Public Programs Schedule January- February 2008
The following public programs and special events are scheduled for galleries and public spaces at the Bishop Museum and Hawaii Maritime Center in Honolulu , and Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Gardens in Captain Cook, Hawaii from January through February 2007. More detailed information will be available at www.bishopmuseum.org or in Ka’Elele, the journal of Bishop Museum . Visit the press room online for more information. This information is subject to change.
Ongoing Daily Programs at Bishop Museum
10:00 a.m.
Na Mea Makamae Tour
Hawaiian Hall stairs, Kāhili Room, & Joseph M. Long Gallery 25minutes
Listen to the story of the creation of the Museum and learn more about the treasures of the Hawaiian people.
10:30 a.m.
Pauahi: A Legacy for Hawai`i Tour
2 nd Floor Castle Memorial Building Gallery 25 minutes
Join us for an in-depth tour of the collections of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop and treasures from other ali‘i that have been entrusted to Bishop Museum .
11:00 a.m.
Music & Dance of Hawaii (Live Music & Hula)
Front Gallery Lawn 25 minutes
See, hear, and learn more about one of Hawai‘i’s most treasured art forms, the hula, through colorful presentations.
11:30 a.m.
Plants of Paradise Garden Tour
Please meet at the entrance of the Hawaiian Hall 25 minutes
Learn more about the beautiful plants of Hawai‘i with a guided tour of the
Bishop Museum gardens.
The Sky Tonight Planetarium Show (no late seating)
J. Watumull Planetarium 25 minutes
Discover the skies and stories of our Hawaiian skies and learn about current events in space.
12:00 noon
Meet me at the Hot Spot – Lava Melting Demo
Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center – Hot Spot Theatre 20 minutes
An exciting lava melting demonstration, learn more about volcanoes and see rock and cinder melted to create lava.
Too Hot to Handle – Science on a Sphere
J. Watumull Planetarium Lobby, 20 minutes
What will the earth look like in 2100? Come explore the effects of global warming on the Science the Sphere exhibit.
12:30 p.m.
Na Mea Makamae Tour
Hawaiian Hall stairs, Kāhili Room, & Joseph M. Long Gallery 25 minutes
1:00 p.m.
Ola Na Moolelo – “Living Stories” Storytelling program
2 nd floor Castle Memorial Building – Demo area 25 minutes
Hawaii ’s stories come alive through a multi sensory presentation. Hear the story of Bernice Pauahi Bishop and Charles Reed Bishop, celebrate her life, their remarkable love story, and his founding of Bishop Museum in her honor.
1:30 p.m.
Explorers of Mauna Kea Planetarium Show (no late seating)
J. Watumull Planetarium 25 minutes
Find out why astronomers consider Mauna Kea , on the Big Island of Hawai`i to be one of the best research sites and learn how they explore the universe.
2:00 p.m.
Music & Dance of Hawaii (Live Music & Hula)
Front Gallery Lawn 25 minutes
2:30 p.m.
Meet me at the Hot Spot – Lava Melting Demo
Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center – Hot Spot Theatre 20 minutes
Solar Viewing – Observatory (near the Paeaina Café)
Come to the Museum’s on-campus observatory to view the sun in a special solar telescope; depending on the level of solar activity, you might be able to spot a sun spot. (This is “live” solar viewing so we can’t promise solar views when clouds are in the way.)
3:00 p.m.
Pauahi: A Legacy for Hawaii - Tour
2 nd Floor Castle Memorial Building Gallery 25 minutes
Join us for an in depth tour of the collections of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop and treasures from other ali‘i that survived because of the founding of Bishop Museum.
3:30 p.m.
Explorers of Polynesia Planetarium Show (no late seating)
J. Watumull Planetarium 45 minutes
Learn how the Polynesians navigated through the Pacific thousands of years ago using their knowledge of the night sky and nature.
4:15 p.m.
The Science of Paradise – Science on a Sphere
J. Watumull Planetarium Lobby, 20 minutes
This live demonstration uses Science on Sphere to explore Hawai‘i’s wonderful climate--from our tropical location to the cooling effect of the trade winds.
Special Events, Workshops, Lectures, Fieldtrips
Special Events, Workshops, Lectures, Fieldtrips
JANUARY 2008
THE SKY TONIGHT
January 4, 2008; 7 p.m.; (No late seating); $4 General; $3 Children 3-12; Members Free
J. Watumull Planetarium; Reservations (808) 848-4168
Come experience our unique Hawaiian skies and learn about current events in space during The Sky Tonight, Bishop Museum’s popular planetarium program hosted by Barry Peckham. Offered the first Friday of every month at 7 p.m., the show begins promptly and there is no late seating. Please call (808) 848-4168 for reservations.
GRAND OPENING: NEW PICTURE GALLERY
January 19, 2008; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Regular Admission
Hawaiian Hall Complex
Bishop Museum’s premiere collection of art about Hawai‘i will finally get a new home when renovations for the new, as yet unnamed, Picture Gallery are complete in January 2008. For more than 70 years, the collection has been unseen and unknown to the greater Hawaii community because the Museum lacked appropriate gallery spaces for displaying the unrivaled collection.
Bishop Museum’s extraordinary collection of visual art of Hawai’i and the Pacific focuses on art from the 18 th and early 19 th centuries. This collection represents a remarkable window into the past—a visual documentation of Pacific cultures at the time of western contact and beyond. The earliest pieces are those of artists associated with voyaging expeditions of the 18th and 19th centuries, including John Webber—the artist for Captain Cook—and Louis Choris, the artist for the French explorer Louis Von Kotzebue.
The Museum’s art collection spans a broad array of cultural and natural history subjects, including significant images of early Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders and their lifestyles. Illustrations of flora and fauna of the Pacific region, incredible early views of volcanoes, and striking portraits of prominent individuals all provide us with important glimpses into the historical times this art represents.
Bishop Museum’s art collection includes approximately 250 oil paintings and 4,000 works of art on paper. Notable artists represented in the collection include: British painter George Carter (1737-1794); Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885); international portrait painter Enoch Wood Perry (1831-1915); maritime artist William A. Coulter (1849-1936), Joseph D. Strong, Jr. (1852-1899), and volcano artist David Howard Hitchcock (1861-1943), among many others.
Bishop Museum’s first building, part of today’s Hawaiian Hall complex, was constructed in 1889. It contained just three exhibit rooms, one of which was the Picture Gallery. At the public opening in 1891, the Picture Gallery presented portraits of Hawaiian monarchs, photographs documenting many Pacific cultures, and books. Later, display cases, koa furniture, and busts of Princess Pauahi and Charles Reed Bishop were added.
The Picture Gallery was closed in 1940, to be used first for storage and later for other types of exhibits. At the time of the closure, the art from the gallery was either relocated within the Museum or placed in storage. Since then, the majority of this collection has not been available for public viewing. And many additional pieces have been added to the Museum’s holdings. With the re-opening of the Picture Gallery in 2008, the Museum will present the first showing of selected pieces from this outstanding art collection in more than sixty years.
Oil paintings from the 18th and 19th century will form the foundation of the Picture Gallery's new permanent displays. More delicate watercolors, such as the first views of the Hawaiian Islands created the artists that accompanied Captain James Cook, will be periodically rotated together with rare books and manuscripts from the Museum’s library and archives. The renewed Picture Gallery will be a place to experience the stories of Hawai‘i and the Pacific; to appreciate fine art; and to visually experience the Hawai‘i and the Pacific of earlier times.
For more information about Bishop Museum’s Picture Gallery, call (808) 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org. For more information about Hawaiian Hall Renovation Project, call Amy Miller, Vice President for Institutional Advancement at (808) 848-4169.
FEBRUARY 2008
THE SKY TONIGHT
February 1, 2008; 7 p.m.; (No late seating); $4 General; $3 Children 3-12; Members Free
J. Watumull Planetarium; Reservations (808) 848-4168
Come experience our unique Hawaiian skies and learn about current events in space during The Sky Tonight, Bishop Museum’s popular planetarium program hosted by Barry Peckham. Offered the first Friday of every month at 7 p.m., the show begins promptly and there is no late seating. Please call (808) 848-4168 for reservations.
AMY GREENWELL 4 th ANNUAL GARDEN GROW HAWAIIAN FESTIVAL
February 23, 2007; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Free
Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, Captain Cook, HI
The 4 th Annual Grow Hawaiian Festival at Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook, Hawai‘i Island, will be held Saturday, February 23, 2008, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is FREE!
Weavers, dancers, kapa makers, and other practitioners of traditional Hawaiian culture meet with biologists, conservationists, and horticulturists to explore their common passion for the native and Polynesian introduced plants of Hawai‘i. Festival-goers have a unique opportunity to meet and talk with many of the foremost practitioners of Hawaiian arts including lei makers and kapa makers, as well as leading scientists and entomologists.
The festival includes cultural demonstrators, ask-the-expert booths, and displays by schools, parks, and conservation organizations. There will be a continuing program of speakers and panels on the main stage throughout the day, activity areas for young and old, and plate lunches by Super-J’s.
On the main stage, the program will be a mix of cultural insights, entertainment, and fascinating accounts by leading conservationists and botanists. There is never a dull moment with Tom Cummings and Kealoha Kelekolio as masters of ceremony--they are well known storytellers who work with the Bishop Museum Education Department and they fit in a number of their dramatic presentations on traditional themes during the day.
A roundtable of well-known cultural practitioners including will bring their personal stories of plants and planting. Kanu o ka ‘Āina will open and close the program with chants, and Ulali‘a Berman and her dancers will provide an interlude of hula.
Cultural demonstrators will be available all day for visitors to meet and talk story about their specialties. The Kona Weavers Club, an informal group that meets once a month at Amy Greenwell Garden to weave, will be at the festival making hats, mats, and other items from lauhala.
One of the most popular activities at previous festivals is a guided tour of Amy Greenwell Garden led by David Orr, curator of collections at Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden on O‘ahu. His deep knowledge of native plants and enduring passion for conservation make this tour a must-do event for garden lovers and conservationists in West Hawai‘i.
The festival provides an extraordinary opportunity for people to ask experts for advice on all manner of things biological or horticultural. Bring your mystery plants or bugs to the festival to get them identified.
At the many booths in the festival, conservation experts will be ready to talk to visitors about projects on Kaua‘i, Moloka‘i, Maui, and Hawai‘i. For more information call (808) 323-3318. Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden is a Bishop Museum’s native plant facility located in Captain Cook on Hawai‘i Island. The Garden is located twelve miles south of Kailua-Kona on Highway 11, just south of mile marker 110. The garden welcomes all visitors from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. Admission to the garden is by donation, suggested at $4. These and other programs are supported by the Bishop Museum, the Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program (NHCAP), and the Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO). For more information, contact Noa Lincoln, Garden Educator, at (808) 323-3318; by fax at (808) 323-2394; or email agg@bishopmuseum.org. Or Visit the web site at: http://www.bishopmuseum.org/exhibits/greenwell/greenwell.html.
MARY KAWENA PUKUI PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL
February 24, 2008; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; $3 admission for Hawai‘i Residents and Military with ID; Members and Children 3 and under Free; Regular Admission for all others
Great Lawn
Native storytellers from Hawai‘i, Alaska, and Massachusetts will gather on the Great Lawn at Bishop Museum to “talk story” and join in a celebration of native cultures through the ancient art of storytelling and dance. The 8th annual Mary Kawena Pukui Performing Arts Festival will be held at Bishop Museum on Sunday, February 24, 2008 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $3 per person for Hawai‘i residents and military with ID. Members and children 3 and under are free. Regular admission is charged for all others.
Among the participants in this year’s Mary Kawena Pukui Performing Arts Festival are performers from the Bishop Museum; the Peabody Essex Museum and New Bedford Whaling Museum of Massachusetts; the North Slope Borough in Barrow, Alaska, and the Alaska Heritage Center in Anchorage, Alaska; and known local storytellers from Hawai‘i.
The centerpiece of the festival is a collaborative piece entitled, “Keeping the Fire in Dark Moon Times.” Created in 2007 under the direction of Tau Dance Theatre of Honolulu, it is infused with the oral tradition, dance, and music of natives from Hawai‘i, Alaska, and Massachusetts. It honors ancestral stories and the diverse symbolism of the moon, its cycles, and the many meanings of harvest.
In the past, the storytellers have traveled to rural and Native Hawaiian charter schools on O‘ahu. This year, the plan is to take the storytellers to Hawai‘i Island as well. The group will also travel to the new National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. and New York to share the stories of Hawai‘i, Alaska, and New England.
Says education Project Manager, Noelle Kahanu, “What better way to learn about culture and its people that through their stories and songs? Thousands of Hawai‘i’s children have learned of the Raven and how he brought light to the Inupiat people, or stomped in time to a Wampanoag dance, or heard the rhythmic beat of Cape Verde drumming. It connects us all at a very fundamental level,”
At the Pukui Festival, there will be several stages featuring a variety of storytellers and programs for adults and children, hula hālau and music performances. Food and native craft booths will also be among the attractions of the event. The festival is held each year in honor of Mary Kawena Pukui, a revered Hawaiian scholar and linguist who knew the importance of storytelling to the host Hawaiian culture. Pukui published the first Native Hawaiian language dictionary and worked tirelessly to preserve and perpetuate Hawaiian traditions of hula and storytelling.
Pukui was born in 1895 to a Hawaiian mother and a Caucasian father who was from Salem, Massachusetts. Until she was 6, she lived with her maternal grandmother who taught her the Hawaiian language and numerous chants, dances, and legends. As she grew into young adulthood, Pukui collected Hawaiian lore and legends that eventually became the background for more than 50 books and 150 songs she would later write.
Pukui worked at Bishop Museum for more than 50 years helping to preserve chant texts, oral histories and ethnographic data collected in her research and fieldwork. According to her adopted daughter, Patience Namakauahoaokawena Wiggin Bacon, Pukui was meticulous when she retold and recorded stories.
The Mary Kawena Pukui Performing Arts Festival provides an opportunity to perpetuate the storytelling traditions and to introduce new generations of Hawai‘i’s children to this important cultural legacy.
The festival is funded through a federally sponsored program, Education through Cultural and Historic Organizations (ECHO). ECHO is a major, federally-funded educational and cultural enrichment initiative, established by Congress as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. ECHO brings to culturally diverse audiences innovative programs collaboratively produced by regional cultural entities. Alaska Native Heritage Center and North Slope Borough ECHO Project in Alaska, Bishop museum in Hawai‘i; and the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts.
For more information about the Mary Kawena Pukui Performing Arts Festival, or school outreach programs, call (808) 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
-pau-