Artist Judy Baca is pushing back against allegations from former employees who claim she improperly benefited from a $5 million grant tied to the expansion of her landmark mural, The Great Wall of Los Angeles, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
The accusations come from 10 former employees of the Social and Public Art Resource Center, or SPARC, the Venice-based nonprofit Baca co-founded in 1976. Several former staff members, including two managers, told the Times that Baca blurred the line between SPARC and her private business, Judy Baca Inc., and personally profited from grant funds intended for the mural’s expansion.
Baca, 79, strongly denied the allegations. In interviews with the Times, she and SPARC board chair Zojeila Flores said the funds were used appropriately and that any compensation Baca received was consistent with established arrangements between the artist and the nonprofit.
At the center of the dispute is a $5 million grant awarded in 2021 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of its $250 million Monuments Project. The funding supports the expansion and preservation of The Great Wall of Los Angeles, a 2,700-foot mural in a San Fernando Valley flood control channel that depicts California history from the perspective of women and communities of color. The expansion, which will extend the mural’s timeline from the 1960s to the 1990s, is expected to be completed in 2028.
Former employees allege that Baca required SPARC staff, whose salaries were funded in part by the Mellon grant, to perform work unrelated to the mural expansion, including tasks connected to her personal commissions and studio operations. Pete Galindo, a former director of the Great Wall of Los Angeles Institute, wrote to Mellon in 2022 alleging misuse of funds. Carmen Garcia, a former SPARC executive director, said she resigned after raising concerns about the grant’s management.
The Mellon Foundation confirmed to the Times that it received Galindo’s complaint and handled it under its third-party grievance procedures. The foundation declined to comment further and did not alter SPARC’s grant status.
Baca denied assigning grant-funded staff to personal projects and said commissions routed through SPARC followed an approved fiscal sponsorship model. SPARC said Baca receives commissions for certain projects while the nonprofit also benefits financially from those arrangements.
The report also details scrutiny over Baca’s compensation. According to tax filings cited by the Times, Baca’s salary rose from roughly $50,000 in the years before the Mellon award to more than $200,000 annually after the grant was secured. Board minutes reviewed by the newspaper indicate SPARC voted to align Baca’s pay with her prior salary as a UCLA professor, with additional funds drawn from the Mellon grant. SPARC said her compensation remains below market rates for nonprofit executives and below what she could command for commissions independently.
Questions have also been raised about the 2021 sale of more than 350 archival items related to The Great Wall to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. While the purchase price was not disclosed publicly, two sources told the Times it was $1.5 million. SPARC said Baca owned the archive and later donated $521,000 from the sale to the nonprofit.
Additional concerns cited in the report include SPARC’s leasing arrangements within its city-owned Venice headquarters and the frequency with which exhibitions at the nonprofit have featured Baca’s own work. SPARC said subleases comply with its agreement with the city and that rental income is reported in its tax filings.
The Great Wall of Los Angeles, begun in 1974 and completed over five summers with the participation of hundreds of young artists and community members, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Baca is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and is widely regarded as a central figure in Los Angeles muralism.
In her response to the allegations, Baca attributed the complaints to disgruntled former employees and said she remains focused on completing the mural expansion.
