Aloha Councilmembers, and thank you for considering today the work that we are doing to create a Wailuku Arts District Management Plan.
In 1984, Maui OnStage lost their home at the Old Kahului Fairgrounds Territorial Building and moved into Wailuku Town’s historic Iao Theater, which was later placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Over the next 30 years, numerous arts and community organizations have called the space their performance and gathering home, including Maui Chamber Orchestra, Maui Choral Arts Association, Maui Pops Orchestra, Maui Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and many others.
In 2017, seven of Waluku Town’s core performing arts entities – including the 48-year old Maui Academy of Performing Arts – organized as the Wailuku Performing Arts Alliance to enrich the lives of Maui residents and visitors in partnership with the Wailuku Community Association and the County of Maui.
That same year, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded one of 60 national Our Town grants to the County of Maui to design and test a pilot public art initiative that would determine Wailuku’s capacity and interest in becoming an Arts District – which is defined as a mixed use area in a community with high concentration of cultural facilities and operations aimed to promote cultural activity and economic growth.
The outcomes of that initiative, known today as SMALL TOWN * BIG ART, have included active collaboration by each aforementioned entity, remarkable community engagement to ensure all public artworks represent the history, culture and sense of place of Wailuku, a new 501c3 – Maui Public Art Corps – that is working to establish a countywide percent for art program, and new grant funds by the National Endowment for the Arts to develop a Wailuku Arts District Management Plan.
A Management Plan Advisory Committee comprising a volunteer team of Wailuku arts programs, businesses and cultural practitioners is meeting monthly to design goals, objectives, roles, responsibilities and a proposed budget for a public-private partnership that will be entitled “Wailuku Arts District.” This massive effort to coordinate facility and public space planning, management, maintenance and collaborative programming will result in an interconnected destination that maximizes the public's opportunities to experience, learn and celebrate the arts. The 3 short-term objectives are 1) to coordinate and expand Arts District programming; 2) to promote awareness and understanding of the Arts District; and 3) to help orchestrate a clean and safe Arts District.
By supporting this resolution that recognizes our effort to design the Wailuku Arts District Management Plan (with a 12/31/23 deadline), you send a message to our community that our collective work has value that reaches far beyond any single arts entity.
The arts are widely proven to impact communal health, economic, cultural and social outcomes. As we continue to create this plan to organize, to advocate and to thrive, we hope we can count on your vote of support and look forward to introducing our draft plan at the end of this year.
Mahalo nui and aloha,
Naomi “Sissy” Lake Farm
Executive Director, Maui Historical Society/ Hale Hōʻikeʻike at the Bailey House
Cultural Advisor for the Small Town, Big Art of Wailuku/ Maui Public Art Corps
Aloha Councilmembers, and thank you for considering today the work that we are doing to create a Wailuku Arts District Management Plan.
In 1984, Maui OnStage lost their home at the Old Kahului Fairgrounds Territorial Building and moved into Wailuku Town’s historic Iao Theater, which was later placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Over the next 30 years, numerous arts and community organizations have called the space their performance and gathering home, including Maui Chamber Orchestra, Maui Choral Arts Association, Maui Pops Orchestra, Maui Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and many others.
In 2017, seven of Waluku Town’s core performing arts entities – including the 48-year old Maui Academy of Performing Arts – organized as the Wailuku Performing Arts Alliance to enrich the lives of Maui residents and visitors in partnership with the Wailuku Community Association and the County of Maui.
That same year, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded one of 60 national Our Town grants to the County of Maui to design and test a pilot public art initiative that would determine Wailuku’s capacity and interest in becoming an Arts District – which is defined as a mixed use area in a community with high concentration of cultural facilities and operations aimed to promote cultural activity and economic growth.
The outcomes of that initiative, known today as SMALL TOWN * BIG ART, have included active collaboration by each aforementioned entity, remarkable community engagement to ensure all public artworks represent the history, culture and sense of place of Wailuku, a new 501c3 – Maui Public Art Corps – that is working to establish a countywide percent for art program, and new grant funds by the National Endowment for the Arts to develop a Wailuku Arts District Management Plan.
A Management Plan Advisory Committee comprising a volunteer team of Wailuku arts programs, businesses and cultural practitioners is meeting monthly to design goals, objectives, roles, responsibilities and a proposed budget for a public-private partnership that will be entitled “Wailuku Arts District.” This massive effort to coordinate facility and public space planning, management, maintenance and collaborative programming will result in an interconnected destination that maximizes the public's opportunities to experience, learn and celebrate the arts. The 3 short-term objectives are 1) to coordinate and expand Arts District programming; 2) to promote awareness and understanding of the Arts District; and 3) to help orchestrate a clean and safe Arts District.
By supporting this resolution that recognizes our effort to design the Wailuku Arts District Management Plan (with a 12/31/23 deadline), you send a message to our community that our collective work has value that reaches far beyond any single arts entity.
The arts are widely proven to impact communal health, economic, cultural and social outcomes. As we continue to create this plan to organize, to advocate and to thrive, we hope we can count on your vote of support and look forward to introducing our draft plan at the end of this year.
Mahalo nui and aloha,
Naomi “Sissy” Lake Farm
Executive Director, Maui Historical Society/ Hale Hōʻikeʻike at the Bailey House
Cultural Advisor for the Small Town, Big Art of Wailuku/ Maui Public Art Corps
Aloha council members,
Thank you for supporting the arts in Wailuku!