Bearing Witness: Documenting our Times

Teacher Workshop
On-site at the museum

Sat Nov 5, 2022  
9 AM–12 PM
Koret Classroom
Pay what you Can

How might an artist’s perspective provide new insights to historical events? How can art sustain us during times of crisis and despair? In the Bearing Witness exhibition, painter Chiura Obata’s sketches and watercolors depict his lived experiences of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the Japanese Incarceration during WWII, as well as his reflections on the bombing of Hiroshima.  How might teachers use these primary documents to enrich students’ understanding of these defining moments in California and U.S. history?  During this workshop, we will learn about Obata’s life and message from his granddaughter, Kimi Hill, who carries his legacy and shares it with the world.  Museum educators will also guide teachers through activities that they can take back to their classrooms, to enable students to bear witness to the historical events they are living through now.

About Kimi Hill

Kimi Hill, Chiura Obata’s granddaughter, has consulted on numerous books and exhibitions about her grandfather, including the Obata retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2019. As family historian Hill also edited the book “Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata’s Art of the Internment,” which tells the story of the Obata family, one of among the thousands of Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII.

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