Mission
The Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center of the Japanese American National Museum is committed to promoting thoughtful exploration, understanding and appreciation of America's pluralistic society through an innovative and comprehensive program of media documentation and preservation, production and presentation and education and training.
Vision
With the proliferation of new technologies, media arts plays an increasingly critical role in reflecting as well as shaping our global society. Yet recent polls and studies indicate that American ethnic communities continue to be marginalized by the mainstream media. It is critical that more proactive strategies are developed and supported to impact, broaden and improve this powerful mechanism for education and communication. The expanded realm of media arts has now become integral to modern museology as well as to the broader field of history and culture. By integrating theory and technology with community service and collaborating with peoples and institutions in diverse communities and regions, the Media Arts Center is in a unique position to advance the Museum's role as a leading international institution.
Goals and Strategies
The Media Arts Center's focus lies in five primary areas that are outlined below:
1. To promote the Museum's mission through a variety of documentation and presentational strategies for exhibition, education, revenue-generation and audience development.
2. To preserve the first-voice perspectives of the Japanese American experience and to make them accessible to researchers, educators, students and the public at large through an innovative and integrated program of visual documentation and public access.
3. To impact our nation's educational system through the development of engaging and effective curriculum materials with an emphasis on how to best reach a multicultural and multilingual elementary, secondary and post-secondary population.
4. To position the Japanese American experience within the broader context of our pluralistic nation and world by producing and distributing broadcast quality media productions to a national and international audience.
5. To provide education in the philosophy as well as the technology of community-based media arts through innovate workshops, internships and programs aimed at training youth in media arts as well as integrating multicultural youth perspectives and participation in Media Arts Center programs and productions.