Professor Masako Kamiya on Art, Growth, and Montserrat

by Aislinn Green ’28

Montserrat College of Art has housed multiple generations of artists since its creation in 1970. Back then, it was a tiny little program under the name “Montserrat School of Visual Arts,” founded by the North Shore Community Arts Foundation. Though small, our college’s little biosphere is so magnetic that many graduates return to guide the next generation of artists. Artists at Montserrat never stop learning, student or teacher, and the fact that many alumni return to continue their artistic career as instructors here at Montserrat shows just how much space there is for growth and prosperity here in our little pocket of art.

Professor and alumna Masako Kamiya began her studies at Montserrat College of Art in 1990. Montserrat seemed quite a ways away from the last institution she had studied at, in Vancouver, BC, and even further away from where she grew up in Chiba, a suburb just south of Tokyo. The art scene is very different in Massachusetts than it is in Japan, Masako explained to me. “I came from a place and time where there is a strong hierarchy in art. Traditional art was highly valued and influenced our aesthetic. Although there was contemporary art practice, learning or studying art was more traditionally-based training and discipline. Coming to the US allowed me to see a wider range of art, both Western and non-Western, and individualistic expression by a diverse group of artists. And of course that includes different forms, mediums, methods, and modes of thinking about art– art expressions through social, cultural, political, and environmental lenses… If I had not traveled here to live and practice art, I could not imagine what attitude I might have toward contemporary art or what my artwork would look like.”

Though many things have changed since Masako studied painting here in 1990, the close-knit community remains the primary draw of life here at Montserrat. When Masako attended, Montserrat was much smaller than it is today, small enough to fit into the North Shore Music Theater. She fell in love with the environment there, stating she “felt it was a perfect place to foster art, artists, collaborative work, and a community.” She fell so much in love with it, in fact, that she returned to the college to teach and continue her artistic practice and has been doing so here ever since. 

Masako is a present and fortifying professor as well as a key component in maintaining Montserrat’s exquisite balance between students and staff. I asked her what she enjoys the most about being a part of the Montserrat community as a professor, to which she answered, “Seeing someone like you- most of the time, I teach foundation or requirements, and students work hard for that. I get to see the same students taking initiative to do what they are interested in, and all of a sudden, they just blossom, and their work evolves, thrives, and matures. I get to see a student transform from a concrete person into an abstract thinker and embrace unique and expressive means.”

At Montserrat, it is possible to teach students while remaining a creator. An artist returning to teach here does not mean that the artist forsakes the evolution of their practice to teach it to others. Our identities as artists are what unify our community, and the school welcomes makers to teach with open arms. Montserrat is just as much of a place for professors as it is for students, where professors do not sacrifice their personal craft for their work, and in fact, their personal work is able to thrive alongside their professional work. 

Masako has certainly been able to continue creating and displaying her work throughout her time working at MCA. Her work has been represented at Gallery NAGA since 2002, where a new exhibition of hers will be available to explore in March. Not only that, she is a recent recipient of the Blanche Colman Award (2018) and has received a number of grants such as the Marion & Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship and the A.R.T Fund (2017), Lillian Orlowsky & William Freed Foundation Grant (2016), Brother Thomas Fellowship (2015), and Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Painting (2006 & 2010). Though her position at Montserrat has allowed her to embrace teaching alongside painting, her personal work certainly isn’t secondary to her identity as an artist. Be sure to support her at her next exhibition at Gallery NAGA beginning March 7th!