House Standing Committee on Culture & Arts

Good morning, everyone. The mics are very hot. Okay, we are going to get started with our info brief. Sorry, there's a technical issue. I think she took her sound off. She muted. Okay, it's muted now. Okay, we'll try again. We're gonna get started with our 10am agenda for the Committee on Culture and the Arts.

We're doing an informational brief with the following foundations and organizations, the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Hawaii Arts Alliance, and the Kinkamehameha Celebration Commission. It is Thursday, May 22, 10 am and we are in Conference Room 309 and also on YouTube for anyone who's joining us there. We are going to roll right into it.

This is merely an informational briefing just so that we can get a better sense of the organizations that work the most closely with this Committee.

As we're heading into the interim, it's incredibly important for us to be able to have strong relations, but also to understand what you folks are doing and how we can also better support the work as we head into the.

As we head through the interim and into next session so we can better prepare for next session as well, so that at the end of the day, we can support artists across the state and in our own local communities. So we're going to toss it over to the Hawaii Arts alliance to get us started.

All right, good morning and aloha and mahalo. Chair, Kapela and Members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to share more about the Hawaii Arts Alliance, our mission values, and the impact we're making across the state.

I've prepared a brief 10 slide presentation, which I'll move through fairly quickly, and I look forward to engaging in questions and discussion after the slides. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to introduce myself and those joining me today. My name is Gaye Humphrey.

I serve as the Executive Director for the Hawaii Arts Alliance, and I've been in the role for just over a year. While I am new to the Alliance, I am not new to the arts, to arts education, and to serving communities through the arts.

I've had a lifelong commitment and deep passion for working in arts education and arts Administration. I'm originally from Atlanta, Georgia, and I consider myself a lifelong learner. I have a Master's in Business Administration from Emory University, and I'm also working on doctoral studies in social justice leadership.

So excited to bring my experiences and passion and academic pursuit to bear on the work that we do at the Alliance. Joining me today are three colleagues, Gail Mukaihata Hannemann on my right is a longtime board member and former board chair.

Gail brings deep institutional knowledge of the Alliance and I may call on her to help me during the Q and A portion. Janis Reichman is here. Janice is an organizational consultant. She joined us in January and will be helping us move forward several important strategic initiatives.

So very grateful to have Janis' support over the next two to three years. Also, Lisa Mariam is here. Lisa is a former Director of the Hawaii alliance for Nonprofit Organizations. She currently serves as our public policy and advocacy consultant.

Lisa has been helping to shape our advocacy work this year, and she will continue working alongside us over the course of the year to launch an annual arts advocacy training program. So that will be coming up this fall. So let's jump right in.

I wanted to start with a brief history just to ground us in terms of the work that we do and how it all came about. Many of you know Alfred Preis, the renowned architect and cultural visionary behind the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

Beyond his many contributions to architecture, Price played a pivotal role in shaping Hawaii's arts and cultural landscape. In 1965, he helped establish the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and served as its first Director from 1966 to 1980.

During his tenure, he authored the landmark 1% for Art Law in 1967, making Hawaii the first state in the nation to dedicate 1% of public construction budgets to public art. After retiring from the SFCA, Preis continued his legacy by helping to found the Hawaii Arts Alliance in 1980.

It's an independent nonprofit committed to statewide arts advocacy, education, and community engagement. And this year, in fact, we're celebrating 45 years of service to Hawaii's arts and cultural community. So moving on now, I wanted to share a little bit about our mission.

And the mission at the Hawaii Arts alliance is to enrich the cultural fabric of the state by fostering creativity, supporting arts education, and advocating on the importance of the arts in our communities. Since our founding, we've played a critical role in shaping arts education policies, supporting a wide array of arts initiatives, and connecting artists, educators, and communities.

And in just a few moments, we'll share some specific examples of our work, both past and present. So why are we so passionate about this work? The answer is really quite simple. We believe that the arts are essential to Hawaii's identity, well being, and future.

So going a little bit deeper on the why, our why, why do we do this work? What drives us first, we're passionate about safeguarding Hawaii's cultural legacy. This means preserving and promoting Native Hawaiian and local cultural practices through advocacy and collaboration. To us, the arts is not a luxury. They are the living heartbeat of Hawaii.

And we're fully committed to protecting and uplifting the cultural values that make this state so unique. Second, we know the power of arts education and equity in access. We believe that every child deserves access to the arts, especially those in underserved communities.

We we're driven by a vision of equity where the arts help all students to thrive, build confidence, and connect their heritage and community. Third, we know that artists and cultural workers are a vital part of Hawaii's economy and its future.

And we work to ensure that they have the resources, training, and support they need to not only survive, but to thrive. Fourth, we believe the arts foster resilient, connected communities that the arts have the power to heal, unite, and restore, especially in times of crisis.

We are passionate about using the arts to help bring people together to celebrate our shared stories and to imagine new futures. Finally, we're passionate about protecting authentic arts experiences that honor the land, the people, and the spirit of Hawaii. We're committed to amplifying the value of arts and culture to residents, visitors and lawmakers alike.

This slide shares some of the values that are at the bedrock of our organization. I won't go through each of them specifically in the interest of time, but I would like to summarize them by saying that our values reflect a deep commitment to cultural stewardship, equity, community voice, and creative expression.

Guided by aloha, we work collaboratively to uphold uplift the arts as a vital force for education, well being, and a more just and connected Hawaii.

All right, so this slide shares a little bit about our community impact, both past and present, and it gives us a chance to share some of the work that we're doing within the communities that we serve. So starting with arts education, we partner with the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts to administer two statewide programs.

Those include the Artist in the Schools program and, new to the alliance this year, the Folk and Traditional Arts programs. In both cases, the State Foundation issued an RFP. We responded to that RFP and we won the bid to manage these programs. That's typically the process that we follow. Just a word about the two programs.

This school year, Artist in the Schools has funded 34 teaching partners serving more than 100 public and charter schools statewide. And through the FTA program, KUMU Hawaii is the single grantee in the program this year. They are educating young people and adults in traditional weaving techniques, and we're excited to partner with them this particular year.

We'll share a little bit more about the funding for both programs a little bit later in the slide deck. Going now to Arts Innovation and Incubation. The Hawaii Arts alliance has a long standing commitment to innovation and creativity in the arts through various initiatives and programs. Here we're highlighting two examples. The first is Arts First Partners.

This is a coalition of organizations dedicated to advancing arts education across the state. This is a collaborative group involving various stakeholders who work together to enhance the quality and accessibility of arts education in schools and communities. Arts First Partners was established as part of a broader movement to strengthen arts education in Hawaii.

The Arts at Mark's Garage is another example. This organization was started within the Hawaii Arts alliance, incubated for a number of years and now it runs independently. It's its own arts organization. It's a significant cultural venue and community arts center located in Honolulu's Chinatown.

And the venue includes gallery space, performance areas, studio facilities, making it a very versatile environment for artistic endeavors. Finally, I want to touch on arts advocacy and public voice. At the alliance, we believe that democracy thrives when communities are informed, engaged and empowered.

So thanks to recent grants from Creative West, we've been able to expand our advocacy efforts through community wide calls, legislative alerts and public outreach. And as I mentioned, this fall we'll be launching an arts advocacy training to even better equip artists, art supporters and community members with effective tools for civic engagement.

All right, moving now to partnerships and philanthropic investment. We're very excited to share that earlier this year the alliance was awarded new multi year funding from the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Atherton Family Foundation. The total award is $300,000 over three years and these funds are going to help us move forward. Four important priorities for the Alliance.

The first, strategic and operational planning. We're planning to develop and implement a three to five year strategic plan with annual work plans that align the Alliance's direction with community needs, funding priorities and organizational growth. The second priority, developing a financial model. This work is important.

We intend to create a sustainable financial model to support effective resource management, funding diversification, always critical for small nonprofits, and to strengthen the Alliance's long term viability. Priority 3 Arts Advocacy and community engagement. Again, a very important priority for us.

We will continue to expand our advocacy efforts and grassroots engagement to influence policy, raise public awareness and build stronger partnerships that support arts and culture across Hawaii. And then the final priority, arts innovation. We shared a couple of examples on the earlier slide. This work will go forward.

We intend to support and pilot new creative initiatives that drive artistic evolution foster community connection and enrich Hawaii's diverse cultural landscape. All right, let's go now to a funding overview, and I'd like for the Committee to take a look at this slide.

I'm going to walk through these numbers, and I'll be happy to answer any questions that may follow. So the numbers that you see here are based on our current fiscal year, which follows the school year runs from July 1 through June 30.

Our total estimated revenue for this year, which is the first bar that you see, the dark blue, is just under $969,000. However, if you look at the middle bar, the teal green, you'll see that just over $656,000 passes through the alliance to the AITS teaching partners.

Those are the 34 artists and arts organizations that are conducting residencies across the state. In a similar fashion, the smallest bar on the right, that represents the $50,000 that passes through our organization to Ke Kumu Hawaii, the grantee in the program this year.

So just wanted to make sure the Committee is aware of how SFCA funds move through the alliance. Typically, we retain between 10 and 14% of the total dollars awarded, and those funds cover our costs to administer the programs. All right, I think we're almost at the very end, and in fact, this is the last slide.

And after this, we can finish. Pause for questions. In closing, we just wanted to respond to Chair Kapela's invitation to discuss how we might work together in the future. And we're excited about that opportunity. We're very open to partnering with you for greater community impact.

We believe it's important that together, we uphold what heals and inspires our communities. We know that the arts bring healing, joy, hope, especially in difficult times. And we want to work with you to protect the arts and to make our communities all the more resilient. We're very interested at the alliance in listening and responding to community needs.

And through our strategic planning work, we're actually kicking off today the first in a series of statewide listening sessions where we're hearing directly from artists, educators, and community Members. We're committed to listening first and being responsive in terms of solutions and services that can help meet community needs.

And finally, we want to work with you to invest in a stronger future. We know that public investment in the arts is a smart people centered strategy. And we believe together we can grow a creative economy that benefits everyone across Hawaii. Okay, I'll pause here, and we can open up for questions and further discussion.

Okay, thank you so much. We're actually going to roll into the the State Foundation's presentation, and then we're going to take questions at the very end.

Okay.

I was told that the Commission is within the foundation and within their PowerPoint. So we'll take the two of you together. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, gang.

Chair, may I?

Yes.

We have two people without name tags. I'd just like to introduce the Vice Speaker, Linda Ichiyama, and Majority Leader Sean Quinlan. Finance Chair Chris Tal. Sorry, didn't you stuck in. But they are just interested to hear what you have to say. And they joined us. Yes. Thank you.

Give us a minute here. Okay, so really quickly, at the end of this presentation, I'm going to attempt to play a video, so bear with me. I have to wear these. Let's see here. That's why I brought my glasses.

Okay. Are we good over there? Okay, perfect. Thank you. Good morning. It's so good to see all of you here today. I want to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to speak about the work the State Foundation does and then as well as King Kamehameha Celebration Commission. My name is Karen Ewald.

I am the Executive Director for the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. Brief history of myself. I've been with the State Foundation, this August will be 11 years. And for eight of the 11 years, I was the Art and Public Places Director and the Director of the Museum.

It's been an honor to work in the, in such an incredible agency. And thank you again. I'm going to go first, and then Amy's going to go. Right. Okay. So, again, thank you so much for the invitation to be here today. I'm here with a few slides to talk about the work that we do and the budget and the work that we want to do in the future with all of you. So we are the state government's arts agency.

We were established in 1965. There are around that same time, there were a lot of establishments of state arts agencies. There are currently 50 states arts agencies and 6 territories and jurisdiction agencies as well. So the mission is to promote, perpetuate, preserve culture and the arts in Hawaii. We serve the entire State of Hawaii, and we are proud of that.

Now what we do is we are guided by our strategic plan. So every four years, there's a strategic plan that we engage the community with to develop. This is our current strategic plan. But there's one coming up very soon, as you know, that will inform our future for the next five years, four years.

But this plan was given by a lot of input from the community. We had a lot of meetings across the state a few years ago and basically came up with the main strategic priorities. To support, foster, and celebrate artistic expressions of Hawaii's diverse cultures and communities.

To enhance public engagement in culture and the arts. To strengthen arts education for all learners, and to enrich the public sphere through the arts. The things that are coming out of current strategic planning initiatives are arts education and more engagement. But we can talk about that at the next briefing.

We are attached to Department of Accounting General Services, and we have a talented and dedicated staff of 21 folks with just one vacancy right now. We are funded as well, and I'll get into that later, by the National Endowment for the Arts. We're currently waiting for that partnership agreement.

And as you know, the landscape's a little shaky right now. Okay, so what we do, we do a lot. We have our Art in Public Places Program where we administer, where we steward the public art collection throughout the entire state. There are initiatives to rotate the art throughout the entire State of Hawaii.

So that is something that's robust, as well as in the capital. We also run the museum Capitol Modern, which we've had an incredible success running with, just to date, many, many exhibits, 35 plus programs, and it's over almost 62,000 attendees. When we have our evening events, we can get up to 1600 folks, and it's fantastic.

So that's our Art Public Places Program in a nutshell. With that we can serve, take care of, transport, display, all of that. On the other end, we have our grants and programs programs. So we have the Artists in the Schools Program, which Gabe mentioned, that we've been running for many, many years.

That's to have engagement with classrooms and teaching artists to, through arts education, work with schools to fill that kind of gap that the DOE has right now. We also have the apprentice mentoring grants, which Gaye mentioned as well. This is where we, through federal funds and general funds, administer to have practitioners continue their practice through apprenticeships or cohorts.

We have been doing a new initiative with neurodivergent programming. It's gotten a lot of great feedback. A lot of folks are saying that it's really filling that kind of need for folks who, for children who have neurodivergent issues. We partnered with Honolulu Theater for Youth on that, and we're going to continue to try to do that. We also have our Scholastic Arts Awards.

We fly in the children from the neighbor islands to celebrate them. And then Community Arts Grants, as well as the Hawaii State Poet Laureate Program, Statewide Cultural Extension Program. That program is where artists go into underserved areas, rural areas, rest homes, libraries, sometimes correctional facilities to engage those stakeholders in there.

And then our new program that we've been launching with in partnership with some really talented people is Hawaii Open Arts Program, HOA, which is an ‘Āina based arts program serving grades two through six. And that is also statewide. I think that's it.

You're going to talk more about this later, but we are, I think it was 2017, it was not too long ago that legislatively the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission was attached to the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. It has helped us increase, even though we could always do more, our communication with each other.

We do fund them or we do provide funds for the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission. Because The King Kamehameha statues throughout the state, we help them to keep conserved, cleaned, ready for the parade or for the celebrations. But you'll talk about more of that later.

So Gabe kind of went into this as well, so I don't need to get too in depth on this, but it really does. I really wanted to ensure that this was a slide where... And, you know, I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I definitely want to ensure that we all understand that the arts are a backbone of innovation. They're very necessary for social awareness, community understanding, you know, all of those great things.

Arts education is important, and really just the arts is a strong economic driver. And we really want to ensure to know that the money that we put into the community really does expand beyond that. This is our current budget for FY 25. What we do have are basically three big budgets.

We have the Works of Art Special Fund. Currently, this is what it is. We are funded by the NEA with federal funds. Fingers crossed. And then we have our state general funds. So within the bucket, we administer the funds accordingly. And understanding that the Works of Art Funds restricted, we work to do what we can with that.

In addition, I just wanted to put it out there because we talked about this as well yesterday, Rep. Kapela. We are looking forward to exploring new revenue streams, including potential cultural trust. So that's looking forward. So we wanted to talk about our strengths and weaknesses.

You know, our strengths. We have a lot of strengths. Really it is the community that we serve. Knowing that we have a dialogue with them where they can come to us with issues that they have that we're doing and how we can further help them. The strategic plan really helps with that.

We have an amazing collection of contemporary arts, and we really chose to initiate a few years ago, upping the ante on acquiring works of art from Native Hawaiian contemporary artists, which has been fantastic. And the museum has been a really strong point for us to be able to gather new creatives of all kinds.

Film, music, weaving, you know, all of the different art forms. We've been able to provide a space for that, and we've been able to provide a space for communities that sometimes can be attacked, like the LGBTQ community and places, things like that. So it's been really a really great space for people to feel safe and gather.

And I'd say, really, right now, our weaknesses lie in just the current federal funding landscape, pivoting with the new, with the funding that we have in the future from the state. That's all stuff that we find, maybe not so much weaknesses, but challenges that we have to kind of pivot with.

And also just many of you know this. Staff turnover, you know, we don't have, the pay scale can be low for state workers. Filling vacant positions is difficult with DHRD. So that's a kind of a big weakness. Although right now we have a pretty full staff, so everybody stay. Wait, how come it's not going now?

Oh, there you go. So, yeah, our opportunity is especially strengthening communication with all of you and seeing what we can do together in the future for the arts and culture community throughout the state. We really look forward to that. Also speaking with community stakeholders, making sure that we engage with the community as much as we can.

Physical engagement is, like, really important to us. Expanding our reach. We'd like to. And, you know, if we have, with whatever resources we have, how can we get creative to expand that reach and also have conversations like cultural trust or other sources of funding. And advancing operationalization, the SFCA's equity goals, ensuring that we are reaching everybody, you know, we want to...

One initiative I'd like to do is reach the Pacific communities, the diaspora communities throughout the State of Hawaii and see what we can do more with that, with those groups. And, yeah, you know, the potential threat, reductions in funding, staff turnover, natural disasters. So, yeah. Yes. Kind of in line with what Gaye was saying.

How can we work together? How can you help us? Let's continue the conversation, strengthen relationships, share knowledge. You know, let's engage together with constituents in the field and just continue to stay informed with each other. I want to continue to stay informed with all of you on the federal situation currently.

Again, like I said, we don't have a partnership agreement. We should have had one by now. So there's still that kind of uncertainty. Oh, okay. So I wanted to try to do this. I'm probably going to need help again. This is the last slide, but I'm setting this up because we did partake in the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture last year. Was it last year? Yeah.

And we were really proud of being able to do what we did with additional federal funding at that time, as well as the funding source that we had, to just bring together the community of Native Hawaiian contemporary artists and curators and also bring together to what Gaye was speaking and I was before.

The cohorts, this was Ke Kumu Hawaii. This is Kumulāʻau and Haunani Sing and their ʻieʻie weaving cohorts and how we were able to contract with them to bring in their works and really engage with the community on that. So it kind of just shows the fruition of the work that we do with even small funding, federal funding that we have and. Yeah. So here we go. I'm going to try. Give me a minute. I'm looking at you. Right. Oh, and then I have to do it on the Vimeo, right? Hold on just a second.

Thank you. I think I need to share again. Audio share. Yeah. Don't worry, it's only a minute long.

In the beginning was the void. And the void was spirit, energy becoming sound. And the sound was black. And the black was wingless vibrations and the constant hum of voices calling the universe into being.

Tonight, what we have in store for Festival of the Pacific Arts and Culture here at Capitol Modern is we've opened up brand new exhibition spaces of contemporary and traditional Hawaiian art. This year, we'll have 28 delegations come to Hawaii. And we're just so honored and excited to have all of these wonderful Pacific communities come join Hawaii and really share knowledge and space.

If we do not chant in our language, they will not feel the magic of words in the womb. If we do not tell our stories, they will not breathe.

Thank you for that. Thank you very much, guys, for the patience. I think at this point...

I want to say thank you. Thank you so much. We invite you to not only just visit us at Capital Modern, but also invite us to the things that you guys are doing and also come to—I want to communicate more about the things that we're doing in the field and ensure that you guys know about that.

And if you'd like to attend and engage that that's something that we really want to do, whether it be listening sessions or our scholastics art and writing awards or the things that we—dedication ceremonies—things that, that we want to do in the future with you. So, thank you very much.

Thank you so much. And we'll toss it over.

Mahalo. My name is Amy Hammond and I'm the Executive Director of the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission. This is a commission that's comprised of 15 different Hawaiian community groups.

It's the Royal Order of Kamehameha the first, the Ahahui Kaahumanu Haleonaali Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors, Mama Kakaua Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association, Kapahulu Music Club, Waimanalo Hawaiian Homes Association, Papakalea Community Association, and then representatives from all the islands including Hawaii Island, Maui, Kauai, Lanai, and Molokai.

Today, I'll be sharing my stage with our Chair, who's Kainoa Danes. He's a cultural expert with the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and Oahu Tourism and—I'm sorry, Oahu Visitors Bureau—he's our current Chair.

And Beverly Lee, who is a previous Pa'u Queen and manages all of our Pa'u activities on the Commission, she's going to be our incoming Chair. So, I believe they're both online as well that may want to contribute some information for you.

Essentially, in addition to this being our 15 member-appointed organization, what we do is really oversee the perpetuation of the legacy of King Kamehameha the First and try to promote the events that we organize all the events statewide, which there are 13 this year taking place. Those are listed on our website.

I can go through them individually if you like, but in order to save time, essentially letting you know that there are three different statues, so there are three different lei drapings, there are parades on all of the islands and...so, it really takes an army of volunteers to put these kinds of events together.

And they'll be kicking off here in just about two weeks. In addition to what we do as far as our organization, we feel like really these events are an opportunity for cultural practitioners to practice their art, and we are grateful that we get funding from State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

I've only been with the Commission for about six years. My position was actually formed through legislative grant, or for funding—or legislative monies for funding. And I'm a one person department.

So, I do rely heavily on folks like SIMA, who are here with us today, the administrative staff, to support some of the work that I do as well, which is really kind of, like I said, overseeing all of these events.

We meet monthly to discuss the execution of the events and various things that happen in the Hawaiian community. Really the vision of the Commission is to perpetuate Hawaiian culture, and as the landscape changes over time, it has become more difficult.

The hotels used to have lots of money, they could in invest in things that would be for visitors. We feel very strongly, you know, that this is not only a visitor attraction for these activities, but this is really for the local community.

And again, like I said, for these folks that are Pa'u riders or if Hawaiian language speakers, so we want to give opportunities at the events for people to practice these cultural traditions, and if they don't happen, then these, these legacies may die.

As I mentioned, in the activities that we do, Pa'u is a huge part of what we do, and that's why, again, having Beverly Lee be our Chair this year, I think incoming is going to be a great opportunity for us.

We don't get a whole lot of funding other than the funding that we secure from the State Foundation, and that has been primarily for engagement with our statues and then having opportunities for people to attend and participate, and while they're there at these events, there's hula, there's oli being performed.

We're translating things into Hawaiian language and broadcasting those on formats such as olelo. We do want to try to keep those kinds of things happening. Again, like I said, as the changing landscape HTA, it's been challenging for us because that funding does get cut back.

And over the years, each of these individual activities, so, again, I mentioned there are 13, each of those individual entities has to pursue their own funding. And so, they're going out and not only getting from Hawaii Tourism Authority, but also trying to seek funds from sponsors.

But you know, we do want to try to protect that so that it's not as though we're going to have a banner hung, you know, strung between the arms of the statue. We want to protect how those sponsorships are presented to the community.

And so, that does make it a little more challenging for us to get funding. In an ideal world, we would get a lump sum of money that these events could utilize. Another area that we do struggle with is some of the statue preservation, as Karen mentioned.

They do a lot of the cleaning, take care of some of the restoration work, and making sure that that is up to date. We currently are now because the state is not really able to care for the mound here in Honolulu as effectively as we would like to see it done.

I think a lot of the people that work at the, you know, taking care of the, the statue itself are more like groundskeepers, they're not necessarily landscapers. So, sometimes the grass is not green or the bushes have lots of weeds in them. And so, we're trying to—we got support to get funding to separately have a landscape person that comes in to help oversee.

So, that can be really nice because it is one of the number one visitor attractions here in the state. So, primarily, like I said, we don't have any general funding. It's just my salary that is funded, which is minimal.

But I'm grateful for the opportunity and the opportunity to work with this group of amazing individuals and volunteers. And like I said, an army of volunteers, really. Thank you.

Thank you. I guess we'll open it up to questions, and if anyone has a question of the Hawaii Arts Alliance, we can call them back up as well. So, just note who your question is for. But with that, I guess we'll start with the Foundation, since you're here. Members, are there any questions?

Okay, I have a couple of questions. I would really like to understand how you plan on utilizing the Special Fund moving forward. The $3 million allocated yearly, what is the plan for that, and is there a spending plan?

Yes, we're currently working on that plan, but what we're finding coming out of that is understanding that it's for Commission and acquisition of works of art. We, we will do just that. The issue is—well, it's not so much an issue.

We just have to keep in mind we, on average, will spend 1.5 to 1.6 million in acquisition commissions of works of art. So, we won't be utilizing—we don't anticipate utilizing the whole 3.3, but that's—those are the preliminary numbers that we have going forward right now, and that's what we're working out.

You won't be—I think one of the things that I'm concerned about is that you're not going to be getting more money unless you spend the money. So, I'm wondering if there's, if—I recognize you maybe you spend 1.5 or 1.3, but how are you planning on spending more?

Are there other opportunities that you folks can use or other artists that you can reach out to that are local?

That is something we're looking into for sure, Rep. 100%. But that's currently where we're at right now. We're just looking at the numbers, what we usually spend. We do understand that the funds don't get lost if we don't use them, but we don't want to—we'd love to utilize the funds to the full extent and that—and I hear you on finding other ways to fund even more artists, like Commission more or whatever.

We're not saying no to that at all. That's on the table.

Okay. Okay. Because I think one of the things is we can look at what we've done and what it has been, but I think we also have to look about what are we going to do moving forward and how are we going to do it differently in order to spend more money on specific things.

I'm 100% with you on that.

I think one of the things, like the capital pools, I think, is such a great example of a large sum of money being utilized to beautify a state building and to enhance a state building, and that was much more than 1.5.

Oh, yeah.

So, my question is, how do we do more of those types of projects at our state buildings, like state hospitals, or? Because I have two in my district or one is just outside of my district and the other is also on Hawaii Island. The hospital has recently reached out asking for what is your process?

So, that they can, as a state building, have a large statue. What does that look like? So, maybe you can maybe explain that to the Committee. What is the process for someone who wants to get a piece commissioned?

Sure. So, right now, we don't have a lot of open commissions, but that does not mean that—and with this dialogue, I'm finding that we should, we need to dialogue more with, with each other on what is in your district and how can we help?

Typically, in the, there is the, say with airports or with the hospitals or with schools, the head of those divisions determines what the priority is for works for a commission works of art. Because we haven't had a lot of commissions currently, we hadn't engaged with those folks yet on what the priorities are, but I think it also, it's something like even with UH, like where, what campus should get a work of art next? That comes from the President, right?

But I do think it's good to engage with you guys on what you're seeing in your districts as well.

Now, when that happens, when there's determined to have this library from the state librarian to have the next work of art, we then form an Art Advisory Committee and it's stakeholders from that area, cultural consultants, facility users, and we try to bring in youth as well to form this Art Advisory Committee to then inform what kind of work of art you want.

They feel they want the theme or the vibe of the work of art and the scale, what really works. It's all the community-based decision making is what they decide. So, yeah, but I'm glad you brought up the hospitals. And, you know, for all of you in your districts, what is it that, that you're seeing pukas and where we can, we can, we can utilize those funds to do that.

Yeah. So, just so I'm clear, so if there's for like a state building or for the airport, that department head needs to notify you folks and then a Commission is created?

Right. We reach out to them to let us know what, what they, yeah.

Okay, so they reach out to you, then you reach out to them and then you form the Commission. What does that, what does that timeline look like?

We try to do it as efficiently as possible for sure, but it could take up to a year, in terms of having those——there's a series of meetings that you have, which is, you know, the orientation meeting, the design meeting, the selection of the artists. We do an open call for artists.

They determine if they want only Hawaii artists or if they want to go national. So, within that, all those meetings, then after the artist is contracted, then they work with that artist to ensure that the artist is being, and then we support off to the site.

So, ideally a year, but sometimes it takes longer due to situations like even Kona Airport, right, there is construction delay, so the beautiful tile mural is delayed, but we make sure that we're on top of that, but sometimes there's due to unforeseen circumstances, it's not as long or it takes longer.

Does that make sense?

Yeah.

Yes. Do all of these department heads and hospitals and schools, do they know to reach out to you folks?

I don't know, actually. I should—that's a great question. I think that that's something that we need to refresh for sure, especially with the changing in funding. Right? 100%. Yeah.

Because I think it's important for us to be able to focus on those opportunities for local artists because that's a way that we can get work for those artists and then also I'm hearing that there's this gap between the—in the process. So if, from your perspective, is there a way that we can support that gap?

Is there legislation that should be introduced?

You know, that's another great question. I think that we should talk about that for sure. I don't know off the top of my head if there's a way to fill the gap legislatively, but I know administratively we can work to do that. But—yeah, that's a really great question.

Okay. Members, are there other questions? Oh, yes. Vice speaker.

Thank you very much for being here. I appreciate your presentation. So, just following up on that, how do you prioritize which facilities? I mean, is there a waiting list or?

No. They—the heads of the departments are the ones that prioritize, and it depends on how much in the budget we have, I guess. So, if they're—and this has not happened for some time, which, hence the gap.

There—if there are like five facilities that are requesting a commissioned work of art and we only have so much in the budget, we need to just prioritize. Usually it's by the year or, like, who's asking first, right? Because it doesn't all come—it hasn't all come at once as often. Does that make sense?

So, it's like a first in?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, we always want to ensure that we're paying attention to the underserved communities and the rural communities, but, yeah.

And then, is there a standard by which you determine when a facility needs a commissioned work of art versus art that's already in collection that you would put there?

Oh, you mean like a relocatable work of art?

Right. Or do you say, like, okay, these are the circumstances under which we will commission a work of art for this place, versus bringing in something we already have?

When it comes to relocatable works of art, with a commissioned work of art that's put into the ground, it remains there. I mean, it's put into the ground with the option of being able to take it back out if necessary. Right? That happens sometimes when construction happens and all that.

But typically, with the relocatable works of art, that's a whole other thing with the 2D and 3D works, we're constantly rotating and filling. So, when it comes to commissioning a work of art, we want to start fresh most of the time. And not so much us, but the community actually, for that matter.

They want to have the look and feel and vibe of what their community is with this work of art. Does that make sense?

Yes. I'm just thinking of like at my school, they have large 3D sculptures that are attached to buildings.

Right.

Right, and that's part of the State Foundation and their collection. I don't know how many of those large sculptures that you attach to buildings you have.

I know, and I think that was a Commission as well, not a relocatable, right, purchase, so.

I guess what's the criteria between relocatable versus commission?

So, that's a great question too. So, relocatable works of art, the way that we acquire those are to go to gallery shows and exhibitions throughout the state and again, bring together a community-based decision making model with visual arts consultants that we facilitate. And those works of art are, there's a process to that, but the ones that come out of that gathering are then sent to the board for approval, approved and then put into the community, right?

So, it's kind of two separate tracks in a way where there's that happening and then the Commission works of art are obviously longer term and more of a process.

Right? So, what determines the priority of that? Like I said before, it's like based on the budget that we have and then the requests coming in from the Department heads and then to Rep. Kapela's point, there needs to—if people are asking and not knowing how to engage with us on those works of art being commissioned in communities, then that is something that we need to work on, especially with the fund, right.

Thank you for clarifying. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Speaker. Just following up on that a little bit more. Is there a place, is there a wait list or a place where we can see what's currently in the pipeline to be commissioned and for the public to be able to see that?

Yeah, yeah. It's very small right now, but I can definitely share it. Yeah.

Okay. Is that on the website?

It's not on the website.

So it's not public?

It's not public, no, no. But I mean, I don't see why we wouldn't be able to make it public. Yeah.

Okay. I had another question. I guess related to this is, and the relocatable works of arts, is when you go to some of these galleries, how do artists reach you folks? Because I have gotten a couple of complaints about requests for you folks to come and visit these galleries without ever going. So, it's kind of being—I don't know, I think people are feel like you pick and choose who you want to support.

That's interesting. So, for the, for many years now, especially with me administering the fund, we, unless there are resources that are thinned or in terms of funding, but more so actually human resources, like being able to actually fly across the state and conduct these art advisory, art acquisition, selection committees, that would limit our ability to go to all of the requests.

But we have—our intention is to honor, is to bring forward to the board for approval all requests. So, if there are people who are questioning that and concerned, I'd love to talk with them and see where, if there are any issues.

But our intention is to go to everyone. That doesn't mean that out of those visits that the Committee that we formulate will come out with a work of art that's recommended. 99.9% of the time, there are works of art that are recommended out of those visits, but that's not a guarantee.

So, yeah, if there are concerns, I'd love to know more about that. Does that make?

Yeah, and it's, is it possible, I think in the future maybe, to create like a way that people on the neighbor islands may be able to have more access to that?

Yeah.

Maybe it's a virtual thing where you can set up a consultation and then eventually, if you have a handful of them, because it is expensive, you're talking about maybe $200 round trip.

Yeah.

On the two airlines that fly neighbor island.

On the two islands that fly. Yeah.

So, to be able to have a process that I think allows more neighbor island, native Hawaiian, local, rural folks to be able to participate in that and get their art seen at an easier rate for the Commission, I think, or for the Foundation, I think would be helpful.

Yeah, I totally agree with that. And we can definitely do that. In fact, when I was saying earlier about our intention to do more in person gatherings and Zoom ones as well, we should—I'd love to fold that into a special session. You know, I do hear that here and there that there is some—there are questions and a little confusion on how to get into the collection or how to engage with us, you know, so I think that's a really good suggestion that I will—that we will do.

And then, one more question on this specific topic is you mentioned that there's—you don't just want to buy more art and keep it in storage, and we don't want that either. We want it to be out there in the public in these buildings that are requesting it and that are state buildings.

But also, I'm wondering—a couple of years ago, there was a conversation about what about private entities or buildings that, like banks or hotels, that want to rent or have an, or be able to pay for the opportunity to house some of these arts in these public spaces as well, with money that's going to the foundation.

Right.

Where are you in that conversation? Is that happening? Can that happen?

I remember that being a conversation, I believe, with Representative Tam, and it was a good conversation to have with him. I think that—we didn't continue that afterwards, so we should. I think the problematic nature of that measure was just the Special Fund usage and the money going in and coming out or whatever.

But that's something I think that can be discussed more. We do have a loan program. It's not a program that we charge people, but there are galleries that request—actually throughout the world—that request works of art from our collection to be on display for whatever shows they're putting on.

So, we even, gosh, what is the museum in Australia, they're requesting—oh, no, the British Museum now, not the museum—the British Museum is requesting to have on loan a Kapa Moe by Bernice Akamine, who recently passed away, and it's an incredible work of art.

So, we do have that ability to loan with all the parameters and legalities, but in terms of, you know, revenue generating, yeah, that's something that we can talk about, you know.

I think it's worth it to talk about that because I think we need to find new ways to fund the Foundation and its many endeavors. And I think that that's a really easy way to do that. Okay. Other questions for Foundation?

I did just want to give the opportunity, if possible, for Kainoa Danes or Beverly Lee. I didn't really transition to them if they wanted to say anything, but hopefully they're still online here, but they may want to add something.

Amy, thank you.

Oh, there's Kainoa.

Thank you.

Hi. Aloha, Chair Kapela, Vice Chair Kong, and Members. Sorry, I'm calling in from home. I'm on paternity leave. Just welcomed a brand new baby girl a week and a day ago. So, sorry I couldn't be there in person.

Mahalo, Karen and Amy for sharing more about the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission, specifically, which I have involved with since 2007, appointed by Governor Lingo in 2009 to be Chair and then appointed again later by Abercrombie and Ige. So, I've been involved for a few years.

The Commission was originally founded in 1939 to celebrate and honor the legacy and memory of King Kamehameha. That's the primary focus. And of all the wonderful events that Amy's referring to, our main signature event as a State Commission is the statue lei draping in Honolulu there, in front of Alii Olanihale.

And as Amy mentioned, that statue is in desperate need of repair and aloha. It is part of the State Foundation's art and public places, so it's owned by the state. The other statue, we only actually own two, the other is the one in Kohala.

That's the original statue that was commissioned by King Kalakaua that sank off the Falkland Islands in the 1880s with insurance and the statue was created. That's the one in Honolulu. The statue in Hilo was actually created by the Princeville Corporation. The people of Kauai felt that Kamehameha never stepped foot on the island of Kauai, so, how dare we erect a statue of him on the island?

So, it was the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association, East Hawaii Chapter, Hilo Region, that took the statue in and have it in Hilo. And the Statue in Washington D.C. is a replica of the Honolulu statues. There are the four main statues.

The statue of the Grand Wailea on Maui is private property. We don't have anything to do with that Kamehameha statue. And in the future, we'd love to see one on Maui in Lahaina somewhere, for future thought. But again, the focus of the Commission is to celebrate and honor our great king. It is a body of volunteers.

As Amy mentioned, her salary was only added to the General Fund a few years ago. It took me three sessions with hearings to get some funding from the salary—for her salary from the General Fund. I remember one of the House Committee meetings, I think the Lieutenant Governor was the Chair back then of the House Finance Committee.

And asking the House Finance Committee, how many of you have to find salaries for your staff members, especially a group of volunteers. And so, those are the kind of trials and tribulations that we've been facing at the Commission. We have one staff person and a group of stalwart volunteers, mostly Kupuna, lovingly Kupuna.

But it is a challenge, in general, with a lack of funding. And so, seeing any funding getting allocated elsewhere, especially our funding from the State Foundation, is at a detriment to celebrate and honor our king on a state holiday, state statue. Yeah. So, I think it really is the state's Kuleana to step up.

We're, again, there's Beverly, our incoming Chair. I'm happily stepping down at the end of June. Mahalo to term limits. But I think it's vitally important for us to honor our king, our great unifier. Another House Committee meeting many, many moons ago, I brought everybody the Hawaii State quarter. I think I was within bribery guidelines.

I wasn't trying to bribe the Committee, but I asked everybody to flip the quarter over, and who's on the back of our state quarter representing every single one of us here in Hawaii? King Kamehameha. And I think it's important for us to continue to celebrate his memory and honor.

With potential general funding, again, it took an arm and a leg just to get Amy's salary and to get a few new Commission seats. So, the general funding, I was often told, don't even bother, you're going to be told no. But again, it's a state holiday and a state celebration. Why the state's not more involved financially.

You know, again, mahalo to State Foundation for Culture in the Arts. I don't know if they're in the room, but mahalo to the Hawaii Tourism Authority when they do through their granting process and procedures and fund paperwork. But it is, I think, behooving us as a state entity to receive funding from the state to support that statue.

When was the last time you went to the statue? The mound is crumbling, as Amy mentioned, the weeds are taking over the Naupaka. Old pictures which I don't have readily available, there was once fencing around it. We're noticing that tour companies are bringing large tour groups.

And I do work for the, you know, not speaking on behalf of, but I do work for the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and know the schedule of tour buses that pull in front of our statue every day.

We had a recent incident where a group of Kamehameha students' buses pulled up to offer lei to the statue and then another company pulled in shortly thereafter and their tourists, their, their, their customers trampled all over the lei and the bus driver—oh, we do this all the time, you know, and so things like that, is that really honoring our past and our heritage by allowing those kinds of things to happen.

So, it's much more than putting on a parade. We do love that. We do love the parade.

We do love the cultural traditions that the parades provide through Pa'u and other cultural practices. My great grandfather was the Maui representative for the Royal Order of Kamehameha and ran the parades on Mau, Mr. Sam Alo, whose granddaughter works for Senator Kanuha Poni. That's her grandfather, Auntie Poni.

Anyway, not name dropping, but she's not in office anyway today. But for me, it's a familial thing for me to continue the tradition of celebrating our moi. As Amy mentioned, 15 seats. I do represent the Royal Order of Kamehameha, so it's part of our mission and objective to celebrate our king. So, very passionate.

Again, only because of term limits, I'm stepping off as Chair but will continue to kokua for the rest of my life with the lei draping with the parade and advocating for the legacy in memory of our king, whether it's through statues or other events that we can lend our support to.

With that, if Beverly, our incoming chair, July 1, if she has anything to share, if that's okay, or I yield back to the Committee.

Thank you. Beverly, if you have anything to say, please.

Oh, oh, thank you, Representative. I, I have been with the Kamehameha Commission also for quite a while. I also participated in the parades from the late 80s up until the early 2000s. I totally agree with Kainoa, he has set it off. But I love this Commission and it is our cultural responsibility to take care of this.

This is our king and would have been king. So, you know, I just want to ask for all the assistance that we can get because I've been volunteering and it's a non-paying job that—all these years. But I love it and I wouldn't do anything else. Thank you.

Thank you so much, both of you for being here and for sharing. Kainoa, thank you so much for your service as Chair. It is very appreciated. Amy, I appreciate you for being here as well.

It's nice to hear a little bit more about the work that you folks are doing and how we can better support you through, hopefully, through the foundation and as the Legislature as well. I appreciate your work.

Appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

Yes, please. Representative Reyes Oda.

This question is about the King Kamehameha Commission. I'm a proud Hawaiian. I live in Ewa for almost 20 years and prior to working in this building, I worked for almost 10 years in Nanakuli High and Inter, which is in the middle of Hawaiian Homestead in the beautiful valley out there on the west side.

And, you know, from what I've been looking at, the largest raw number of native Hawaiians in this state live on the Waianae coast. I've been trying to look right now, but I haven't been able to pull up the 2023 numbers. But everything that I looked at, it shows over and over, you know, from Nanakuli all the way to Makaha, has the largest number of native Hawaiians. What are your thoughts on considering?

Sorry, earlier you said that this, this celebration was about perpetuating Hawaiian culture, not just for tourists, but for locals, which is, to me, extremely important because the perpetuation of our culture has to be with our locals and our Hawaiians here.

But what are your thoughts on considering perpetuating Hawaiian culture and celebrations, such like this, in an area most populated by local native Hawaiians in the future? Meaning I'm looking at, on Oahu, the locations are Ali'Iolani, which is across the street from Iolani palace and Kapiolani Park. And so, everything is out here in town.

And I grew up in town. I graduated from McKinley. I love being out here in town. But the native Hawaiians, you know, even for schools, for the students that want to continue to go to high school, for Kulaka puni, for Hawaiian immersion, they have to come to town.

And everything seems to be that we're shipping the Hawaiians from the west side out to town. But for something like this, what are your thoughts on considering doing events where the Hawaiians are at?

I think there's definitely an opportunity. As I said, most of the events are run by volunteers, so they gather the funding, they gather the manpower. We can endorse those activitie, so, that's definitely something that we could present to the Commission. I think it's a great idea because you're right.

And many of the people that are participating, participating in our parade are coming from the west side of the island. So, I think it's definitely, you know, something that we could present and discuss in our Commission meetings.

Thank you.

Can I add—sorry, I don't know how to do that nicely with a Zoom. Sorry.

Please, go ahead. Go ahead.

Yeah. So, as Amy mentioned, all of the events are put on by community organizations, volunteer organizations. What would be amazing is if that area decided to, whether it's a civic club, Homestead Association, wanted to have their, have a celebration out on that side that is equally their Kuleana, to be able to celebrate and create their own space out there, the Commission really is just to oversee and maintain and kind of like Amy said, endorse, give permissions.

But the Commission itself isn't actively putting on any one specific event, but we would happily and love to work with those organizations.

We have looked at different seats on the Commission to represent a bigger group, but as I mentioned, took me a couple legislative sessions just to add the Daughters of Hawaii and the Island of Lanai. But having that would be really up to the community to some extent.

One of the very first parades that took place in 1872, after the holiday was proclaimed by King Kamehameha V, was in Makaha. There was a parade put on by the Holt family. The Auntie Kumahola Vicky Holt Akamine likes to share with me often, but her ohana put on a parade back in the 1870s for years on that side of the island.

And I think a lot of it was just pulled in because that's where the capital is, was, at the time. So, a lot of the events stayed in town.

But we welcome community input to have events on the west side, on the east side. You know, I'm out here in Kailua. It'd be lovely to have something out here in Kailua or Kaneohe, something on the north shore here on Oahu. On the island of Hawaii, it's only Kohala, Hilo, and Kona. What about Kau'u?

And I mean, so really it's the community and with the support of the, of the Legislature and your constituents to be able to—kind of like Karen's, like, people don't know that they can, you know, about the art situation. Same, you know, come chat with the Commission, chat with Amy.

And we would be happy to help support events that the community would like to put on in their area, you know, for them, by them. You know, as I mentioned, I work for the visitor, work within the visitor industry, but I'm all about creating events for us, by us, and allowing opportunity for those who want to participate, to participate.

But I think that. I'm not sure if that's the answer you were looking for, but I think it really, it's up to the community to be able to put on the event and then we can be there to support as best as possible. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. You know, I'm hearing from this conversation that we may need more King Kamehameha statues, which could be really great ways to spend some of that money to Commission new art.

And if I may, really quick, Chair, you know, speaking to it, Kainoa said maybe as part of these gatherings and information sessions, we pull in KKCC to also inform the public, so, but yes.

And the Legislature.

And the Legislature.

Amy, thank you again. I'm going to ask you and...to switch seats.

Members, are there any questions for the Hawaii Arts Alliance? Okay, I have a couple, mainly around the Artists in the Schools program. Okay. One of the things that you've mentioned is that you get a specific amount about just over 600,000 for 34 teaching artists. That's right. On the website it says that there's.

Each teaching artist gets $8,000 within, potentially an extra 500 for professional development. Even when I pull out the number, the 65,000 that you take for administrative costs, that doesn't align, the numbers don't match up. Can you explain that a little bit more to me? And where is that extra? What is it? I think it's like 300,000.

Sure, sure. And if I may, Rep. Kapela, I'm going to share my screen and just show you some additional data that will give you a sense of the current picture. I will admit that our website is not the most up to date.

It is among our task list to go in and do a full refresh of the website. So you're probably looking at some dated number. But let me just take a moment to pull up the PowerPoint again and I'll give you some information about the current numbers. So let's take a look at this slide.

Hopefully everyone can see that somewhat clearly. I'm just going to move a few things here. So this information is providing details on the funding for this fiscal year. Hopefully the numbers are not too small. I'm going to move my computer a little bit closer. So, Rep.

Capella, for this year, if you see the little insert that I have in the top corner, which is pulling from our QuickBooks reporting tool, the total AITS funding for this year is 762,000. Just a little bit over that amount, right beneath that row, you see the portion that is allocated for the AITS teaching artists. 656,000.

Just a little bit over that, you see that HAA Hawaii Arts alliance typically will hold between 10 and 14%. So you see 65,610 and then another bucket, 40,705 for hard costs. So for example, this year we did provide background screenings for all of the teaching artists. There are costs there.

There are other hard costs that we have to incur to administer the programs. And then just to also show how the funding rolls out with the other grantee, Kekumu, Hawaii, and we're serving in a fiscal sponsorship role there.

The total funding for this year, $57,731. $50,000 goes directly to the grantee, Hawaii Arts alliance, retaining 10% to help with administrative components Helping with final reporting. We worked with the organization to prepare our proposal and grant application. And then we have a small bucket for fees, like high pro procurement fees and other things.

So this is the current numbers on the program, and we will work to take down old information that you found on the website. But we're planning a larger project to fully refresh and overhaul what you see there on the website.

Is that going to be paid for through the funding that you're getting for the AITS program? Because I'm still. Even with your explanation, it doesn't explain unless. Unless teaching artists are getting more than 8,000.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, they are.

There's not the old web, old information. That you're referring to on your website. That's right. That's right. And on the Commission's, the State Foundation's website. Yeah, yeah. How much does each teaching artist get?

So there's not a standard amount. So, for example, one teaching artist might receive 4,000 to do a small residency with one school. Another teaching artist or organization might receive 40,000 or 50,000. And they're working with many, many schools conducting residencies that run the full year. So there's not a standard amount for each teaching partner.

It varies by proposal, who will be served, what types of classes they'll be teaching. So there's a real range for each of the teaching partners.

Okay, so your larger programs, like this HOA program, does that come through that as well?

No, that's separate. That's a separate program. And we also have a match from Hawaii Community foundation that, you know, we talk about the match with the Hawaii Community foundation as well. We can get all these numbers to you and definitely update the website because that needs to be.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good idea. At the end of the day, this is state. This is state funding, and this is what we use to help justify continuing and adding more funding. We need to know where that money is going, where it's coming from, and it needs to be public.

Absolutely.

That's helpful for us. So if that's something that we can work on through the interim, I think that's going to be really helpful leading into next session.

Definitely. Absolutely.

Members, are there any other questions? I wanted to ask you a little bit about continuing on this AITS program. When you're looking at this professional development that you provide for teachers, how are you. How are you working with the Department in order to better expand the AITS program? Because I'll give you the example on Hawaii Island.

I hadn't heard of you and yet you're getting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state foundation to do, to deliver this, to essentially be a pass through for this program. And you take an administrative cost, which I'm wondering why that can't be gone, why that can't just go through the foundation itself. I can answer that. Yeah.

So what we need to do is at times contract out the work that we do because of the limited amount of staff that we have. So that's a lot of contracting with a lot of different teaching artists and organizations that would.

We've done it before internally, and it's just, it just is not a good use of the resources that we have within the staff. It's very, very taxing going through dags, ASO and contracting, stuff like that.

So that's why with this big program, Artists in the Schools, we put out the rfp, we do an open solicitation, and we ask companies to help us administer this program. At times, if we feel like we need to take it internally, we can pivot and do that because it's a year by year situation. Does that help?

So this contract is year by year?

Yes, that's right. And just to add to that chair Capella, just to give a little more clarity in terms of how we work together, the state foundation issues the opportunity, the call for artists and schools to submit a joint proposal. They then receive those proposals and convene review committees to consider all of the applications.

They then make the funding decisions, and once those are announced, they then handoff to the alliance. We work to prepare a contract for each teaching partner. We explain the invoicing process and we're constantly tracking that to make sure folks are submitting invoices in accordance with the contracts.

We do conduct background screens for the teaching artists as an additional safety measure. And then as the program is winding down and we're in that phase right now, we will prepare a final report to the state foundation that shows how all of the funding was allocated.

And so that just gives you a sense of where we meet to administer the full program.

Yeah, and just to add to that, our arts education specialist is the one, the liaison from the state foundation that works with whoever we contract to do this massive program. And there's constant liaison happening and then also site visits and things like that. So they're also in the field together.

You know, it's a big program, so it's helpful to have a contractor.

No, I see that, yes. I guess from the experience that I've had talking to folks on Hawaii Island. I mean, it's like the boots on the ground and the folks on the ground on each of these islands.

And I guess I can't speak for other neighbor islands, but for Hawaii island, those people are the ones that are doing the PD and the development and the training with. Without the administrative support that you're given. And I'm wondering, what does this professional development entail that you provide?

And how are you working with the Department of Education to expand this programming?

Yes, that's an excellent question. And, Karen, you might chime in as well. One of the key things that we're doing right now is an annual teaching artist Institute. The teaching partners that are a part of this program are invited to that.

I don't know, Karen, if the invitation goes wider than that, but one of the goals that we have at the alliance is to do greater outreach, to listen to folks in the communities, to see how we can be of greater service.

And if there are communities in your district that we're missing or for some reason they don't know about artists in the schools, we. We want to be able to reach them and to provide technical support or any help that they need in coming into the program and taking advantage of the funds that are there.

Of course, if funds are being reduced or limited, that does make it difficult to serve more areas. But the alliance is very committed to learning more about where there may be gaps or holes and where we can help to bring more services to those areas.

Perfect. We're pushing on an hour and a half, so I'm going to. If there's no other questions from the Committee. Sure.

Come on over here. Thank you. My name is Gail Mukai Hato Hanneman, and I'm on the board of the Hawaii Arts Alliance. I've been involved for a very long time for a variety of reasons. And just to give you some context to how this relationship had developed is when the state. When the national.

Well, when there was a Department of Education and they were trying to put national standards across the academic standards, Hawaii sort of, you know, started to align like a lot of other states. And in that original first pass, there was no fine arts in the standards of Hawaii.

So the Hawaii Arts alliance helped to sort of put that in place. The problem became that even if we had standards, then you have to write curriculum, and, well, you have to write the standards, then you have to write the curriculum.

Department of Education was overwhelmed because not only they were doing fine arts, but they had to do all the other subject matters. So there was a hui that was already informally working that we actually. That this Legislature codified.

That's where the arts first came to try to figure out how to systematically help the DOE focus on the arts. So we split up the work among.

So it's a state foundation became the lead because it made the most sense, because there's a state agency, right, The Department of Education, because they're the ones who implement to the kids. Then you have the UH Department of Education because they.

They do most of the teacher training of all the teachers in there and the arts and humanities at uh. And then we also include the Hawaii. The Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, because they're saying that although they don't have to apply to standards, they were very important, wanted to participate.

So that group went in place and the Legislature actually created this group. Meanwhile, then what we did was we actually broke up the work, helped develop the standards, literally, figuratively figured out the curriculum. And then what we were hearing back from teachers was, okay, so you give us this stuff. We don't know anything about it. So.

So we split that work up. UH took the incoming new teachers, and the Hawaii Arts alliance took the ones that were already in schools teaching. In that process, we were hearing back on this. The artists in school programs had already existed, but we were hearing that the experience was inconsistent.

Kids always had fun, but what did they necessarily learn? So the state foundation put a contract out to try to codify. Well, not codify, standardize things.

So as the first time, we actually required artists to understand the state standards and then make sure that their curriculum or whatever they're doing within the schools met the standards, and then set up a system in which we worked with artists ongoing so that they had these opportunities.

Now, to be honest with you, some of the artists like that, but that this was a program specifically for the Department of Education. So we said you had to either conform to this or you have. You can do something else, but not within this program. So over the years, that's where the relationship.

I mean, it's been very focused. We work. The Arts first has been around over 20 years, I think. Yeah, we actually have. There was another set of legislation that happened.

And what we do is every year, six years, we're supposed to put a strategic plan together and work together to figure out what other areas as it relates to arts education and the arts. And so the. In the process, it's got some years of work better than others.

And a lot of it has to do with funding because it takes actual people to. To do this work. Right. And like Karen said, like, sometimes the Contract work itself. Like we are actually literally writing contracts for each artist, signing them, following up, you know, making sure that X, Y and Z happens, that they're accountable.

The accountability isn't just they have to be accountable to how they have helped students learn according to state standards. So it's an.

And that's type of the work that the Hawaii Arts alliance has done is we've looked at when we talk about advocacy, it's not only about, you know, making sure that people understand and appreciate the arts, but what policies are being put in place for systemic and long term situations. And that was one.

And so that's what Arts first was set up to look at ongoing problems that the state continues. I mean we're always facing. And now we're going to have to really do a deep dive because what's going on with this national, not only with the US Department of Education, but the NEA elimination, it changes the landscape completely.

So this is actually probably one area which we could really work with the Legislature because what's been why we've made progress is we sort of hui together divvy up the work because and the alliance has played a really important role in it because of that group where the one nonprofit that doesn't have a huge bureaucracy.

Not to say, you know, so a lot of times we'll go after the funding because if the University of Hawaii does it, and I'm not saying this in a critical way because this is true for all large institutions, they take like a 30% cut. Right. For administrative, we take a smaller cut and we could distribute easier.

So there's we continuously talk what are the problems of this state right now? Who and how can we work together to divide this. And we've actually done this without any specific funding from the Legislature to support this Arts first work. We all work within our budgets.

So but it's challenging and I think with the cuts with and I'm not saying this in a critical way, it's just a speak of reality with this change of how the funding for the State Foundation is happening. That and not necessarily having the funding for personnel to do this work. That just takes a lot of work.

I mean it's going to be a challenge and that's something we're going to have to figure out. How do you make sure and address exactly the problems that you're talking about? How does the community know? It takes people and communication and follow up and things of that nature.

And we're all trying to figure out how are we going to do this and and do it well, because the needs are getting greater and the resources are becoming a little bit more challenging, especially the predictability of resources. I think.

Yeah. And I think that's first off. Thank you. Thank you for your service to the board for the Hawaii Arts alliance into the Arts. That's.

I think what we're sitting here trying to figure out is a pathway forward for sustainable, creative use of funding that's not just reliant on one source, which I think for far too long, you folks have been reliant on one source. And that needs to change.

When I'm thinking about this arts first, because you've brought it up a couple of times when we're talking about state resources. From the State Foundation's annual report, it says that there's $1.7 million worth of state and city money or state and county money that went towards supporting that. So, I mean, I just want to.

Point out how that's calculated is that each one of us get our own funding, and we know. Then we look at, like, we do the work and we figure out. We're calculating how much time each group is spending and their contribution, and they're figuring out how much dollars they're using from their own resources.

So it's not like the state or the county is funding it for the group itself, or we may go on behalf of the group to get like a county funding or something of that nature.

And perhaps this annual report is incorrect.

No, it's not incorrect. It's the way maybe it just needs to be clarified.

I think that that's something that's really important and something that we should work on.

I have one final question, and we're pushing an hour and a half, so I'm just going to ask it of the foundation, what is your plan to communicate with the Legislature? Because I think that that has been a sticking point in the past and something that certainly needs to be addressed.

Yeah.

Let's talk next week and we can come up with a plan together. I'd really like to do that very much. My plan is to move into next session with some really great ideas and great collaborations. So, yeah, I'd love to do that, starting with you, chair, and anybody else who wants to join.

Okay. We've certainly made attempts to try and communicate, so I hope that that will change and that we can actually do the communication. I know that you folks have also mentioned that you're doing a series of community town halls and talk stories and listening sessions.

It would be great if we could be included in that and not just hear about it secondhand through social media. We want to be partners. That's the reason we're doing this. And I think it takes it goes both ways for us to be able to do that.

So I appreciate the work that you've done, the work that you will continue to do, and I appreciate the Members for being here today as we.

And we appreciate you all, too, very much. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I think we're adjourned.