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Denver Art Museum Symposium

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L-R: “Amache guide book cover, printed by the Amache Silk Screen Shop, ca. 1943-1945, scanned image.,” Densho Encyclopedia (accessed Sep 30 2024). Tokio Ueyama, Desert Brush, March 1945, oil on canvas, 15 3/4 x 19 in.; Courtesy Japanese American National Museum: Gift of Kayoko Tsukada, 92.20.5. © Estate of Tokio Ueyama

Art as Agency: Creating Beauty at Amache and Beyond
The 19th Annual Petrie Institute of Western American Art Symposium
January 24, 2025, 10am–5:30pm (doors open at 9am)
In-person and Online Ticketed Event

During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes on the West Coast and into American concentration camps, where they lived in uncomfortable barracks while battered by extreme climates without knowing when their unjust incarceration would end. For many, the arts became avenues to beauty, comfort, and survival in the face of prejudice.

Inspired by the exhibition The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama, the Petrie Institute’s 19th annual symposium explores how painting, gardening, screen printing, and other art forms helped reassert humanity, creativity, and resilience at camps including the Granada Relocation Center in Southeast Colorado, now the Amache National Historic Site.

To learn more and purchase in-person or virtual tickets, click here.