“Malaysian WWII Oral Histories: A Digital / Virtual Art Exhibition” will open on Friday, March 27, 2026, with a reception from 12 – 2 p.m. in the Penn State Berks Freyberger Gallery. Viewers will be transported into a sensory world described by the storytellers through the multi-modal exhibition. The exhibition will run through May 1. This event is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
Created by Cheryl L. Nicholas, associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State Berks, the exhibition draws directly from her Malaysian WWII Oral Histories Project, which opened to a crowd of 3,000 at Perak Museum in Malaysia in 2023. Viewers will walk through a Malaysian house facade into a digital experience, where they can watch videos, listen to interviews, and experience an interactive VR environment, which includes artifacts from family collections.
“The exhibition was inspired by my father and grandfather, who told me about their experiences during the Japanese occupation when I was very young and did not quite appreciate them in the way I do today,” Nicholas explained in a previous interview. “These stories provide a historical context for ‘everyday living’ during that time. These are stories not shared in history books as they were the stories of ordinary people, shared mainly within families. And as the storytellers passed on, so too did their stories.”
In the spring of 2023, Nicholas and Heidi Mau, a professor from Albright College and Nicholas’ spouse, led a team of students on the creation of a virtual reality (VR)/digital exhibition at the Perak Museum in Taiping, Perak, Malaysia, which opened on Aug. 15 to a crowd of more than 3,000 attendees.
The Freyberger Gallery is located within the Perkins Student Center. It is open to the public Monday – Friday, from 1 – 6 p.m. For more information, contact Abbey Muza, visiting artist, at AZM7325@psu.edu
