Chandler Museum wins honor for project about Japanese internment

  • 2018-09-10
The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has awarded the Chandler Museum its Leadership in History Award of Merit.

Chandler Museum was honored for the project it put together in 2017 about the Gila River Internment Camp, a Japanese detention center used during World War II. The camp lay only a few miles from Chandler.

The AASLH is not the only agency that was impressed by the exhibit: the Museum Association of Arizona gave the project its 2018 Institutional Award of Excellence. The exhibit was entitled ‘Un-American: Engaging Our Community with the Story of Japanese Internment’, and comprised three exhibits, a park kiosk, public presentations, and an art installation inspired by the public. Exhibits like this can be enhanced if the organization presenting the material uses graphic design to organize the layout.

The kiosk showed the history of the camp, with content created using input from a committee of advisors that included the Gila River Indian Community and the Japanese-American Citizens League.

The administrator of Chandler Museum, Jody Crago, said one of the most powerful experiences the facility had in putting together the project was speaking to former internees and members of their families about their experiences.

The museum will accept the award on September 28, at a banquet to be held during the 2018 AASLH Annual Meeting, taking place in Kansas City, Missouri.