HOPE AS
MOVEMENT
Image credit: Chikaji Kawakami, Untitled (The Guard Tower), 1944. Collection Monterey Museum of Art. Gift of the Jim and Diane Coward Family Trust. 2023.012.024
The exhibition presents a selection of 39 paintings by Kawakami as a visual documentary of life in the Japanese American internment camps from the perspective of an Issei, or first-generation Japanese immigrant. Instead of being paralyzed by fear, Kawakami responded to his unjust incarceration by using art to portray himself and his fellow inmates with dignity and to depict the natural beauty of his surroundings. By examining the paintings in the social and cultural context of the camps, they can be seen as performative acts to restore and assert a traditional Japanese identity that was assaulted daily.
The exhibition also includes four paintings by Chiura Obata, a prominent Japanese American artist and educator who founded and developed the art schools at Tanforan and at Topaz, where Kawakami and other artists of Japanese descent taught.
Lydia Nakashima Degarrod has designed a series of teaching modules to accompany visits to the exhibition. Each module is designed to be completed in under an hour at the gallery and includes a short introduction, an activity, and a set of questions to guide visitors in meaningful discussion. Browse the modules →
Under the Guard Tower is on view at the CCA Campus Gallery April 1–May 15, 2026.
The 2026 CCA@CCA theme, Hope As Movement, asks: how do we cultivate hope to fight the paralysis created by fear?
The centerpiece of the Spring 2026 Deborah and Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Series is an exhibition curated by CCA@CCA Faculty Coordinator Lydia Nakashima Degarrod: Under the Guard Tower: The Watercolors of Chikaji Kawakami.
Under the Guard Tower features work by Chikaji Kawakami, who spent three years painting watercolors during his incarceration at Tanforan Assembly Center and Topaz Internment Camp, places used by the United States government to imprison people of Japanese descent during WWII. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, were imprisoned in 10 camps within the U.S.
FACULTY COORDINATOR
Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Ph.D.
Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Ph.D. is a visual artist, cultural anthropologist, and curator whose work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States and internationally. She has received awards from the International Contemporary Craft Competition & Exhibition, the Wing Luke Memorial Museum, Saint John’s University, the California Story Fund, and the California Council for the Humanities, among others. As a scholar, she has been supported by Fulbright, the Tinker Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the California Council for the Humanities. Degarrod has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Virginia and Harvard University and completed residencies at the de Young Museum, Djerassi Artists Program, Kala Art Institute, and Blue Mountain Center. She currently serves as Senior Adjunct Faculty in Critical Studies at California College of the Arts.
CAMPUS ACTIVATION
CCA@CCA Symposium: Hope As Movement
Thursday, April 2, 4:30–6pm | Blattner Multipurpose Room, 75 Arkansas St., SF
The 2026 CCA@CCA symposium will address the role of art as a witness during times of oppression.
Symposium panelists include Chikaji Kawakami’s granddaughter, Diane Kawakami Coward; the director of the Monterey Museum of Art, Corey Madden; the exhibition curator, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod; and Masako Takahashi and TT Takemoto, contemporary artists whose art practices address internment. Nobuko Fukatsu will perform traditional and contemporary pieces on the biwa.
Symposium Speakers
Diane Kawakami Coward is the granddaughter of Chikaji Kawakami, a watercolor artist who was incarcerated at Topaz, Utah, during WWII. Chikaji was invited by former UC Berkeley faculty member Chiura Obata to serve as a teacher at the art school he established at Topaz camp. After the war, her family resettled in Chicago and later San Francisco. Experiencing housing instability in her own family history shaped Diane’s commitment to equitable development. She earned a degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley and is the CEO of Revision West, a real estate development company focused on building housing for the “missing middle.”
Corey Madden’s wide-ranging career spans leadership, teaching, and creative positions across the visual and performing arts, including roles at the Getty Museum and Villa, California Institute of the Arts, and the Music Center of Los Angeles. Since 2020, she has served as Executive Director of the Monterey Museum of Art, where she has revitalized the organization and led a comprehensive building and capital campaign. Under her leadership, the museum launched the annual Block Party arts festival and inaugurated the Monterey Biennial in 2025. MMA has collaborated on exhibitions with the Oakland Museum of Art, the Japanese American National Museum, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, California College of the Arts, and Loyola Marymount College.
Masako Takahashi was born in Topaz, Utah, where her family was incarcerated during World War II. She later received a painting scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute. Coming of age during the Civil Rights and Ethnic Studies movements, Takahashi developed a practice shaped by questions of identity, racism, and displacement. After moving to Mexico, she began embroidering her own hair into intricate abstract compositions, creating a deeply personal visual language. Her work resists literal translation while expressing vulnerability and resilience. Takahashi’s art has been exhibited in museums and galleries in the Netherlands, the United States, Mexico, Spain, and Japan.
TT Takemoto is a queer Japanese American artist and scholar exploring Asian American history, sexuality, and identity. Their work delves into hidden dimensions of same-sex intimacy and trauma existing within Asian and Asian American archives. Takemoto was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Experimental Film at Slamdance Film Festival and the Best Experimental Film Jury Award at Austin LGBTQ+ International Film Festival (aGLIFF). Their screenings include Ann Arbor, Anthology Film Archive, Asian Art Museum, BFI Flare, de Young Museum, Documenta 15, MIX Mexico, Marseille Underground Film Festival, Outfest, Queer Forever! (Hanoi), Rio Gay Film Festival, SFMOMA, and Xposed International Queer Film Festival (Berlin).
Nobuko Fukatsuis a biwa (Japanese lute) performer based in Los Angeles. Born in Japan, she began studying Satsuma-biwa in 2005 under renowned musician Yoshiko Sakata. After relocating to the United States, she has performed at cultural gatherings, festivals, and educational settings and has contributed to recordings for film and other media. Her repertoire spans classical narrative works such as The Tale of the Heike, contemporary narrative compositions, and modern instrumental pieces. She also creates original settings of short literary texts in Japanese and English. Fukatsu performs on instruments that survived the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans and researches the history of biwa within Japanese immigrant communities in Los Angeles.
Chikaji Kawakami, Self Portrait, n.d. Collection Monterey Museum of Art. Gift of the Jim and Diane Coward Family Trust. 2023.012.002
SPOTLIGHTED PROJECT
Morcom Rose Garden Posters
The Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland (est. 1930) is much beloved by Oaklanders.
This urban oasis is a spot to contemplate, connect with nature, rest, and exercise. In October 2025, fifty-one rose bushes at the garden were stolen or uprooted and left to die. The community has responded with new plants and funding, but the volunteers who care for the garden are most in need of awareness and a new generation of volunteers to care for this neighborhood treasure.
CCA's Illustrated Poster class, led by Michael Wertz, created a series of beautiful screenprinted posters re-introducing the garden to Oakland with a call to volunteer. These posters are drawn, designed, and printed by hand. We aim to bring some new energy to the space, bring awareness of the garden to Oakland communities, and bring joy to the volunteers who have experienced this hardship.
Students hold power as activists and community members. Our work in art and design can help shape the future of a city. Cities need our help right now - here's a concrete way to make life better for the people who live in them.
This project was funded by an endowment gift to support The Deborah and Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Series at CCA, an annual series of public programs focused on creative activism.
Posters by Jenny Chan, Rose Dominguez, Maggie Dougherty, Brennan Mayr, Yessie Pineda, Ronnie Stroud, Cecilia Zhu, Leland Mains, Ray Salata, Inigo Sherwani, Thalassa Vankouwenhoven, Angie Vargas, Piper Kinion, Michael Seybold, and Barbara Klassen.
Poster by Leland Mains
SPOTLIGHTED PROJECT
Seeds of Change
If you could "grow" a positive quality in your fellow humans and in the world, what would you choose?
Students in Isabel Samars’ Studio 2: Concept course were asked to design and illustrate a package of metaphorical "seeds" that, when planted, would encourage positive change and raise awareness. Each piece involves some form of plant symbolism to help carry the idea of growth and transformation.
Work by Alex Lim, Cyris Penn, Lizzie Bartolo, Ellen Oh, Emma Tolstikhine, Kai Webb, Kate Valmores, Lilah Sperman, Sally Iwamasa, Selina Yu, and Yessie Pineda will be on view in CCA’s Nave from March 30 through April 6.
