represent the truth. They created photographs to create the posters that helped to fuel their revolutions. This can also be done by governments and radical groups. This interactive technique in approaching the study of history allows students to grasp better the relationship between photography and propaganda. Even photography classes rarely address the fact that many photographs do not only convey the truth and are used in the wrong way. We should question the validity of images and their intention.

The main emphasis of this project is on illustrating historical events through interactive group artwork, which provides a new and exciting way for students to learn and reflect upon history. However, through the recreation of propaganda, the project also helps students to be more aware of their own media and the present time. This teaching method can be applied in most classes, to help students to gain a better understanding of their own culture and remind them not to believe every image they see. It would form a crucial part of cultural studies in the current era, especially in view of the growth rate of Photoshopped images and the fact that many young teens still believe in the truth of all the images that they see online and in magazines. There are also movements like SPARK, which has demanded that Teen Vogue show real, untouched photographs of girls. However, such single-issue activism is not enough. The misuse of images goes far beyond fashion magazines—it extends to human rights issues in the news. It is vital to educate young adults about the massive increase in photographic manipulation and synthesis.

While teaching, it is always nice to involve students in their own community in an interactive way. This semester, while teaching about future image-makers, we had the opportunity to engage students in a blogging competition. However, such opportunities for community engagement will not exist every semester. Searching for a creative outlet for students in this regard, recently I stumbled upon an interesting project on Urban Arts Partnership done by IS 230’s photography club, led by teaching artist Elise Rasmussen. In this project, students work together to produce a visitor’s guide book for their Jackson High neighborhood. They take neighborhood walks to explore their community and shoot pictures for the guide. The students also write brief articles to go along with their images. They are able to interact with, explore and develop a better understanding of their own community. In the process of introducing their home to visitors, they also get a chance to learn to view their community from a new perspective.

I found students never had issues doing independent projects, and that they had little opportunity to interact with their peers on group photography projects. Grouping students into departments and giving them the opportunity to work with each other would help students develop practical skills as directors and photographers. Students would also have to agree on the photograph that they select and edit as a group; they would thus be exposed to other students’ perspectives. By doing the project in class, the teachers would be able to pay attention to how students are working with their cameras and composing their photographs. Allowing students to write short articles to accompany the photographs can help them practice incorporating text and photographs. After producing the visitor’s guide, the students should feel a sense of accomplishment from having produced a document connecting them to the larger community. This project of Ms Rasmussen’s allowed students to produce a visitor’s guide for the community, and it is always interesting to see the town from a student’s perspective instead of an adult’s. I will incorporate this creative concept into my future teaching experiences in photography.