Judy Baca is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar committed to exploring and memorializing the varied histories, cultures and landscapes within communities in large scale public monuments and murals. She gives form to monuments that rise up out of neighborhoods: together with the people who live there, she collaborates to create sites of public memory. Baca received her MA in Art Education and BA in Art from California State University, Northridge and is the founder and artistic director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center. She is the recipient of the 2013 Latino Spirit Award for Achievement in the Arts by the California Latino Legislative Caucus and 2010 Public Art Network Award by Americans for the Arts. Baca is an internationally recognized artist, advocate and educator.