Guide Entry 00.04.03

Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

Our Past Acclaims Our Future: Japanese-American Artists Respond To the American Experience Roger Shimomura, Sansei, by Donna Frederick-Neznek

Guide Entry to 00.04.03:

"Our Past Acclaims Our Future, Japanese American Artists Respond To The American Experience: Roger Shimomura, Sansei," provides a history of the Japanese people and an "unofficial" history of our collective lives. This unit addresses isolation, identity, and social change through the examination of artistic production using an interdisciplinary critically based approach.

The unit engages students in social analysis, concerns of diverse communities, exploration with their art as a form of communication. The focal point of this unit is the life and work of Japanese-American artist Roger Shimomura, whose work is an aesthetic and political comparison between contemporary America and traditional Japan.

Students are given the opportunity to compare and contrast Shimomura's vision to diverse contemporary and post-modern artists. Additionally, this unit attempts to affirm the diversity in art production by artists with alternative models of expression and representation. This unit includes art production activities.

(Recommended for Art and History, grades 9-12.)

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