Join us for the first of a series of special celebrations commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the opening of the first Higo Ten Cent Store on Weller Street in 1909. 

 

We will unveil the Higo Museum Wall, a work in progess that incorporates recent discoveries about the Higo Ten Cent Store with new interpretive artworks by KOBO at HIGO's first Artist-in-Residence, Katherine Shozawa.  

 

At 6:30 pm we begin a special screening of a short video interview of the two Murakami sisters produced by the Wing Luke Asian Museum in 1993.  Ron Chew, former director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum who interviewed them will join us for this special screening.  

 

Behind the scenes:
KOBO at HIGO has created an artist in residence program to work with a contemporary artist to interpret the story of the Murakami Family, owners of the original Higo Ten Cent Store (later called Higo Variety Store) in the Jackson Building.  The program is part of a wider effort to preserve the history of and encourage dialogue about Seattle's Nihonmachi (Japantown) - once a vibrant neighborhood before the forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.  KOBO at HIGO brings artists, writers and community members at large together whose work and life experiences resonate with the collective history of the Japanese community on the west coast.

 

Special thanks to Jenny Sohn, a recent UW graduate who researched the history of many of Higo's vintage pieces and to Bob Fisher and the Wing Luke Museum for providing this rare interview of Aya and Masa Murakami.

About the Artist:
Katherine Megumi Shozawa is KOBO at HIGO's inaugural artist-in-residence.  Her interdisciplinary practice combines archival investigation and performance.  She has participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art - Independent Study Program and completed her MFA in Art Practice at University of California, Berkeley.   Her exhibitions have appeared in New York, Boston and Vancouver.  Her work has focused on the internment experience in Canada.

The HIGO at KOBO 100 year anniversary celebration continues in August . . .