Hope As Movement | How do we cultivate hope to fight the paralysis created by fear? How can we use the act of hoping to envision and create different futures? The Spring 2026 Creative Citizens Series is inspired by the watercolors of Chikaji Kawakami, who painted to document his life and elevate his spirits during WWII incarceration. Kawakami's artwork is an example of hope as movement; instead of being paralyzed by fear, he chose to respond to his incarceration by using art to portray himself and his fellow inmates with dignity and to find beauty and peace in nature. Kawakami's response is what South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han defines as hope — not merely optimism, but the ability to imagine and move towards something more profound. Spring 2026 programming includes an exhibition of Kawakami's artwork, student-led gatherings that use movement, storytelling, and community to mobilize hope, a street artist performing spoken word about surviving as an artist in the 21st century, scholars and artists gathering to ask how creativity can counter fear and paralysis, and more.

• 📸 📖 Under the Guard Tower: The Watercolors of Chikaji Kawakami | Organized by Lydia Nakashima Degarrod
• 🎥 CCA@CCA Symposium: Hope As Movement | Organized by Lydia Nakashima Degarrod
• 📸 Morcom Rose Garden Poster Exhibition | Organized by Michael Wertz
• 📸 Seeds of Change | Organized by Isabel Samaras
• 📸 A Happening for Hope | Organized by Valencia James and Aimee Phan
• 📸 Eric Drooker: Spoken Word & Illustration | Organized by Isabel Samaras

Organized by CCA@CCA Fellow Lydia Nakashima Degarrod

Under the Guard Tower: The Watercolors of Chikaji Kawakami features work by Chikaji Kawakami, who spent three years painting watercolors during his incarceration at both Tanforan Assembly Center and Topaz Internment Camp, places used by the United States government to imprison people of Japanese descent during WWII. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, were imprisoned in 10 camps within the U.S. 

The exhibition presents a selection of 39 paintings by Kawakami as a visual documentary of life in the Japanese American internment camps from the perspective of an Issei, or first-generation Japanese immigrant. Instead of being paralyzed by fear, Kawakami responded to his unjust incarceration by using art to portray himself and his fellow inmates with dignity and to depict the natural beauty of his surroundings. By examining the paintings in the social and cultural context of the camps, they can be seen as performative acts to restore and assert a traditional Japanese identity that was assaulted daily.

The exhibition also includes four paintings by Chiura Obata, a prominent Japanese American artist and educator who founded and developed the art schools at Tanforan and at Topaz, where Kawakami and other artists of Japanese descent taught.  

This exhibition is curated by Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Ph.D., Senior Adjunct faculty in CCA’s Critical Studies Program. It is organized by the Monterey Museum of Art in Monterey, California, where it was on view from August 22 to December 15, 2024. Exhibition support is provided by The Tanimura Family Foundation, The Jim and Diane Coward Family Trust, Barbara Schilling and Richard Carr, The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, and the Deborah and Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Endowment.

Lydia Nakashima Degarrod has designed a series of teaching modules to accompany visits to the exhibition. Each module is designed to be completed in under an hour at the gallery and includes a short introduction, an activity, and a set of questions to guide visitors in meaningful discussion. 📖 Browse the modules →

📖 See the press release →

📸 View images of the exhibition's opening reception →

Organized by CCA@CCA Faculty Coordinator Lydia Nakashima Degarrod

The 2026 CCA@CCA Symposium dove deeper into the question: how do we cultivate hope to fight the paralysis created by fear? It addressed the role of art as a witness during times of oppression by focusing on the paintings of Japanese artist Chikaji Kawakami, who created art to document his life and elevate his spirits while incarcerated at internment camps at Tanforan and Topaz during WWII. Artworks by both Kawakami and the influential Japanese-American artist Chiura Obata are featured in the accompanying exhibition, Under the Guard Tower: The Watercolors of Chikaji Kawakami, at California College of the Arts’ Campus Gallery from April 1–May 15, 2026.

Symposium panelists included Chikaji Kawakami’s granddaughter, Diane Kawakami Coward; the director of the Monterey Museum of Art, Corey Madden; the exhibition curator, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod; and Masako Takahashi and TT Takemoto, contemporary artists whose art practices address internment. The panelists addressed issues related to the role of art under oppression and the legacy of artists such as Kawakami and Obata. Nobuko Fukatsu performed traditional and contemporary pieces on the biwa.

Symposium support was provided by The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation and the Deborah and Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Endowment.

Organized by Michael Wertz, Chair, Illustration Program

The Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland (est. 1930) is much beloved by Oaklanders.

This urban oasis is a spot to contemplate, connect with nature, rest, and exercise. In October 2025, fifty-one rose bushes at the garden were stolen or uprooted and left to die. The community has responded with new plants and funding, but the volunteers who care for the garden are most in need of awareness and a new generation of volunteers to care for this neighborhood treasure.

CCA's Illustrated Poster class created a series of beautiful screenprinted posters re-introducing the garden to Oakland with a call to volunteer. These posters were drawn, designed, and printed by hand. Students aimed to bring some new energy to the space, bring awareness of the garden to Oakland communities, and bring joy to the volunteers who have experienced this hardship.

The poster exhibition included work by Jenny Chan, Rose Dominguez, Maggie Dougherty, Brennan Mayr, Yessie Pineda, Ronnie Stroud, Cecilia Zhu, Leland Mains, Ray Salata, Inigo Sherwani, Thalassa Vankouwenhoven, Angie Vargas, Piper Kinion, Michael Seybold, and Barbara Klassen.

Photos coming soon

Organized by Isabel Samaras, Senior Adjunct, Illustration Program

If you could "grow" a positive quality in your fellow humans and in the world, what would you choose?

Students in Isabel Samaras' Studio 2: Concept course were asked to design and illustrate a package of metaphorical "seeds" that, when planted, would encourage positive change and raise awareness. Each piece incorporated plant symbolism to convey growth and transformation, and featured suggestions on the back for how to nurture these qualities in yourself.

Participating students included Alex Lim, Cyris Penn, Lizzie Bartolo, Ellen Oh, Emma Tolstikhine, Kai Webb, Kate Valmores, Lilah Sperman, Sally Iwamasa, Selina Yu, and Yessie Pineda.

Photos coming soon

Organized by Valencia James, Adjunct I Professor, Critical Ethnic Studies Program, and Aimee Phan, Professor, Writing and Literature Program

The students of Collective Practices and Resistance and Fantastic Fiction Genre Writing invited members of the CCA community to activate hope by participating in movement and making workshops presented in the Gensler Courtyard on April 9, 2026.

More information and photos coming soon

On April 16, 2026, the Creative Citizens series presents a slide lecture by Eric Drooker, award-winning graphic novelist and New Yorker cover artist. He'll perform spoken word alongside his graphics and paintings, and answer your questions about surviving as an artist in the 21st century. 

Drooker, a Manhattan native, first made his mark as a street artist in his teens. Today, his bold drawings and posters are iconic within the global street art movement, and dozens of his paintings have appeared on the covers of The New Yorker. His debut book, “Flood”, earned the prestigious American Book Award. His follow-up, “Blood Song”, is now in development as a feature film. “Naked City”, the final installment of his celebrated City Trilogy, completes a body of work that has been translated into multiple languages. His animation for the film “HOWL” also led to a collaboration with DreamWorks Animation.

His art is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Library of Congress.

More information coming soon