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Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities eNewsletter, January/February 2015

A Message from the Executive Director

Last year marked some interesting challenges and changes that still allowed HCH to deliver opportunities to engage thoughtfully with our history, culture and ideas.

We look forward to continuing TALK programs and other collaborations that explore through community conversations topics of public and personal interest. The National Endowment for the Humanities, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, launches "The Common Good: Humanities in the Public Square" to help us do so.

For K-12 teachers, we look forward not only to the silver anniversary of Hawai‘i History Day, our signature humanities-in-the-schools program, but also to holding teacher workshops: On "Competing Visions of Human Rights," Saturday, January 24; "Victorians in 19th-Century Hawai‘i and Oceania: Exploration, Encounter and Exchange in History," Saturday, July 11; and "Inquiring Into War: Oral Histories of Veterans as Primary Historical Research," date to be announced.

As always, we are grateful to you for being part of our mission, vision and future...and for your generous support.
(Photo courtesy of Catherine Toth)

TALK Program Wrap-Up

From October 2014 to January 2015, HCH and Honolulu Museum of Art presented a series of TALK programs centered on the Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House’s HI Society (August 13, 2014 through January 4, 2015), an exhibition exploring social issues of identity, diversity and power in Hawai‘i.

Stacy Hoshino, HCH director of grants and special projects, and Aaron Padilla, curator of education at Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House, worked collaboratively to conceive and execute a series of interactive discussions with experts and the audience to open up conversations about the exhibition's themes.

The free, public series launched on October 26, 2014 at the Spalding House Café with the program Who Lives Here? featuring artist April A.H. Drexel and Padilla. Drexel and Padilla discussed the artist-curator relationship during the planning phase of the exhibit, and Drexel elaborated upon how she conceptualized the genealogy of the land--its transactions and ownerships--on which Spalding House sits, as well as other estates that make up the Makiki Heights neighborhood, in her art installation.

On November 23, 2014, the overarching question Who Are We? set the tone for a lively afternoon featuring Padilla with local writers Lee Cataluna and Brandy McDougall in a spirited discussion on how our local culture uses "markers" to assess who we are individually as well as collectively.

HI Society and Civic Engagement, the final program in the TALK series, was a professional development, deliberative discussion group presented under the direction of Amber Strong Makaiau, Thomas Jackson and Chad Miller from the University of Hawai‘i Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education. On January 4, 2015, over 30 artists, educators, curators and directors from arts and cultural organizations gathered to learn about the Uehiro Academy's p4c inquiry method through experiential learning activities. For this program, the catalyst was the HI Society exhibit and the social issues it brought to the forefront using the p4c inquiry to establish discussion points.

For more information and if you are interested in bringing the TALK program into your community, email Stacy Hoshino at shoshino@hihumanities.org.
(Photo of TALK guest speakers Aaron Padilla, Lee Cataluna and Brandy McDougall sharing a light-hearted moment during the "Who Are We?" discussion at the Spalding House Café)

Two screenings of Ka Hana Kapa, a documentary on the history of kapa making in Hawai‘i, will be shown on Saturday, February 7, at Lana‘i Theatre, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and on Saturday, February 21, at Kaua‘i Aston Aloha Beach Hotel, Ali‘i Room, 1 to 3 p.m. This film, which was supported in part by a grant from HCH, tells of the craftsmanship and artistry of kapa, as well as its history through cultural practitioners who revived the art of kapa-making and continue its contemporary evolution. Free and open to the public.

Opportunities for Teachers

Competing Visions of Human Rights: Questions for U.S. Policy and Global Politics
Saturday, January 24; 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Hawai‘i State Department of Education, Curriculum and Instruction Branch Offices, Room 264-A
(Address: 475 22nd Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96816)

This one-day workshop for teachers will feature the inquiry-based learning skills set forth in the C-3 Framework (College, Career and Civic Life) and the project-based learning model found in the Hawai‘i History Day program, an affiliate of National History Day. The workshop will feature a brief history of human rights, including working with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 as a historical document and as a basis for exploring particular cases of human rights, civil liberties and crimes against humanity in their historical context. Attendees will also learn about how to work with students in the classroom on developing a topic, thesis, and well-argued project in the areas of human rights, international justice, and global politics. Open to middle and high school teachers, with some travel stipends available for teachers from the neighbor islands. For more information, inter-island travel logistics, or to register for the workshop, contact Lisa Yamaki at 732-5402, ext. 2 or lyamaki@hihumanities.org. Click here to learn more about the workshop.

This workshop is sponsored by the HCH and Hawai‘i State Department of Education, qualifies for two HOUSSE points (Highly Qualified Teacher in Civics), and is being held in association with 2015 Hawai‘i State Civil Liberties and the Constitution Day.

Congratulations to Allan R. Landon, who served on the HCH board of directors from 2000 to 2006, on being nominated by President Obama to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Landon is a partner in Community BanCapital and served as Bank of Hawaii CEO and chairman from 2004 to 2010 and also served as chairman of the University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents. He and his family now live in Utah, from where he has served on the boards of the Smithsonian Institution, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
(Photo of Allan R. Landon, former HCH board director)

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is accepting nominations for the 2015 National History Teacher of the Year Award. This year the $10,000 award honors an outstanding elementary school teacher (K-6). HCH selects the state finalist (to be announced in May), who will be recognized as Hawai'i's History Teacher of the Year and receive a $1,000 award from Gilder Lehrman as well as an archive of primary historical materials for his/her school, and forwards that candidate to the national program. Submit your nominations online via the Gilder Lehrman website by February 15, 2015 (extended deadline).
HCH recently awarded, for its October 31, 2014 grant deadline, four grants totaling $28,559 for development and production of public humanities projects throughout the state. The following is a list of grant recipients and the amount of each grant awarded: Congregation of Sacred Hearts U.S. Province, Kalaupapa Images Identification Project, $5,000; Honolulu Museum of Art, Auguste Rodin: The Human Experience, Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections, $10,000; Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission, KIRC Virtual Museum Pilot Program, $5,000; and University of Hawai‘i, Historic Cemetery Preservation and Community Capacity Building: Summer 2015 Workshop, $8,559.
The HCH Grants Program invites and welcomes individuals as well as cultural, educational and community-based organizations to apply for a grant that will go toward creating public humanities programming that help connect us to Hawai‘i's rich cultural heritage and historical resources. Apply online for any of the following three types of HCH grants--Preservation & Access, Publication Assistance and Regular--by Friday, February 13, 2015.
The HCH board of directors recently elected the following new officers for 2015-2016: Douglas Dykstra as chair, Larry Myers as vice chair and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu as secretary-treasurer. And two new members--Mitch Yamasaki, professor of history at Chaminade University of Honolulu, and Susan Yim, managing editor for HIKI NŌ student news program on PBS Hawaii--were elected to serve a three-year term on the board. Click here to view the complete list of 2015 HCH board of directors.

Board Member Spotlight

In every HCH eNews edition, we shine the spotlight in this section on an active board member with a lively Q&A. This time, however, we would like to extend a heartfelt aloha and special thanks to Linda K. Menton for serving as HCH board chair during the past two years. Her dedication to the board and willingness to work with staff in encouraging people from various communities to engage in meaningful conversations across the state have helped us to fulfill our mission and broaden our outreach.

We would also like to thank and bid a fond farewell to the following outgoing board members for their years of service and commitment to the humanities: Lani Ma‘a Lapilio (O‘ahu); Ted Sakai (O‘ahu); Julia Steele (O‘ahu); and Gina Vergara-Bautista (O‘ahu). Their wisdom, leadership and enthusiasm will be missed.
(Photo of Linda K. Menton, former HCH board chair)

The mission of the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities is to connect people with ideas that broaden perspectives, enrich lives and strengthen communities.