2012-2013 Project: Minidoka on Young Minds

 

The SVMA spring 2013 exhibition, Roger Shimomura: Minidoka on My Mind was selected to provide the foundation for the Art Rewards The Student (A.R.T.S.) program in 2013.

Students learn about the events surrounding the Japanese American relocation and incarceration during World War II and were introduced to a range of stories and projects relating to daily life and art making in the camps. 

 

Projects relating directly to the contemporary Pop art style of Roger Shimomura are among the topics explored. Students create visual narratives of their own using elements of printmaking, Japanese screens, comic books, mass media, and graphic novels--all stylistic and conceptual touchstones, relating to Shimomura’s work.

Students were also introduced to the concept of gaman and learn how art making was an important part of enduring camp life with patience and dignity. They worked on a range of art projects inspired by resourceful internees who found artistic potential in the most humble, scavenged materials, including pencil drawings, watercolor paintings, wooden block games, painted playing cards, painted rocks, model-making.
 
As part of the student exhibition opening May 17, Minidoka on Young Minds, SVMA and Kiwanis volunteers built a replica of a partial camp barrack, designed and constructed based on historical records, documentary photographs and Shimomura's paintings. This installation is a meaningful way to exhibit many of the students' projects made in the A.R.T.S. program.

 

SVMA is honored to partner with the Japanese American Citizens' League (JACL) of Sonoma County to bring the stories of the Internment to our schools and community. The Museum is also grateful to Tomiko Yabumoto and Gail and Jim Purtell for sharing their personal family stories and their generous assistance with A.R.T.S.

 

The A.R.T.S. exhibition, Minidoka on Young Minds, will open with a reception at SVMA on May 17 beginning at 5pm, and run through June 16, 2013.

 

 

 

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