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Creating in Community: Fowler at 60 celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. As we look back at the research, exhibitions, and public programs of the past sixty years, we recognize that the most joyful and interesting projects have been those created with others. Through these collaborations fresh ideas bloomed, unforeseen challenges and expectations arose, and new connections were forged. Come revisit these extraordinary projects with us, as we bring this spirit of engagement into the future by working with partners to use our building and collections in ever more experimental ways.

In this February 16, 2023, edition of LA County Library’s Heart & Hand Book Talk Series, watch Oliver James, one of the brightest new stars on TikTok’s BookTok platform. His story makes for one of the most uplifting in the whole literary world: he taught himself to read at the age of 34 by leveraging TikTok. Oliver is also a fitness aficionado and personal trainer who got started on his reading journey while working out, and now he’s set a “modest” goal of reading 100 books this year. We promise you will come away from this talk inspired! The Heart and Hands Book Talk Series hopes to inspire people to open their hearts and minds by challenging existing perceptions about systemic racism and injustice against people of color. Developed as part of LA County Library’s Equity Initiative, these talks feature discussions on thought-provoking literature as well as conversations with noted authors and speakers. The Heart and Hands Book Talk Series is moderated by Skye Patrick, LA County Library Director.

Glenn Kaino: Aki’s Market is inspired by Akira and Sachiye Shiraishi’s small neighborhood market (1957–1970) in East Los Angeles. Created by artist Glenn Akira Kaino (Akira’s grandson and namesake), the exhibition explores the transgenerational trauma from the World War II Japanese American incarceration experience through the stories of Kaino, his family, and the community. It is also an interrogation of the American practice of displacement—collapsing almost 100 years of cultural subjugation into a spiritual, exploratory space from which the building blocks of peace might be discovered.

The exhibition draws from the life of Kaino’s grandfather, Akira Shiraishi, a legendary high school football player who was unable to realize his dreams of attending Occidental College when he was incarcerated at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming. Upon returning to East LA after the war, he and Sachiye dedicated their lives to building their market on the corner of Blanchard Street and Geraghty Avenue—a multicultural anchor that served the Japanese and Hispanic communities.

Kaino only knew his grandfather through family stories. To recreate the market, he pulled from his artistic toolkit and used his skill of unlocking past memories through layered conversations (as in his work with historical figures like Olympian, Tommie Smith). He used this methodology to draw out family memories and paint a full picture of the place they called “The Store.”

Through a virtual reality recreation of the store and an installation of related works, Glenn Kaino: Aki’s Market is an exhibition about collective memory where the archival bleeds into the imaginary and where the most advanced technology serves the most personal past.