Career
During World War II,Negoro learned pottery while in an internment camp [3] [4] in Wyoming. [2] Her mentor was Daniel Rhodes. [5]
Rhodes joined the War Relocation Authority in 1942 to teach ceramics. He was sent to Heart Mountain concentration camp,where he convinced the authorities to procure an industrial kiln to help inmates learn pottery for better employment opportunities when they leave the camp and to meet the dish ware needs of the ten camps. [6]
However,following opposition from the National Brotherhood of Operative Potters and support from Rep. Earl Lewis,the plan was abandoned. Despite the situation,Rhodes took Minnie under her tutelage and later recommended that she enroll in Alfred University. [5]
In December 1995,Negoro recounted her harrowing experiences in the internment camp to a reporter from The New London Day (now known as The Day),describing it as "a frightening place,with guard towers and MPs who were told to shoot anyone going outside or over the gate. It was a concentration camp. I just wanted to get the heck out of there and to get as far away from the West Coast as possible." [5] She was able to leave the camp in 1944 when she departed to work at Glidden Pottery [4] and eventually enrolled at Alfred University. [7] According to a fellow Alfred student,Negoro was picked up from the camp upon her release by potter Laura Andresen and returned to Alfred University.
In 1965,she moved to the University of Connecticut where she established a program of study centered on ceramics. [1] She would become a full professor at the University of Connecticut. [4]
Her work is in the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art [8] and the Everson Museum of Art, [9] as well as in a number of private collections in Connecticut.
Negoro died in 1998. [7]
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