Whose Community Museum Is It? Collaboration Strategies and Identity Affirmation in the Amache Museum

<p>The Amache Museum is a preservation project that has multiple communities involved in preserving Amache history. It represents Japanese American as well as American history and is owned and maintained by the Amache Preservation Society (APS), which is comprised of local Granada High School students. By approaching the Amache Museum as a community museum and noticing its distinct collaborative strategy, this thesis investigates the community collaborations and the identity affirmations within the museum, and addresses the question of whose community museum the Amache Museum represents. My research explores the overlapping conceptual models of the Amache Museum: community museum and ecomuseum, and utilizes the realities of a difficult heritage to discuss identity affirmation through the use of individual and collective memories. Through participant observations, archival research, semi-structured interviews, and a questionnaire survey, this thesis identifies three community collaborations, as well as community members' thoughts of the importance of the museum for the Japanese Americans and Granada community. Recognizing that the museum and Amache site may be incorporated in the U.S. National Park Service in the future, this thesis also presents a glance at the potential positive and negative aspects if the governing agency is involved, and provides recommendations for future management.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2019

Author dc:creator

• Huang, Ting-chun (Regina)

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bonnie Clark, Ph.D.

• Amache
• Amache Museum
• Community collaborations
• Identity
• Japanese American internment camps
• Anthropology
• Arts and Humanities
• Museum Studies

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1585

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-2585