Honolulu, Hawaii
Welcome to Downtown Art Center!
Current Main Gallery Exhibition
Hawaii Watercolor Society 2024 Members’ Show
On View April 2-27, 2024
Exhibition Events:
Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony: First Friday, April 5 from 5:30 - 8 p.m. (Free and open to the public)
With a theme of FLOW: The Liquid World of Watercolor and Glass, this annual HWS exhibition features work by 33 member artists, working in the watercolor medium. Subject matter ranges from landscapes and botanicals to figures to abstract. Also featured will be recent works by Hawaii glass artists (not juried).
The juror for this show is esteemed watercolor artist Dan Marshall, a popular demonstrator and instructor from Denver, Colorado.
Find out more at hawaiiwatercolorsociety.org
Current Courtyard Gallery Exhibition
Pastel Artists of Hawaii Open Juried Show: Beauty of Pastels
On View April 3 - 27, 2024
Exhibition Events:
Opening Reception: First Friday, April 5 from 5:30 - 8 p.m. (Free and open to the public)
Pastel Artists of Hawaii presents their annual Open Juried Show, April 3 - 27 at Downtown Art Center. The juror this year is Teresa Saia, an IAPS Master Pastelist and a Signature Member of the American Impressionist Society. Recognized by numerous national awards, her paintings embody a passion she feels for all her subject matter - believing it is necessary to continually develop, explore and grow, living a life devoted to art and bringing art to life.
Current Classroom Exhibition
Making Art for Art’s Sake
On View March 1-May 31, 2024
First Friday Opening Reception: Friday, March 1 from 5:30 - 8 p.m.
This student and teacher show in the DAC Classroom features art and craft projects created during our popular Saturday afternoon workshops, Making Art for Art’s Sake, every Saturday from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.
Instructed by diverse teaching artists, each class introduces exciting projects to spark your imagination and hone new art-making skills in different mediums, like printmaking, watercolor painting, bookmaking, pyrography, and more. Unleash your inner artist in a welcoming environment, where the emphasis is on playfulness, open-mindedness, and pure fun. Whether you're taking your first steps into creativity or looking to explore new artistic avenues, these classes are designed for everyone. Join us weekly to discover a variety of projects that inspire and encourage self-expression. Sign up for a session at downtownarthi.org/classes today!
Upcoming Events & Exhibitions
-
HEART of Honolulu Art Street Festival
Saturday, April 13, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
FREE and Open to the Public!Save the date for our next HEART of Honolulu Art Street Festival! We're inviting artists and arts organizations to take to the streets, as we shut down Nuuanu Avenue in Chinatown and open it to pedestrian traffic for everyone to experience and enjoy the HEART of the Chinatown Arts District, including art, free make & take crafts, live music, food, creative local vendors, performances and more.
-
Spaghetti Western Costumed Figure Drawing Event
Saturday, April 20 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
$15 per person, limit 20 participantsYou are invited to attend a fun, themed drawing event, with costumed models in the theme of Spaghetti Western! Bring your own drawing supplies of choice, feel free to dress in theme if you like, and get to sketching!
Instructions, supplies (if you don’t bring your own), refreshments, and music provided.
This event is produced in partnership with fig.uresart.
-
Soundscapes With Haiku Reflection Featuring Katsumi Takemoto
Wednesday, April 24 from 2:30-3:30 p.m.
$10 per personJoin renowned poet and bamboo flutist Katsumi Takemoto for a special session of beautiful shakuhachi (a traditional Japanese bamboo flute) music and haiku poetry. From her younger days spent in Pauoa and Nuuanu until now, she celebrates haiku and the arts.
-
The Bard's Birthday Bash
Friday, April 26 from 5:30 - 7 p.m.
FREE and Open to the Public!Help us celebrate the birthday of the Greatest Bard of All, William Shakespeare, with a fun evening of live performances and festivities in partnership with Hawaii Shakespeare Festival!
-
Upcoming Exhibition: Fiber Hawaii 2024: In, Of, or About Fiber
On View in the Main Gallery May 3-June 1, 2024
Since 1982, Hawaii Craftsmen has sponsored the biennial Fiber Hawaii juried exhibition. This year's exhibition, juried by Cameron Taylor-Brown, a curator, founder of ARTSgarage in Los Angeles, and teacher who travels to schools, guilds, museums and conferences throughout the United States and Canada, challenges artists to create works "In, Of or About Fiber."
Artists who work in any craft media are invited to consider making artwork with a fiber sensibility. Fiber and textile techniques may be thought of as an idea as well as a media. Past exhibits have included woven glass, clay, wood and metal as well as works in more traditional fiber media such as weavings, handmade paper, basketry, stitchery, quilts, batiks, textile design, kapa, and mixed media. Works may be functional or non-functional.
-
Upcoming Exhibition: Hitoshi Hida Retrospective
On View in the Courtyard Gallery May 3 - June 1, 2024
DAC is honored to present a retrospective (and birthday exhibition) of the sketches and paintings of distinguished architectural illustrator and G70 principal Hitoshi Hida, who is renowned for his meticulous hand-drawn renderings. His professional career, spanning four decades, has included projects in China, Vietnam, Japan, and Tahiti.
Calls to Artists
Go Figure: Figures & Portraits from Hawaii’s Artists
With Juror Noreen Naughton
For this juried exhibition, we invite artists of any caliber and experience level in the state of Hawaii who have created life or figure drawing artwork to enter!
Call For Entries Period: March 30 - May 17, 2024
Accepted Artists Announced and Notified by Email: June 7
Registration Fee: $20 flat fee per artist for up to 4 works submitted. IF accepted into the exhibition, hanging fee is an additional $50, regardless of number of pieces accepted. Payment must be made before or during load-in.
Eligibility: Artists of ANY experience level in Hawaii.
Works Eligible for Submission: Figure drawings, paintings, pastels and all forms of 2d and 3d life drawing artwork in any medium will be accepted for this show. Each artist may submit up to 4 framed works, unlimited number of unframed works to be sold in in artist’s own rack.
Find out more HERE.
DAC Special Projects & Community Action
-
Vacant to Vibrant
Downtown Honolulu and its historic Chinatown Arts District are in trouble. Once the vital heart of the Pacific business community, multiple circumstances, including economic downturns and the COVID pandemic, has changed a once-vibrant area into a struggling historic arts, entertainment, and restaurant district with blocks of abandoned real estate and rising crime and vandalism.
However, with change comes opportunity. The time is right to start the conversation about how Downtown Honolulu and the Chinatown Arts District can be transformed into a vibrant community that attracts both locals and visitors alike. Downtown Art Center’s Vacant to Vibrant project, with several phases planned, aims to prove that these vacant spaces can come alive again, as valuable hubs of art, creativity, and community involvement.
-
Public Art WORKS!
The objective of DAC’s telephone kiosk painting project was to beautify Chinatown’s Fort Street Mall area by transforming its five obsolete, damaged telephone kiosks into works of art. The selected designs, by local artists Su Shen Atta, Yvonne Manipon, Sergio Garzon, Kahi Ching, and Charles Valoroso, are simple, colorful, fun, photogenic, and uplifting. The painting started on Saturday, October 22 and covered five telephone kiosks stretching the length of Fort Street Mall, from Beretania to Merchant Streets.
Find out more about this and other DAC initiatives to put art in public places!
-
HEART of Honolulu Street Festivals
Celebrate the arts, culture, and good food as you walk, shop, and eat your way around the Chinatown Arts District. Downtown Art Center is proud to present the HEART of Honolulu Street Festival, a family-friendly, daytime art festival that closes Nuʻuanu Avenue, from King Street to Chaplain Lane, to showcase local art, live local music, food, crafts, and more. The last festival took place on Saturday, October 8, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. - stay tuned for the next street festival in April 2023!
HEART is an acronymn that stands for Heritage, Entertainment, Arts & culture, Restaurants, and Theatre & Performing Arts. Together these elements make up the core of our vibrant creative community.
Visit Us
1041 Nu’uanu Ave., 2nd Floor, Honolulu HI 96817
Exhibition Gallery Hours:
Tues-Sat
11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday:
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
First Friday Hours:
5:30 - 8 p.m. every First Friday of the month!
Downstairs DAC Art & Gifts Shop Hours:
Tues-Sat
11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Phone
(808) 773-7339
PARKING INFORMATION
Parking for DAC is located at nearby municipal parking lots (onsite at Chinatown Gateway Plaza, parking entrance off Bethel Street) or at Mark's Garage (entrance at 22 S. Pauahi St.). On-site parking is by credit card only, and costs $0.75/half hour, with no grace period.
DAC is easily accessible by public transit as well; get directions, routes and timetables at www.thebus.org.