The California Botanic Garden in Mandeville Canyon opened in 1928. The garden closed in 1935 due to financial difficulties brought on by the Great Depression.
Benji Okubo, born in Riverside, was a renowned painter of Japanese ancestry. A graduate of Otis Art Institute (1929), he was active in Los Angeles from the 20's through the 40's. Incarcerated in 1942 in Heart Mountain for the duration of the war, Okubo continued to paint and to teach art classes to fellow inmates. After the war, Okubo returned to Los Angeles with his wife, Chisato, and supported his family as a successful landscape architect. While Okubo continued to paint, his professional career in art did not resume its pre-war level of activity and recognition.
Photograph of 8 Otis Art Institute students holding posters designed to promote attendance at the California Botanic Garden with award winner Benji Okubo on the left. Each poster has an illustration of trees or plants with the caption "Visit The California Botanic Garden." The students are standing on a lawn in front of a stand of palm and other trees at the Otis Art Institute, then located at 2401 Wilshire Blvd.
Photograph of a female Otis Art Institute student mounting a charcoal drawing showing an Asian woman next to paper lanterns on a wall with a hammer and nail.
Photograph of Otis Art Institute graduate student Grace Mallon adjusting a mask on fellow student Miriam Hazard. The photograph appears with an article about the annual student art exhibition and end of the year festivities, including a costume ball titled "The Carnival of Abstraction."
Photograph of Otis Art Institute student, Dorothy Jeakins, seated and working on a fashion illustration on a board in her lap with the caption "Peasant Manteau."
This photograph is related to the article "Young Artist Given Award: Miss Dorothy Jeakins Gets Honor at Otis Institute. Fall-Term Scholarship Won by Excellence of Work." Los Angeles Times, 24 Jun. 1934: 18
Photograph of an Otis Art Institute student seated with a painting on a board in her lap and holding a paint brush. There are paintings on the wall in the background.