Education
A native of Los Angeles, Higa graduated from Columbia University in New York and received a master"s degree in art history from University of California, Los Los Angeles
A native of Los Angeles, Higa graduated from Columbia University in New York and received a master"s degree in art history from University of California, Los Los Angeles
As senior art curator of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles from 1992 to 2006, her exhibitions and research contributed to the history of Asian American and contemporary art Higa"s 1992 exhibit, "The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps, 1942-1945", was co-organized by the Japanese American National Museum, the University of California, Los Angeles Wight Art Gallery, and the University of California, Los Angeles Asian American Studies Center. In September 2012, the Hammer Museum named her and Michael Ned Holte curators of the museums biennial, "Made in Los Angeles 2014." She withdrew from the project due to her cancer diagnosis.
Higa was an early participant in the art collective Godzilla Asian American Arts Network.
At the time of her death, she was working on her doctorate at University of Southern California"s Department of Art History. Her dissertation was entitled "Little Tokyo, Los Angeles: Japanese American Art and Visual Culture, 1919–1941.".