Return of the Yellow Peril: A Survey of the Work of Roger Shimomura, 1969-2007
Programming and Events
All events take place in the Faulconer Gallery unless otherwise noted. Call 641.269.4660 for more information or contact Tilly Woodward .


Yellow Peril Opening Reception
Friday 29 August, 4:15-6 pm

Yoga in the Gallery
Wednesday 3 September, Noon-1 pm
Wednesday 17 September, Noon-1 pm
Wednesday 1 October, Noon-1 pm
Take a noon break in the Faulconer Gallery, and practice yoga with Jennifer Mavin. Free and open to the public. No experience necessary. Mats provided.

Gallery Talk: Pop Art, Comics and theYellow Peril
Friday 5 September, 12:30-12:50 pm
Tiffany Johnson Bidler, Instructor in Art, will put Shimomura's art into the context of Pop Art and comic book imagery.


Panel: The Peril of Marginalization
Wednesday 10 September, 4:15 pm
Co-sponsored by Peace Studies
This panel will situate the exhibition in a larger context by examining issues of marginalization, and focusing on what it means to be marginalized, as well as how easy it is for individuals and groups to marginalize others. Panelists will include Henry Reitz, Associate Professor of Religious Studies;Gloria Bachman, Poweshiek I-80; Elena Bernal, Special Assisitant to the President for Diversity & Achievement; Deanna Shorb, Dean of Religious Life; Jose Gonzalez '11, and others, moderated by Lesley Wright, Director, Faulconer Gallery.

Film: Cats of Mirikitani
Friday-Sunday 12, 13, 14 Sept., 8 pm
Special showing in Faulconer Gallery
Co-sponsored by Cultural Films Committee
A documentary about a Japanese homeless artist in New York City after 9/11; Roger Shimomura was involved in the making of this film and makes an appearance as well.

Translating Loyalty: Working with Minoru Kiyota on the Account of his World War II Internment
Wednesday 24 September, 4:15 pm
Co-sponsored by Peace Studies and the Office of College and Alumni Relations
Linda Klepinger Keenan '65 will speak on her experiences translating Min Kiyota's book describing his World War II internment. She writes, "As a teenaged US citizen of Japanese descent during World War II-pressed to somehow prove his loyalty to his country while imprisoned in a government internment camp-young Min Kiyota struggled to maintain his sense of personal integrity while seeking a dimension of higher and more lasting significance in life than loyalty to a nation-state at war."

Grounding Our Faith in a Pluralist World- with a little help from NagArjuna
Wednesday 24 September, 8 pm
Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies
John Keenan, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Middlebury College, will give a lecture on understanding religious differences in the contemporary world. Dr. Keenan has published many works on the intersection between Christian theology and Buddhism.


Open Mic: Poetry, Fiction, Music
Wednesday 1 October, 7:45-9 pm
Co-sponsored by Grinnell College Libraries
Read from your own poetry and fiction or that of a favorite author or poet; perform music that you've written yourself or any piece that you've been working on.

Gallery Talk: Ukiyo-e Prints and the Work of Roger Shimomura
Friday 3 October, 12:30-12:50 pm
Faulconer Gallery intern Chris Farstad '09 will show traditional Japanese prints and discuss their influence on the work of Roger Shimomura.


Writers at Grinnell: David Mura '74
Monday 6 October , 8pm
Co-sponsored by the Faulconer Gallery, Writers @ Grinnell, the Center for Humanities, Peace Studies, and American Studies.
Mura is a novelist, poet, memoirist, critic, playwright and performance artist. He has written two memoirs, Where the Body Meets Memory and Turning Japanese, which won the Oakland Pen Josephine Miles Book Award and was listed in the New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He will read from his new novel, Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire, which explores personal history entwined with the experience of Japanese Americans during World War II-with draft resisters, decorated veterans, and the No-No Boys, who refused to sign a government loyalty oath during the internment years.

Scholar'sConvocation: Roger Shimomura
Thursday 9 October, 11 am
Artist Roger Shimomura will present his art in the context of a lifetime of experiences that challenge our notions of how Americans choose to treat one another. With war persisting in the Middle East and an historic election just weeks away, the issues raised by Shimomura remain fundamentally relevant to the American experience.

Community Day
Faulconer Gallery/Bucksbaum Rotunda
Saturday 11 October, 1-3 pm
Celebrate the importance of family and cultural heritage! Work together as a team to design a marvelous hat that represents special traditions and characteristics of your family. Reinforce family identity by making a "team hat" for each member. Gallery tours, hands-on activities, and refreshments.

Democracy in Peril on all Sides: World War II Veterans Reflect
Sunday 12 October, 2 pm
Reception to follow
Co-sponsored by Rosenfield Program, and the Community Education Council's World War II Task Force
A panel of World War II veterans including John Pfitsch, Professor Emeritus of Physical Education, Ken Christiansen, Professor Emeritus of Biology and Edd Bowers, Professor Emeritus of Physical Education and Ruth Greenwald, representing the home front, will share their insights as to how our current state of democracy was shaped by World War II. Moderated by George Drake, Professor Emeritus of History.

Driven at Rosenfield Center Smith Gallery
Gallery Talk: 9 September, 7 PM
Exhbit through 21 September

Hanna Zurko '09 is one of 15 award winning emerging artists with disabilities featured in "Driven", a traveling exhibition sponsored by VSA Arts and Volkswagen of America. Hannah will speak in the Smith Gallery regarding her work and experiences.

Members of the community are welcome to join Hannah to express their ideas, reactions, thoughts about living with a disability or how issues of disability are currently being treated on our campus. Refreshments will be served.

"I draw parallels with visual thinking using art projects as exploration tools. Whenever a task becomes too difficult, I take a step back, try a new perspective, break it down into new pieces, and rearrange them until it makes more sense to me." Hannah Zurko '09

For the sixth year, VSA arts and Volkswagen of America, Inc., have partnered to recognize and showcase young artists with disabilities, ages 16-25, who are living in the United States. Currentnly installed in the Smith Gallery, the exhibition features work by Hannah Zurko '09.

The exhibit supports artists at a critical time when many are deciding whether to pursue the arts as a career. The award validates, and helps finance, that life-defining choice.

VSA arts sent more than 20,000 calls for entry to high schools and colleges around the country, inviting submissions that illustrated the theme "Driven." Participants were asked to consider the motivations behind their work-what moves them to create. The call also encouraged artists to contemplate the relationship between life, art, and disability. Selected from 204 submissions, these 15 finalists were awarded a total of $60,000 generously provided by Volkswagen of America, Inc.

© 2007 Hannah Zurko, Bug, Plexiglas, drafting tape, maps, sewing pattern tissue

October 1, 4:15 p.m.
Burling Gallery, Burling Library

Artist's Statement
For many years, I have photographed the landscapes of one Iowa farm. I have seen thousands of individually planted seedlings become acres of forest. I have marveled at the explosion of plant growth after a controlled prairie burn. The ponds and wetlands, constructed over the years from poorly utilized farm ground, now support a panoply of wildlife. Flowing around and between the wetlands, prairie plantings, grasslands and woodlands are the endless, undulating fields of corn and soybeans.

One farm, many landscapes, must be thoughtfully and carefully managed, if the hope is to restore the rich bounty of the land. Constructing a balanced ecosystem that celebrates and protects the biodiversity of the natural world while simultaneously promoting respectful, sustainable cultivation of the land is a task that will forever be a work in progress.

Ice Wall
An installation of ice and light with projected images of the Arctic. Created by Faulconer Gallery Outreach Curator Tilly Woodward in collaboration with Davind Jensen, Elizabeth Grossman, Sannon Hinsa-Leasure, Donald Forbes, Nikita Ovsyanikov, William Shilts, and Jeff Chiarenzelli for Critical Issues for the Arctic, a Rosenfield Program in public affairs, international relations, and human rights. April 1 - 3, 2008

Martin Luther King, Jr. Luminary Project: September 23, 2007; January 21, 2008
Faulconer Gallery Curator of Academic and Community Outreach Tilly Woodward worked with Terri Phipps, Kathleen Skerrett, and Grinnell College students to create an installation of light, words and images to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s visit to Grinnell 40 years ago. Over 300 luminaries were sewn together for the event. Each luminary featured a stitched panel with photographic images from King's Grinnell visit and the text of his speech, "Remaining Awake During a Revolution." Special thanks to Faulconer Gallery Claire Wenngren.

Kay Wilson, Curator of the Collection, worked with Catherine Rod and Jim Powers to mount Martin Luther King at Grinnell, 1967: Images from the Archives in the Smith Gallery, Joe Rosenfield '25 Center

Bioneers Trash Art Project: September 1 - October 20, 2007
The Bioneers Conference is an annual conference focusing on environmental, cultural and social issues. Grinnell, Iowa was one of twenty three locations in the United States linked via satellite to the main site in San Rafael, California for the 2007 Bioneers Conference. Local activities were sponsored by Imagine Grinnell and included workshops on environmental issues, a local food banquet, waterways clean up, an arts walk and more.

One of the components of the Bioneers Conference was a trash art project designed as a teaching tool to increase awareness about the shear volume of trash we produce, its impact on our environment, and the importance of recycling. More than 644 area students, teachers, parents, and Girl Scouts worked with Faulconer Gallery Curator of Academic and Community Outreach Tilly Woodward and Studio Six Director Alesia Lacina, on series of arches made from woven wire, tall enough for a person to walk under, covered with trash collected by area students from their homes, area parks and schools. The arches were installed at loactions through out Grinnell, Including the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts Rotunda on the Grinnell College campus. Special thanks to Faulconer Gallery Intern Claire Wenngren and Milton Severe, Director of Exhibition Design.