Charles Reed Bishop Trust Announces Hawaiian Hall Gift
The Charles Reed Bishop Trust has announced a major gift of $500,000.00 towards Bishop Museum’s Hawaiian Hall Renovation Project, according to Amy Miller Marvin, Bishop Museum’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement.
“Throughout his lifetime, Charles Reed Bishop worked extensively to support Native Hawaiians,” says Marvin. “This major contribution from his Trust will enable Bishop Museum to present the art and artifacts of the Hawaiian culture in a way that instills pride and creates new knowledge and understanding of Hawaiian history and living culture. We are especially grateful for the additional support of his trust at this critical time of renovation and rejuvenation in the Museum’s 119-year history.”
Charles Reed Bishop was the founder of First Hawaiian Bank, as well as Bishop Museum, and was one of Hawaii’s most generous philanthropists. He died at 93 on June 16, 1915 and was buried in the Royal Mausoleum. The Charles Reed Bishop Trust was established on August 1, 1895 as a charitable trust whose mission is to support the Royal Mausoleum, the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, and a number of other schools and churches designated by Mr. Bishop.
After construction began on the Museum, Bishop traveled the world over, spending over $100,000 buying additional scientific collections for Bishop Museum and buying back Hawaiian antiquities given as gifts, traded, or sold by Hawaiians in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Among the organizations he personally supported during his lifetime were the Kamehameha Schools—his cash contributions beyond his wife’s estate helped build and equip the schools; the Hilo Boys’ Boarding School for Hawaiians; Queen’s Hospital; the Ka’iulani Home for Hawaiian girls; and the Bishop Home in Kalaupapa which protected girls and women with Hanson’s Disease from sexual assaults.
The Hawaiian Hall renovation project began in the summer of 2006. This project is the first major renovation and restoration of the iconic Hawaiian Hall Complex, which includes Hawaiian Hall, Polynesian Hall, the Vestibule and Picture Galleries, and the Kahili Room, since it opened in 1889. When the project is complete, all three floors of Hawaiian Hall will be dedicated to the stories of Native Hawaiian history and living culture, as told from the Hawaiian perspective.
The main gallery is expected to re-open in early summer 2009, with other areas opening as soon as complete. Ralph Appelbaum Associates of New York and Hawaii-based Mason Architects and Heath Construction Services are responsible for the overall planning, design, and construction.
Bishop Museum has the largest collection of Hawaii and Pacific area artifacts in the world; however, many of the most precious items are unable to be displayed due to Hawaiian Hall’s harsh environmental conditions—including natural light and open-air ventilation—that result from its original 1889 design. The first priority of the renovation is to restore Hawaiian Hall and bring it up to modern conservation and accessibility standards, so that the Museum’s many Hawaiian treasures can be displayed.
The renovation and restoration project is modernizing Hawaiian Hall’s interpretation, bringing multiple voices and a Native Hawaiian perspective to the Museum’s treasures. When finished, Hawaiian Hall will convey the essential values, beliefs, complexity, and achievements of Hawaiian culture, and look at Hawaiian history through Hawaiian eyes.
The interpretation of the Hawaiian Hall exhibits will reflect a special sensitivity to Native Hawaiian culture and values and will demonstrate a world-class approach to the presentation of cultural materials in contemporary museums. A flexible display system will enable the Museum to exhibit more of its fragile and beautiful artifacts in a setting that emphasizes their beauty, power and mana (spirit) from the place in which they were created.
For more information about the Hawaiian Hall Renovation project, call (808) 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org.
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