A Letter from the Director
Greetings and Happy Spring Semester!
Recently a couple of exhibition projects we are developing at the Beach Museum of Art 
have collided in a thought-provoking way with current events. Refugees are pouring into Europe from the war-torn Middle East and from desperate economic situations in parts of Africa. In the U.S. many are concerned about illegal border crossings from Central and South America. In some cases, fear, suspicion and even hatred creeps into discussion of these complex situations. The result can be that entire groups of people get stereotyped in negative ways.
On April 7, we will celebrate the opening of two exhibitions that reflect on the arrest and imprisonment of Americans of Japanese heritage during World War II. Artworks in Minidoka on My Mind: Paintings and Prints by Roger Shimomura employ the visual language of comic books and Japanese woodblock prints to convey the artist’s childhood memories of the concentration camp. Behind the Glass Eye: Photographs by Toyo Miyatake juxtaposes selected examples of Miyatake’s pre-war art photography with his images of life in the Manzanar camp – some photographed secretly before he was caught and, eventually, allowed by the authorities to serve as camp photographer. Continue reading “Art & Difference”
