The University of Hawaii Summer Art Institute-Hilo and the UHH Art Department present “Past, Present, Future: SummerAi Hilo” on display at the Wailoa Art & Cultural Center through July 31.
The show includes works from the current SummerAi Hilo session with selections from the UHH Visiting Artist residency program and Artist Print Edition projects.
SummerAi Hilo was conceptualized during fall 2011 by the UHH Art Department in response to an invitation from the Hawaii Community Foundation to apply for Artist-In-Residence grant support through the Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund.
The Laila Art Fund was established to continue the legacy of Laila Twigg-Smith after her death in 1998. She was a well-known Hawaii art collector and patron of artists and museums whose work included the founding of The Contemporary Museum in Makiki Heights, Oahu. Twigg-Smith was admired and esteemed as an ambassador for Hawaii and its art; her ambition was always to inspire creativity, to be a catalyst, to galvanize action to effect change and make a difference.
The SummerAi Hilo program was guided by intention “to nurture and promote Hawaii as a global center for the exchange of contemporary arts and artists,” and to “support … initiatives that afford artists opportunities to immerse themselves in new environments, to absorb different influences, and to realize fresh visions free of the issues of day-to-day survival.”
The art program is significantly funded through the Howard and Yoneko Droste bequest via an estate gift in 2010 made by longtime Hilo faculty members. The Droste bequest supports the Art and English departments and enables UH-Hilo to enhance offerings in these disciplines.
The 2013 summer studio program beginning and advanced level credit courses are taught with support from a team of visiting studio artists: Khalid Kodi of Massachusetts, painting; Jenifer Wofford of California, drawing; Wendy Yothers, New York, small sculpture, and humanities scholar David Goldberg, UH-Manoa, who is conducting a seminar on hip-hop culture.
The Wailoa Center exhibition features Kodi, Wofford and Yothers with selected student examples in addition to works from the UHH collection by Lee Chesney, Sam Coronado, Oliver Jackson, Karen Kunc, Roy Nydorf, Albert Paley and Carlos Villa.
