Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 9, 1 Kepakemapa 2011 — OHA-funded Art Mural project seeks community input [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA-funded Art Mural project seeks community input

By Lynn Cook n November, 80 feet of indigenous Hawaiian imagery will greet the eyes and the senses of the AsiaPacific Eeonomie Cooperation visitors and their entourage at the Hawai'i Convention Center. Five top Native Hawaiian artists, joined by the accomplished art students from nine island schools, will paint the mana'o, the thoughts, of the community in a mural planned for permanent display at the center. Until early October ideas will be gathered like ripe mango. The kiek off for idea picking began Aug. 23 at the 10th annual Native Hawaiian Convention. Everyone in Hawai'i ean add to the recipe. Political, personal or spiritual concepts and suggestions ean be sent in or dropped off at Nā Mea Hawai'i/ Native Books at Ward Warehouse - attention Meleanna Meyer or emailed to findroopal@gmail.com. From Oct. 5 through 11, art magic will happen in paint on canvas, stretched across a long swath of the convention center. The completed Arting in Plaee mural, funded by the Office of Hawaiian

Affairs, is titled Hawai'i Loa Kū Like Kākou. Lead artist Meleanna Meyer, joined by Solomon Enos, Harinani Orme, Kahi Ching and A1 Lagunero have collaborated before, creating the "Arting in Plaee" concept for the Sheraton Waikīkī, the Mokulē'ia campgrounds, a mural along the wall of a stream in Kalihi, and a large number of art works for the new 'Aulani Disney Resort at Ko 'Olina on O'ahu. The 21-member APEC hasn't had a meeting in the U.S . for almost 20 years. When they arrive they may know nothing of the wealth of arts and culture in Hawai'i. "When they leave," Meyer says, "they will have a visual experience of the gathering of world economies in our homeland." As she describes it, artists will be "Painting the importance of evoking ancestral wisdom for guidance in our lives and our world as a whole." Hawai'i will be represented on the world stage, authentically through culture, where the arts and the artists become active players in their own destinies. ■

OHA Trustee Chair Colefte Machado, left, OHA Trustee Vice Chair Boyd Mossman, OHA Trustee Haunani Apoliona, Roopal Shah, OHA Trustee Peter Apo, Hahnani Orme, OHA Trustee Rowena Akana, OHA Trustee John Waihe'e IV, Meleanna Meyer, OHA Trustee Robert Lindsey Jr. and OHA Trustee 0z Stender.