(cheerful music) - Utah Museum of Fine Arts is presenting Pictures of Belonging, highlighting three extraordinary women artists.

And here with more details is senior curator, Alisa McCusker.

Hi, Alisa.

Thanks for being here.

So let's talk about this exhibit.

These are by three Japanese artists.

- [Alisa] Yes.

- Kind of pre and post-World War II and those experiences.

So tell us about these three women.

- Yes.

They're three trailblazers in American art.

Three Japanese American artists named Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi and Miné Okubo.

And they're all born in the pre-war generation.

And so, you know, World War II was so catastrophic that we talk about dividing the 20th century by pre and post-war, and their careers spanned the entire 20th century.

And so this exhibition is really like three retrospectives in one.

We get to trace their entire careers altogether and thinking of them in comparison with each other and the same things that they were going through and the same sorts of expressions that they wanted to make sure people heard.

- [Mary] And part of what they were going through, of course, was two of them were interned at Topaz right here in Delta, Utah.

- [Alisa] It's true.

Yes.

Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo, along with their families were imprisoned at Topaz, as you said, which is just outside Delta.

And Miki Hayakawa, her parents also were interned there as well.

They're all from the Bay Area and that's where they were relocated during World War II.

- Yeah.

Which a lot of people still dunno about that.

Yeah.

- Many people still dunno about that.

- Yeah.

- I'm fairly new to Utah and was surprised to learn about how many prison camps there were actually spread across the Western United States.

- [Mary] Right, right.

- So, it's a very important tie in their story and part of the reason why the Japanese-American National Museum was so excited to have the exhibition tour start here at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts because of that connection.

- Alright, well, that makes sense.

And thank you so much for bringing it here.

Thank you.

- Absolutely.

Thank you.

- And if you'd like to know more about that exhibit at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Pictures of Belonging, it opens February 24th.

Go to umfa.utah.edu.

That's umfa.utah.edu.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching Contact.

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