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Building a New Future: Art and Activism in the Central Valley

  • Description
  • Specs
  • Schedule

George Ballis’ photography captures key moments and figures in farmworkers’ organizing movements, and reveals the ongoing legacies of these community actions and cultural productions.

Filipino Grape Strike pickets in Delano, CA during senate committee hearings on migrant labor conditions, 1966. Photo by George Ballis.
Jim Drake, Julio Hernandez, and Dolores Huerta and her children sing De Colores at end of an organizing meeting, 1966. Photo by George Ballis.
People participate in a self-help housing program funded by the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA), undated. Photo by George Ballis.

The industrial-scale agriculture that dominates California’s Central Valley has historically relied on groups of seasonal, mostly migrant farmworkers. Foreign nationals from Asia, Mexico, and the Middle East; Black Americans from the rural South; and members of other marginalized groups have been attracted to the world’s most productive agricultural region by the promise of employment and economic opportunity. Instead, farmworkers have faced meager wages, substandard housing, lack of access to clean water and healthcare, harsh conditions, and exploitation. Attempts to organize any action against these conditions have typically been met with retaliation, and often with violence. While California fruits and vegetables predominate in the marketplace, the plight of the farmworkers remained largely hidden from the public eye.

One of many performances at El Teatro Campesino (The Farmworker’s Theater) in 1968. Photo by George Ballis.

George “Elfie” Ballis (1925-2010) moved to Fresno in 1953 to become editor of a labor newspaper. There, he began taking photographs of migrant workers’ housing and working conditions and tried to establish trusting, respectful relationships with his subjects. Mentored by photographer Dorothea Lange, Ballis documented farm labor and living conditions in California’s Central Valley, and created some of the most iconic images of farmworker organizing efforts. Movement organizers used Ballis’ images to publicize the cause, and they were also supplied to the popular press to galvanize public support. Building a New Future: Art and Activism in the Central Valley chronicles Ballis’ photographs, and the development of this broad-based movement garnering national attention and support.

Building a New Future provides an historical lens to consider how individuals and groups come together to enact social change, and how imagery and photojournalism played an important role in both telling and shaping the stories in the public’s eye.

This exhibition was developed by the UC Merced Library and tours through Exhibit Envoy.

Exhibit Themes

  • The legacy of migrant farm labor
  • Organizing a social movement
  • Art, iconography, and theater
  • Building a new future

Specs

Audience:
General
Rental Fee:
$1,350/8 weeks + shipping
Size:
150 linear ft.
Languages:
English, Spanish
Security:
Limited

Exhibit Components:

  • 54 framed black and white photographs, all measuring 16″x20″
  • Didactic text panels in English and Spanish providing historic and artistic context for the works
  • Reproductions of a number of Ballis’ original contact sheets for close-up investigation
  • Reproductions of The Movement newspaper issues for hands-on use
  • Accompanying captions in English and Spanish for each image
  • Press kit, programming suggestions, and topical resource listings

Schedule and Availability

Past Dates

March – May 2023
Kolligan Library, UC Merced, Merced, CA
March 9, 2025 – April 27, 2025 (7 weeks)
McHenry Museum, Modesto, CA
June 1, 2025 – August 24, 2025 (12 weeks)
AVAILABLE
September 14, 2025 – November 9, 2025
AVAILABLE
November 30, 2025 – January 25, 2026
AVAILABLE
February 15, 2026 – April 12, 2026
AVAILABLE
May 3, 2026 – June 28, 2026
AVAILABLE
July 19, 2026 – September 13, 2026
AVAILABLE
October 4, 2026 – November 29, 2026
AVAILABLE
December 20, 2026 – February 14, 2027
AVAILABLE

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