You're Invited! - presentation by Tom Klobe, Jan. 25 (Iolani Palace)

Friday - January 25th, 2013
Iolani Palace, 5-6:30 pm.

Tom Klobe
Exhibitions: Concepts, Planning and Design.

Tom Klobe will discuss the subjects of his new book Exhibitions: Concept, Planning and Design, published by the AAM Press of the American Association of Museums, provides advice on the art of exhibition planning and explores how significant ideas are communicated to museum visitors through exhibit design. The book includes chapters on concept development and interpretation with 50 in-depth, fully illustrated case studies of exhibitions he produced in Hawai'i.

Tom Klobe is Emeritus Professor of Art and former director of the University of Hawaii Art Gallery (1977-2006). In 2005, he was recognized as one of six "Living Treasures" in Hawaii by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission. He is the recipient of the Robert W. Clopton Award for Distinguished Community Service and the Chevalier de l'Older des Arts et des Lettres, Republic of France. In May 2006, Mr. Klobe retired from his long career as a respected teacher and gallery director.

Click here to RSVP! $5 non-members.

President’s Report – By Jane Hoffman

Incoming HMA board president Jane Hoffman with outgoing

 president Stacy Hoshino following the annual meeting.

The venue for our Annual Membership Meeting in mid-May was the Honolulu Museum of Art with about 70 members attending. In addition to the program, members had the opportunity to network with colleagues and partake of refreshments, generously provided by Whole Foods Market Kahala. Honolulu Museum of Art’s Executive Director Stephan Jost delivered a keynote speech which gave us a look behind the scenes, and enlightened us about the history of the museum. He also explained the reasons for the recent name change and outlined exciting plans for the museum’s future. At the meeting we said a fond farewell to outgoing board members, President Stacy Hoshino, Treasurer Celeste Ohta and Director/Oahu Representative Sharon Tasaka. Their many years of service and dedication to HMA are greatly appreciated.

At our recent board meeting, I was encouraged by the board members’ enthusiasm and ideas in planning events for the coming year. On behalf of the board, I encourage participation by all HMA members and welcome your ideas for trainings and seminars.

Following a very exciting and busy year of hosting the Western Museum Association Conference in Honolulu, this year will be a little quieter, but will give us a chance to expand the ways in which we bring new members into our organization.

As I begin my second year on the HMA board, I’m looking forward to getting to know more of my colleagues in the HMA community.

UH Manoa Hamilton Library Recovery Project

In October 2004, heavy rain caused multimillion-dollar flood damage to the Manoa area, including Hamilton Library. The basement area, in particular, was used to store many rare maps that were salvaged in the landmark cleanup effort. Over the next 4 years about 10,000 maps were cleaned and restored; an additional 40,000 were sent for work at a mainland contractor. This collection features some of the restored maps treated by University of Hawai‘i at Manoa preservation staff. The database collection features 573 images of 82 maps including full texts that accompanied five of them. They are restricted as far as reproduction use, but online, provide a fabulous resource for research. Included are the insurance maps for Honolulu and Hawaii’s sugar mills and canneries, Honolulu city maps and maps of the Hawaiian Islands as well as historic maps of Oceania and other parts of the world. More information about the preservation aspects of the map treatments may be found in the document Protocol for Conservation Treatment: Recovery of Hawaiian Maps and Unique Aerial Photographs from University of Hawai’i Manoa Flood Damage at http://digicoll.manoahawaii.edu/savedmaps/index.php

Honolulu Public Art Finder by E. Tory Laitila

In June 2012, the Honolulu Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts (MOCA) introduced its first smart phone app. MOCA, in conjunction with the City and County of Honolulu Department of Information Technology (DIT) and Code for America, developed this application. Available for both smart phones and computers, it gives users a real time map showing the placement and descriptions of specific works from Honolulu’s Art in City Buildings collection.

Hawaiian Language Initiative

Puakea Nogelmeier’s new book tells
the story of making Hawaiian language
newspapers accessible to the general public.

Over 125,000 pages from 100 different Hawaiian-language newspapers were printed from 1834 to 1948. They equal a million or more typescript pages of text - the largest native-language cache in the western world - a repository of knowledge, opinion and historical progress as Hawai‘i moved through kingdom, constitutional monarchy, republic and territory. Only 2% of that repository has been integrated into English to open up this resource for general access.

‘Ike Ku‘oko‘a — Liberating Knowledge is a Hawaiian-newspaper initiative overseen by Puakea Nogelmeier, Director of Awaiaulu, and Kau‘i Sai-Dudoit, Project Director of ‘Ike Ku‘oko‘a, and utilizing an army of volunteers, that is taking the remaining 60,000 digital scans of Hawaiian-language newspapers and transcribing them into searchable typescript. It will open up hundreds of thousands of pages worth of data on history, culture, politics, sciences, world view, and more.

In 8 months since its inception, 15,500 pages of newspapers were transcripted by 3000 ‘Ike Ku‘oko‘a Project volunteers from over 8 countries. For information on the background of the Hawaiian Newspaper Initiatives, the book Mai Pa'a I Ka Leo: Historical Voice in Hawaiian Primary Materials is available from Bishop Museum Press by book, Kindle, and Nook.

For more information http://www.awaiaulu.org/main/ index.php

Database of Historic Homes

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation’s new historic homes online resource provides another way to both to preserve Hawaii’s architectural heritage and help ensure the stories about significant historic properties and cultural resources are shared with the broadest audience by making information available to all who have an interest in Hawaii’s history. The first phase includes about 250 homes enrolled in the Honolulu historic property tax exemption program.

The property list cross references each property by address, historic name, tax map key number, and historic register file number. In addition to providing the searchable list, the website also provides a map of each property’s location, a photograph of the historic home, an abstract of its historic significance, and a link to a digital version of the nomination form. Prior to this, only hard copies of the nomination, held in the State’s files in Kapolei, were available to the public. For more information: http://www.historichawaii.org/Historic_Properties

Two Organizations Celebrate Anniversaries

The venerable lighthouse at Kilauea Point, Kaua‘i will be 100 years old in 2013. The landmark is located on the 32-acre peninsula bluff high above the surging northern swells on northeast Kaua‘i, site of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The lighthouse and visitor center are undergoing restoration work in preparation of this milestone. The Kilauea Association (KPNHA) works in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to promote interpretive, educational, and scientific projects that focus on Hawaii’s islands.