at the gallery
Two Views
Photographs by Ansel Adams and Leonard Frank
January 16 – March 13, 2010
Ansel Adams, Calisthenics, Manzanar Relocation Center, 1943
This compelling collection of photographs presents two views of internment and incarceration in the early 1940s. This exhibition provides an opportunity to reflect on the nature of forced separation and uprooting and the effects that it has on its victims. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, both the Canadian and American governments forced the relocation of citizens of Japanese descent from the coastal regions. Nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans and 22,000 Japanese Canadians were affected. The internment camps for the Japanese Americans were scattered around the US west. In Canada, the B.C. Security Commission was established to oversee the removal to hastily planned camps in the BC interior, or to work and road camps in other parts of the country.
Parts of this exhibit were previously displayed at Presentation House Gallery in North Vancouver in 2003, curated by Bill Jefferies and Grace Eiko Thompson. Ansel Adams images are courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. The Ansel Adams photographic prints were donated to the Japanese Canadian National Museum by the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizen’s Association. Thank you to the Vancouver Historical Society for their sponsorship of the exhibit.
All are welcome to attend the opening reception on January 16, 4-6pm.
Bill Jeffries will present a talk ‘Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange and the Sacrifices Made in 1942′ on January 28, 7pm.
Greg Masuda will present two photography workshops on how to take better pictures. Click here for more details.
Special film screenings about Leonard Frank and Mazanar on February 27, 2pm. Click here for more details. The films will also be shown in the gallery on a small screen during the exhibition.
Upcoming Exhibitions
2nd Annual Artist Showcase & Auction
Showcase, March 20-April 9 (free admission)
Silent Auction Fundraiser, Friday, April 9, 6-9pm (tickets: $40 includes light meal)
Join us for the second annual Artist Showcase! Celebrate our amazing community of Japanese Canadian artists and help raise funds for the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre. Revisit our website for a complete listing of art available for auction.
Robert Shiozaki and Mary Anne Tateishi exhibit
April 24-June 19
What happens when two artists start exploring their roots and ancestry in
the museum’s collections? Join us for an inspiring new exhibit of pottery, mixedmediaand paintings.
Touring Exhibitions
Slocan 2006, paper, conté crayon, oil pastel, photo transfer, wood, 58″ x 52″A Measured Act
An exhibition of work by Norman Takeuchi
Takeuchi’s drawings and paper assemblages share a personal view, seen through sansei (third generation Japanese Canadian) eyes, into the internment of Japanese Canadians. This show is an installation of five life-size paper kimono named after internment camps, and six charcoal drawings depicting objects from memories of the internment.
Please contact the Museum for more information about hosting this exhibition at your venue. Tel: 604.777.7000 Email: jcnm@nikkeiplace.org
Charcoal drawings on paper. Each piece 12″ x 12″
Shashin: Japanese Canadian Studio Photography to 1942
This exhibit presents eighty photographs by Nikkei studio photographers in Cumberland, New Westminster, and Vancouver. These images depict diverse subjects and communities, including European, Chinese, African-American, and Japanese immigrants, both elites and labourers, representing almost fifty years of British Columbia history through the eyes of Japanese Canadians. A book catalogue accompanies this exhibition. Curated by Grace Eiko Thomson.
Please contact the Museum for more information about hosting this exhibition at your venue. Tel: 604.777.7000 Email: jcnm@nikkeiplace.org
Online Exhibitions
Member of the
Virtual Museum of Canada
Asahi: Canadian Baseball Legends
http://virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Asahi/
This is the story of the Vancouver Asahi baseball team whose home ground was Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver from 1914 to 1941. The online exhibit is presented in four chapters: Building the Club, Triumph, Pride of the Community and the Asahi Legacy which can each be explored in depth with many images, sound bites, and film. A timeline of events in team history and the history of Canada’s Nikkei community, as well as teachers’ resources are also available. This exhibit is presented in three languages English, French and Japanese.
A public celebration will be held on Thursday, July 17, 2008, 7-9pm.
Our Mothers’ Patterns
Sewing and dressmaking in the Japanese Canadian community is a legacy of pride, skill and accomplishment passed on from thousands of women who mastered this vital art to practice their craft in British Columbia and across Canada from the early part of the twentieth century to the present.
The inspiration for this exhibit came from a collection of dresses donated to the Japanese Canadian National Museum by Mary Ohara, typical of those worn in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Sewing then was not only necessary for women of all ages to provide custom-made inexpensive clothing for themselves and their families, but was also a primary source of income for many Japanese Canadians excluded from mainstream businesses or professional occupations. These women established their own shops or made clothing for clients from their homes after attending dressmaking academies.
During the internment years, the women in almost every camp organized hugely popular classes. For Canadians like Mary Ohara who went to Japan in 1946, dressmaking Canadian-style was one familiar means of showing how closely they continued to identify with customs from their homeland. For others who migrated east of the Rockies, dressmaking abilities allowed them to re-establish themselves. For both, dressmaking was the way to making a livelihood in a new place.
Visit the exhibition online at: The Virtual Museum of Canada
