Honolulu Academy of Arts Blog
Investigative blogger Ian Lind got wind of the possible demise of a mural at Kamehameha Schools. The mural was created by the late artist Louis Pohl, who was a popular Academy instructor for 35 years, and his students.
Read Ian’s post. Read Kamehameha Schools’ response.
For the second year in a row, the Academy’s Surf Film Festival included a drawing for a prized Wade Tokoro surfboard. Everyone who purchased a festival pass were eligible for the drawing, and the winner is Melanie Bailey of Kailua. She happens to be one of the “furlough moms” running for the Board of Education this year. (She’s also the human resources manager for Duke’s Canoe Club.) While Melanie is actually a paddler (she used to paddle with Lanikai Canoe Club), her husband surfs, and she says he’s excited to try it out. Here she is with her son and her new board.
Susan Sayre Batton, who was deputy director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts from 2005 to 2008, is now the managing director of Dia:Beacon. While here, she focused on strategic planning and development of the facility, staff and collections management. She worked tirelessly to produce the 2007-2009 Academy Strategic Plan, with the support of key staff members. The plan dovetailed with the requirements of the American Association of Musuems toward professional compliance in ethical policy, disaster preparedness and collections management. Batton and a team of senior staff authored the AAM Re-Accreditation Self-Study, and directed the Site Visit—efforts that led to the Academy’s successful re-accreditation in December 2007. Before joining Dia, Batton was an interim deputy director at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and she just completed her post as project manager for Modern Views: A Project to Benefit Farnsworth House and the Glass House. The Academy congratulates Susan on her new position!
The Academy Art Center bustled with about 800 people—kids proudly showing off their paintings, drawings, sculptures and other masterworks to family and friends—at the Summer 2010 Young Artist Exhibition opening on Saturday. The works on display are just a sampling of the many pieces students created in their summer classes at the Art Center. If you haven’t yet, come take a look at what some of the best and brightest young people in Hawaii were doing with their summer. Their work will be up until August 7.
read more from "Young Artists show off"
Here are Academy Film Curator Gina Caruso and director Nathan Apffel having a pre-festival pow wow in Pavilion Cafe. Just 25, Nathan Apffel made Lost Prophets: Search for the Collective—the opening film for the Third Annual Surf Film Festival tonight (tickets for tonight are SOLD OUT. But you can buy ahead for any other film—get them while you can.)
When asked what inspired the California native to make the film, Apffel said that as a director for the Fuel television series Fins, he saw that most of what is publicized about the surfing world is the glamour stuff. “And it’s the opposite of that.” He wanted to capture the surfers who are in it for the connection to the ocean. “These guys are relatively unknown, yet surf companies use them as icons.”
The film is also screening in France today. But Nathan is here. And he is excited that he was able to invite his friend Duke Boyd to the opening tonight. Thanks for being part of the festival Nathan—you embody the current of aloha that runs through surfing (but is not always apparent).
Read Mike Gordon’s great story on the festival in the Star Advertiser.
PS: Happy birthday Gina!
The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan is on the final stop of its global journey—on July 4 the landmark exhibition organized by the Honolulu Academy of Arts opened at the Museum Rietberg in Zürich, Switzerland, as Bhutan: Heilige Kunst aus dem Himalaya. Chairman of the Academy Board of Trustees and Interim Director Lynne Johnson attended the opening. The exhibition will be on view in the Werner Abegg Gallery in this complex of elegant villas.
read more from "The Dragon’s Gift opens in Zürich"
The one time a year surfers come to the Doris Duke Theatre is almost here. And this time film curator Gina Caruso and her trusty advisors Eric and Jackie Walden of Chinatown Boardroom have chosen a lineup with a lot to offer people who aren’t into watching epic wave after epic ride. I’ve been watching surf films since Kapahulu Theatre still existed. I’m not trying to brag about how ancient I am, but just saying—kind of got “tubular swells” fatigue. There will be lots of epic surf, fer sure, in films such as the WORLD PREMIERE of The Oxbow Watermen Experience but there are also excellent documentaries that I can’t wait to see, like Out of Place, about surfing in…Ohio. Check the shot of a guy walking in the snow carrying his board in the trailer. (And the filmmaker has a blog—his latest post is about surfing in New Jersey.) And the trailer for Gum for My Boat is captivating, while the trailer for Somewhere Near Tapachula made me cry. The trailer!
read more from "Surf Film Festival is back better than ever. + FREE beer at opening nite"
As an Assistant Manager and Buyer for the Academy Shop, my job entails traveling in search of cool, new things, and in April I attended the Museum Store Association conference in Austin, TX. Many shop issues were discussed at the conference, but the hot topic was e-marketing. I learned how Twitter and Facebook are increasingly being used as advertising tools for and how successful they can be.
read more from "Inside The Academy Shop: A buyer’s eye view of Austin"
Now on view through June 26 at Gagosian Gallery in New York City is the exhibition Monet. The survey of the artist’s late work has gotten rave reviews and it includes a painting from the Pacific—our “Water Lilies” by Claude Monet. The work normally hangs in Gallery 10 (it’s temporarily replaced by three Mary Cassatt works). If you happen to be in Manhattan, pop in to see it in a new setting. In exchange for the loan, the gallery is funding the glazing of the painting, an important protective measure.
Read the New York Times review. (Aw Holland Cotter, why didn’t you mention us?)
Read the New York Magazine review.
Photo: Robert McKeever/Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
