Karin Higa: Hidden in Plain Sight is the first in a two-part series highlighting the legacy of the late curator, writer, and cultural activist Karin Higa. This program will explore and celebrate the intersections of art, community and organizing in Higa’s work. This conversation, along with a second panel which will be held at the Hammer Museum on November 20, coincides with the publication of Hidden in Plain Sight: Selected Writings of Karin Higa, a substantial illustrated volume surveying her curatorial and scholarly work which will be released in October 2022 by Dancing Foxes Press.

Among her many accomplishments, Higa was senior curator at JANM from 1992-2006. Her creative, intellectual and political commitments to Asian American art, the Japanese American experience, the Little Tokyo community, and their deft interweaving with broader contexts, continue to be powerful inspiration for artists, art historians, and many other cultural workers. 

Panelists include Howie Chen, curator and writer who recently edited the book Godzilla: Asian American Arts Network; Bruce Yonemoto, an artist who, along with his late brother Norman, worked very closely with Higa on the exhibition Bruce and Norman Yonemoto: Memory, Matter, and Modern Romance; and Julie Ault, editor of Hidden in Plain Sight: Selected Writings of Karin Higa. The panel will be introduced by Higa’s niece and recent JANM Getty intern, Rose Keiko Higa, and moderated by writer, curator, and organizer Ana Iwataki, who worked under Karin Higa as a JANM Getty intern.