Chandler Museum Exhibits

Working America

Thru May 21, 2023

Comprised of fifty photographs by Sam Comen, Working America is a meditation on American belonging and American becoming. It poetically acknowledges the lives and contributions working men and women make as a part of our collective experience. The exhibition features American immigrants and first-generation Americans at work in small, skilled trades. The subjects share stories of economic independence and struggle, belonging and exclusion, faith and fear, and service to both community and family.

A Program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and The National Endowment for the Arts.

^{Photo: Sam Comen, Young Ae Jung, Tailor, 2019; digital photograph on Dibond, 36 x 24 x 1 ½ inches; Courtesy of the artist.}

Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II

Thru July 23, 2023

This poster exhibition traces the story of Japanese American incarceration during World War II. Young and old lived crowded together in hastily built camps, endured poor living conditions, and were under the constant watch of military guards. Some 40 years later, members of the Japanese American community led the nation to confront the wrong it had done—and urged Congress to make it right. Embracing themes that are as relevant today as they were 75 years ago, the poster exhibition examines identity, immigration, prejudice, civil rights, courage, and what it means to be an American.

^{Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II was developed by the National Museum of American History and adapted by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The traveling exhibition and poster exhibition are supported by a grant from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, the Terasaki Family Foundation, and C. L. Ehn & Ginger Lew. Image: Dorothea Lange, Courtesy of National Archives}

Picturing Home: Dust Bowl Migrants in Chandler

Thru Aug. 13, 2023

In the late 1930s Chandler had an influx of Dust Bowl migrants who fled their homes in search of a better life. Government photographers Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee documented unique stories showing these migrants and their dwellings, which were often temporary.

This exhibition is a history of Dust Bowl Chandler through unique black and white photographs. It examines what home looked like and makes connections between 1930s Chandler and Chandler today. It includes themes of housing, migration, agriculture, technology, self-sufficiency, and empathy.

^{Daughter of Mexican Field Laborer. Near Chandler, Arizona. Image Credit: Dorothea Lange, 1937, Library of Congress, LC-USF34- 016792-C}

Home Through Our Eyes: Hamilton Art Students Respond to Picturing Home Exhibition

May 9 - July 16, 2023

Over the course of a year-long collaboration, a group of talented artists from Hamilton High School created works inspired by Chandler Museum’s Picturing Home: Dust Bowl Migrants in Chandler. From classroom conversations to silent sketching in the exhibit hall, these students reflected on the way documentary photography enables us to empathize and reflect on the people, objects, and circumstances that foster our sense of identity. The resulting 40+ pieces, in a variety of mediums, express the heartfelt, nuanced, and diverse ways we define the concept of home.

Join us for an evening reception on Thursday, May 11 at 6:30 p.m.

1968: A Folsom Redemption

June 20 - Aug. 13, 2023

A candid and personal photography exhibition covering a critical juncture in the career of one of the twentieth century’s most beloved performers—Johnny Cash. Explore the story of Cash’s historic album At Folsom Prison, recorded at one of his prison concerts for inmates. This collection of thirty-one photos from the 1968 concert features a wide range of intimate photos of Cash with friends and family as well as a backstage meeting of country music legend Merle Haggard and the Man in Black.

^{A Program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and The National Endowment for the Arts.}

^{Photo: Dan Poush, Johnny on Stage, Wide, January 13, 1968; digital scan from original negative, 20 x 13 3/8 inches; Courtesy of the John R. Cash Revocable Trust, photographed by Dan Poush.}