A new exhibition at the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art, Resilience—A Sansei Sense of Legacy, offers a poignant perspective on the generational impacts of the Japanese American incarceration camps, as seen through the eyes of Sansei (third-generation) Japanese Americans.
In 1942, in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law Executive Order 9066, which led to the forced the imprisonment of all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the United States.
In the years following the order’s retraction at the end of World War II, expatriate Japanese families and individuals grappled with lost property, the shame and indignity of incarceration and the challenge of reintegrating into a society that had expelled them.
The Resilience exhibit features eight artists whose work reflects the impacts of the Executive Order as it resonated from generation to generation. Resilience is intended to serve as a catalyst to cultivate social dialog and change around issues of racism, hysteria and economic exploitation still alive in America today.
“Each artist in this exhibition, in their own way, expresses moments of deeply felt pain amid enduring silence,” said Stephanie Gibson, director of the Lilley Museum of Art. “The exhibition illustrates how art can be a powerful tool for protest, memory and healing. And with references to other instances of coercive power throughout history, there is so much to learn here.”
The exhibition is curated by Gail Enns and Jerry Takigawa. Featured artist include Kristine Aono, Reiko Fujii, Wendy Maruyama, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Tom Nakashima, Roger Shimomura, Judy Shintani, and Jerry Takigawa.
The exhibit runs through Nov. 15. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday.
Sansei Exhibit upcoming events include:
Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, 6 - 7 p.m., Lilley Museum Foyer
Join us for a conversation with Satsuki Ina, activist and author of The Poet and the Silk Girl: A Memoir of Love, Imprisonment, and Protest. Ina will be in conversation with Meredith Oda, Department of History, about her family’s experience in WWII Japanese American incarceration camps as well as their generations of anti-racist struggle. A question and answer session will follow.
Wednesday, Oct. 30, 5:30- 6:30 p.m., Wells Fargo Auditorium As part of the Visiting Artists Lecture series, a will give a free artist lecture. Maruyama, a furniture maker, artist and educator, has been making innovative work for more than 40 years.
This exhibition is a Program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and The National Endowment for the Arts. Support for this exhibition comes from the City of Reno Arts and Culture Commission, Nevada Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Nevada Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Friends of the Lilley Museum, Core Humanities at the College of Liberal Arts, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN), and DigiPrint Corporation.
