HMA President’s Report - by Stacy Hoshino

Overall 2011 was an extraordinary year for HMA – our membership, institutional members, and board of directors all came together to fulfill the mission of HMA. I am not one to give the excuse “I was busy,” but I had to break that personal rule and say it because 2011 was a very busy year for the organization. Nühou all but ceased production for most of last year, but HMA went into overdrive with several well-attended workshops, the completion of a statewide project that was funded by the Institute of Museums and Library Services, and the massive Western Museums Association Annual Meeting and Conference that descended upon Honolulu in September. Nühou is slowly getting back on track and soon you will be able to read it online, also, be sure to head to www.hawaiimuseums.org and sign-up to receive emails to keep in touch. On behalf of the Board of Directors, thank you for your continued support!

HMA Offers Critique of New Exhibit

Hawai'i Museums Association is pleased to announce a Critique of Pearl Harbor’s WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument Galleries Friday, March 23, 2012. In December 2010, the National Park Service opened its new exhibition at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. Included in the displays on the 1941 Japanese attack  are the voices of Hawai‘i residents. This critique will examine the exhibit from different perspectives— museum professionals will offer evaluations while National Park Service staff respond & describe the challenges they faced. View the galleries from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. The critique session will start at 6:00 to 7:00 pm in the Pearl Harbor Memorial Theater. Free with limited seating; RSVP via email at hawaiimuseumsassociation@gmail.com. 


Panelists include:

Tom Klobe

Founding Director, University of Hawai‘i Art Gallery

Barbara Moir

Education and Operations Curator, Lyman Museum

Paul DePrey

Superintendent, WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument

Eileen Martinez

Chief of Education & Interpretation, WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument

Moderator: Karen Kosasa

Director, Museums Studies Graduate Certificate Program

Western Museums Association Annual Meeting in Honolulu

Themed Pupukahi i Holomua “Working Together to Move Forward," WMA descended on Honolulu September 23-26, 2011 with unprecedented cosponsorships with HMA, Association of Tribal Archives Libraries, and Museums (ATALM), and Pacific Islands Museums Association (PIMA). Over 600 registered attendees came from as far as Louisiana, and Alaska, Fiji and Australia made for incredible learning and networking opportunities. 

A traditional Hawaiian 'awa
(kava) ceremony to officially open
and welcome all the
sponsoring organizations
and their membership.

Pre-conference day offered an array of professional development workshops, a day tour of Pearl Harbor, and ended with an evening reception at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. During the first conference day at the Hawai‘i Convention Center, Manulani Aluli Meyer, Associate Professor of Education at University of Hawai‘i, Hilo, and currently in New Zealand working for Te Wananga o Aotearoa, gave a thoughtful and powerful keynote titled, Our Collective Remembering: Five (K)new Ideas for World Transformation. The day continued with fourteen concurrent sessions topped with five different receptions to choose from at Shangri La, The Contemporary Museum, The Liljestrand House, Queen Emma Summer Palace, ‘Iolani Palace, Mission Houses Museum, and UH’s Ka Waihona o ka Na‘auao Kamakauokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. 

The following day started with Ralph Regenvanu, MP Minister of Justice and Community, Vanuatu, speaking about the innovative cultural and economic initiatives in his country and region. After 26 concurrent panel sessions and affinity lunches, participants enjoyed an evening at Bishop Museum. Following days of sharing ideas and meeting new friends, the conference came to a bittersweet close. Overall many people were happy to experience a part of Hawai‘i and were impressed with how rich the panel sessions were since many focused on the indigenous cultures of Native Hawaiians, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and First Nations. The next WMA Annual Meeting will take place in Palm Springs, California, from October 21 to 24, 2012. 

Speake
Ralph Regenvanu

HMA Board Directors would like to thank the many members who worked over the last two years on the HMA Host and Program Committees, and to member institutions for hosting the many day and evening events. HMA was the recipient of several grants to help bring WMA to Honolulu, we thank them:

$5,000- Cooke Foundation, Ltd.

$5,000- Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts, the City and County of Honolulu

$4,000- Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities

$1,000- Shangri La, the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art

For their in-kind support over the past two years, the Hawai‘i Convention Center and staff.

HMA Annual Members Meeting

HMA held its Annual Members Meeting on Sunday, September 25, 2011 at the Hawai‘i Convention Center with over 40 members attending. Usually held in May, HMA’s board directors voted to postpone the members meeting until September to coincide with WMA’s conference. 

HMA Board Treasurer Celeste Ohta
gives outgoing Board Director Bron
Solyom a lei to acknowledge
her service.

An overview of the year was given by Board President Stacy Hoshino as well as plans and goals for the next year. Overall, HMA had a very productive year, working to bring the WMA Annual Meeting to Honolulu, also, managing a project that was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and running several workshops. Celeste Ohta, Board Treasurer, presented HMA’s state of finances, and revenue and expenditures for the year. 

Retiring Board Director-at-Large Bron Solyom and HMA Vice President Kippen de Alba Chu were acknowledged and thanked for serving full terms. Four new board directors were approved, Shari Tamashiro, Natalie Aczon, Kelly Ota, and Jane Hoffman, 

Finally, to close out the meeting, members were thanked for their continued involvement in HMA programs and for their ongoing and loyal support.

Save-the-Date

Monday, May 14, 2012

HMA Annual Members Meeting at the Honolulu Museum of Art formerly the Honolulu Academy of the Arts

HCH Grants for Hawai‘i

Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities (HCH) encourages HMA members to apply for grants to fund programs and preservation projects that have a humanities context. HCH supported 25 projects statewide in 2011, awarding $110,827 to grant recipients including the museums, learning centers, libraries and archives. For more information visit their website, or email Stacy Hoshino at shoshino@hihumanities.org. The next deadline is October 31, 2012. Following is a selection of last year’s grant recipients, many of whom are HMA institutional members. For more details on grants awarded go to www.hihumanities.org

Regular Grants

$5,000- University of Hawai‘i Manoa, Historic Costume Museum.

$5,000- Mission Houses Museum.

$4,000- Hawai‘i Museums Association

$3,800- Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.

$2,300- Honolulu Academy of Arts. 

Preservation and Access Grants

$5,000- Bishop Museum.

$5,000- Jean Charlot Collection, University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa Library

Statewide Collections Planning Grant Wraps Up

By Malia Van Heukelem

One of the break out sessions
generating great ideas.

In March 2010, the Hawai‘i Museums Association was awarded a Connecting to Collections planning grant from the Institute of Museums and Library Services. The primary goals were to: convene an island-wide meeting; develop a professional leadership network; and conduct a survey of collections. Lynn Ann Davis of University of Hawaii’s Hamilton Library Preservation Lab served as project manager and has guided the process over the past year. She said of the project: “It has been very fulfilling to experience the statewide commitment to the preservation of cultural heritage collections. There has been excellent response to create a statewide preservation plan.” 


In May 2010, approximately 80 people attended the workshop “Building a Culture – Collections Care in Hawai‘i” held at Bishop Museum. Four primary concerns were prioritized by the varied collections staff: assign responsibility for collections care; provide safe conditions for collections, marshal public and private support; and develop a disaster plan. 


Over 90 participants met at Queen Emma Summer Palace on April 7, 2011. The group revisited the four points identified nearly a year earlier, reviewed the results of a statewide collections survey, and participated in break-out groups. Each of the groups focused on one of the following four topics to illicit the best ideas for moving forward: Advocacy, Networking, Information & Training, or Sustainability.

Project consultant Barclay Ogden, head of UC Berkeley Library Preservation Department, and one of the top preservation experts in the nation, facilitated both the first statewide collections meeting in May 2010, and the second meeting held in April 2011. Lynn Davis designed the survey instrument, incorporating feedback from the project consultant, the Leadership Group and the Partnership Group. 

At the April 2011 meeting, a compilation of survey results was reviewed, and several areas stood out as needing additional attention from cultural institutions. The year-long project included three WESTPAS disaster preparedness workshops. The first pair last summer included developing a plan and a hands-on exercise in salvaging wet materials. “Are You Ready?” was presented the day after the second statewide meeting, on April 8, 2011. 

Where do we go from here? Hawai‘i Museums Association will be using the results from this project to pursue some of the great ideas identified during the statewide meetings. The report can be viewed in its entirety at www.hawaiimuseums.org.

AIC-CERT Creates Nationwide Network of Responders

By Malia Van Heukelem

Hawai'i AIC-CERT volunteers
Lynn Davis and UH Library
Head of Preservation, and
Malia Van Heukelem, UH
Master of Library Science
graduate student and former
'Iolani Palace Collections
Manager, attended training
in San Diego, California

Since 2008, AIC-CERT members have assisted over 40 cultural institutions in the U.S. and Haiti assess damages and salvage their collections via phone, email, and on-site visits. The Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (FAIC) has been busy providing training for conservators and related collections professionals selected for the American Institute for Conservation Collections Emergency Response Team (AIC-CERT) with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This training added approximately 40 new “collections emergency response team” members to total approximately 100 AIC-CERT responders. Since 2008, Participants were selected by expertise in a variety of specialties and will serve as a sort of Red Cross for museum emergencies. Add this number to your disaster plan for 24-hour assistance the next time you have a collections emergency: (202) 661-8068.