Wahi Pana Exhibit is up until July 5 – Many Thanks!

The Wahi Pana exhibit is up right now as I write this – the reception came and went in a blur! I tended the show and gave tours a lot during the first week. I truly thought I would have more time to keep everyone up to date on the status of the exhibit while it was still an “upcoming exhibit”, but it turns out that this exhibit was a full-time job for several months and it ramped up to a fever pitch for me right before the reception as I struggled to finish the vinyl signage and the website, wahi-pana.com. Thus, I sent out a quick social media alert about the reception, but now I want to follow it up here and invite you to the exhibit. Wahi Pana: A Sense of Place is on display until July 5. It is spectacular! So many excellent paintings that display a true connection to the land and the history that make Hawaii unique.

Personally, I will be sitting 2 more times: Thursday, June 27, 2019 10:30 – 1 pm, and July 3, 2019, 1 pm – 4:30 pm. If you are not able to come at those particular times, but would still like to have me show you around, please contact me. There are always artists at the gallery, giving visitors information and adding a personal touch to the display.

Here is the work I created for this exhibit with an explanation of what it means: http://wahi-pana.com/wendy-roberts

You can also view a video covering the overall concept of the exhibit. I dusted off my video editing skills again to create a little overview of the exhibit’s concept.

I have a little clip in the middle.

There were a lot of people involved in the success of this exhibit. I am nervous to begin thanking everyone because I know I may end up leaving someone out, but I really want to write this. I was not one of the speakers at the reception and this would have probably made a lousy speech, and you can’t put hyperlinks in a talk either – so this is a better format anyway. I really have so much gratitude toward so many people! Here goes:

Thank you to our sponsors. Their generous donations of time and services made this exhibit possible. To the Peter Drewliner and the Charles E Higa Foundation for a generous financial gift, Edward Enterprises Printing for donating labor on our beautiful catalog, Chromaco, Inc Fine Art Printing for our awards, Associa Inc, and Insurance Associates, and Kimberly Howsley of Aloha Tuscany Studios for financial support.

Thank you to our educators, Kumu Glen Kila, Kumu Joe Recca, Kumu Shirley Recca, Dr. Paul Brennan, and Kamaka Pili. Thank you to all our online educators – many of whose names are hard to find. If your project is on our education page, it was part of our success. You inspired us with your knowledge of these sacred, important locations.

Thank you most of all to Dawn Yoshimura, the curator of the exhibit. The exhibit would not exist without her. This was her baby and she has worked so hard! I do not think anyone has seen the hundreds of hours she donated to the art community because she was overseeing the entire project and doing a large share of the work herself for 5 months (plus the proposal writing time too!). She was the one who pitched the idea and lead us all the way through the design of the show and all the ambitious side projects: panels, discussions, education, etc… She spent the most time of anyone on this project – and that is saying a lot! Time she could have spent at the easel has been spent in connecting and guiding us all to make something greater than the sum of our parts. This is by far the most detailed, far-reaching, community-oriented art event I have been involved in helping to organize. It was all-consuming for me, and even moreso for Dawn. The care and the time really does show in the final exhibit. Some artists have continued their work on series inspired by this exhibit. The influence from this experience will ripple throughout the islands for a long time…

Thank you to Kimberly Howsley for her help as president of AHA and co-chair. She spent many hours editing, planning, and honing the exhibit, and was especially involved in the panels and extra community events. Thanks to her husband Roger, and friends Richard and Asia Di Antonio (who is serving as interim AHA secretary) for their help with tasks especially leading up to the reception! I apologize where I only know first names, but they were so kind to help us!

Thank you to HoMA Director of Curatorial Affairs Healoha Johnston for selecting the concept, and to Exhibit Manager Marlene Siu for hours and hours of coordination with the museum, for helping us communicate with the museum’s teams of graphic designers and web developers. Everyone in the museum team did a wonderful job of helping us bring this exhibit to the larger community. Between AHA and Museum publicity, a crowd of over 200 people showed up for the reception – HOMAS Gallery (Linekona) was standing room only with many people in the hallways!

Thank you to William Zwick for hours spent in painting and hanging the exhibit with Dawn. You two chose a great color of green and I can see the square feet of paint and hours you spent to perfect the exhibit. Every piece is in harmony in its place with its neighbors.

Thank you to Martina for the gorgeous flowers! Your time and aloha really shone through the beauty of the arrangements and lei. The lei I wore at the reception is the most beautiful lei I have ever worn! It was memorable and extravagant! The artist participant lei were unique and wonderful! I have mine hanging in a tree so the Pele’s hair can grow.

Thank you to MaryAnne Long for being our emcee, for helping to communicate with the art community via many email blasts, for helping us get an article out in the Midweek Voice, for all your help at the reception, and for hours of editing help on various written materials. You are so multi-talented!

Thank you to Jui-Lien for a beautiful graphic design contribution. She took the logo and the composite images I created and gave them a cohesive unifying color scheme that inspired everything we did after that initial poster design. Beautiful work! Aslo, she helped us with publicity to a degree I could not have duplicated.

Thank you to Jessica Orfe for her tireless help with promotion – placing posters and postcards, and early design work too! As mentioned, the crowd we drew was thanks in part to your energy and enthusiasm.

Thank you to James Hsu for keeping track of a flurry of treasury activity and writing out who knows how many reimbursement checks for the many details of this exhibit in a timely fashion.

Thank you Liz Corbin for spearheading the refreshments – it was elegantly done! Thank you Adriana Franc, Frances Wong, Barbara Sumida, Linda Umstead, Beth Anderson, and Marilyn Luipold for assistance with the refreshments and cleanup on a hot day where all the punch was gone by the end of the reception!

Thank you to Joe Kingston for the beautiful live music! It’s always a pleasure to hear you play!

Thank you to the 45 other artists for your excellent work! I can tell there was a lot of thought and intention placed into the work you created. It is a very special exhibit because you each took the time to read the prospectus, participate in the process, and follow all the guidelines. I know some of the requirements must have seemed arbitrary before the show, but at least for me, seeing the results hanging in the gallery, I am glad Dawn had the foresight to create the small touches that add a cohesive look to the overall exhibit. Thank you all for sitting the show as well. Your time is truly appreciated! I know it’s a long list, but I want to go ahead and name the participants here with the link to their art on the wahi-pana.com site.

We appreciate our AHA artists Edd Harnas, and Liz Corbin, who have also volunteered to help sit the show with us in solidarity. We managed to fill all the time slots thanks to our generous artists!

As many names as are here, it is not everyone – especially if you were on the museum teams for the facility, security, parking or the graphics/publicity team. I wish I could list you all by name. I know it took time to write the blog, compile the articles, submit copy to chase down third party publicity, to list it on the calendar, to fix the lighting in place for the gallery and the hall, to make sure the gallery is secure each day and every night. There is a whole crew of extremely kind maintenance, exhibits, and security teams who help us with physical logistics. The parking team saved us many headaches by being willing to help us with our passes. Thank you everyone, truly! Without all the collaboration, this would not have all come together. This was truly a huge community effort in which every stroke from every paddle has helped us approach the destination! Mahalo nui loa!