SIDE BY SIDE: NIHONMACHI SCENES - MEET THE CURATOR, BARBARA JOHNS
Saturday, February 22, 2025
1:30 — 3:30PM
George Tsutakawa Art Gallery, 2nd floor
Free with general admission
For more information about accessibility, please contact visit@wingluke.org or call 206.623.5124
Meet Barbara Johns, the curator of the current exhibit Side by Side: Nihonmachi Scenes by Tokita, Nomura, and Fujii, on display in the George Tsutakawa Art Gallery.
Barbara will make a special appearance in the gallery from 1:30-3:30PM on Saturday, February 22 to chat informally about the exhibit and the three Japanese American Issei artists, Kamekichi Tokita, Kenjiro Nomura and Takuichi Fujii, who chronicled Seattle's Japantown during the 1930s and early 1940s through their vibrant paintings.
Please note that this event is first-come first-serve based on gallery capacity.
Photo of Barbara Johns by Spike Mafford
Dr. Barbara Johns is an art historian and curator. She worked formerly at the Seattle Art Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum, where she served as chief curator. She also managed two regional projects for the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, including the Northwest Asian American Artist Project. Her current work of nearly twenty years has focused on recovering the life stories and achievements of Issei, or immigrant-generation Japanese, artists in Seattle.
More about the Exhibit: Juxtaposed to their success as American artists, this exhibit includes the diary of Takuichi Fujii, which consisted of more drawings, but this time, from within the camp he was incarcerated during WWII. The exhibit also includes a photo reproduction of a page in Tokita’s diary and a Nomura watercolor sketch of Puyallup to hint at their imminent wartime experiences.
Are you a member of the museum? Members get 10% off year-round and 20% off the day they join or renew!