After a full year of being temporarily closed due to COVID-19, JAMsj is now open to visitors on weekends. The formal reopening is scheduled in mid-June when the state is expected to fully reopen and lift most capacity and activity restrictions. For now, the museum would like to gradually start welcoming back visitors (without a big announcement) and was happy to greet about 20 guests over the past two weekends.
“One of the reasons that we wanted to reopen at this time is that we would like as many people as possible to see our current Rotating Exhibit,” says Jim Nagareda, Executive Director of JAMsj.
Jim Nagareda in the Rotating Exhibit area. The picture on the very left is artist Bryan Ida’s grandfather.
The JAMsj Rotating Exhibit area now features the powerful and unique series of work titled "con.Text" by artist Bryan Ida. Visitors will be able to see 10 almost life-size ink portraits of people that Bryan has a personal connection with. If you look closely, you will be amazed to notice that the pictures are fully drawn by text instead of lines. Each portrait represents a historical moment and an underlying subject including racism, civil rights, and human rights.
First and foremost, there is the portrait of Bryan’s grandfather as he is waiting to board a bus to the internment camp during World War II. The image is entirely composed of the text from Executive Order 9066 by which President Roosevelt mandated the incarceration of Japanese Americans in 1942.
Another picture is of Bryan’s neighbor, a Muslim woman, on her way to prayer in the wake of the travel ban. This picture is composed with the text of 1,550 of President Trump’s tweets starting from the Presidential Inauguration Day on January 20, 2017, to September 25 of that year.
The con.Text exhibit has been on display at JAMsj since August 2020 and was initially planned to be shown for six months. Because the museum was forced to close during that time, Bryan has graciously offered to extend his exhibit through August 29, 2021.
Denise Hayashi in front of the Museum Store
During the soft reopening period, Jim and Denise Hayashi, JAMsj Office Manager will be greeting visitors and there will not be docent-led tours yet. The two will be preparing for the formal reopening, “making sure that we have a safe process in place so that not only our visitors, but our docents and other volunteers will feel comfortable to come back to work,” says Jim.
As JAMsj gets ready to go back into full swing, the JAMsj blog is also back up and running. Please check back often so that we can share with you new developments and stories of the museum and our community.