About the Honolulu Academy of Arts

The Honolulu Academy of Arts is Hawaii's premier art museum, with a collection of more than 60,000 works. An encyclopedic museum where original works of art can be experienced in state-of-the-art galleries, it has major strengths in the arts of Asia, European and American painting, and graphic and decorative arts. With education as its mission, the Academy also administers the Academy Art Center at Linekona, the largest private art school in the Islands.

Mission statement:
The Honolulu Academy of Arts is dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and teaching of the visual arts, and the presentation of exhibitions, films and videos, performing arts, and public programs specifically relevant to Hawai'i's ethnically diverse community.

History:

At the opening of the Honolulu Academy of Arts on April 8, 1927, founder Anna Rice Cooke (Sept. 5, 1853-Aug. 8, 1934) read this dedication statement:

“That our children of many nationalities and races, born far from the centers of art, may receive an intimation of their own cultural legacy and wake to the ideals embodied in the arts of their neighbors....that Hawaiians, Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Northern Europeans and all other people living here, contacting through the channel of art those deep intuitions common to all, may perceive a foundation on which a new culture, enriched by the old strains may be built in the islands.”     

Born into a prominent missionary family on O’ahu in 1853, Anna grew up on Kaua’i in a home that appreciated and loved the arts. In 1874, she married Charles Montague Cooke, also of a prominent missionary family, and the two settled in Honolulu. In 1882, they built a home on Beretania Street, across from the community park, Thomas Square. In those days, they had unobstructed views clear to Diamond Head and could see Punahou School from their second-story windows. As Cooke’s career prospered, they began to gather their own private fine art collection. Anna’s first additions were “parlor pieces” that graced their Beretania home. She frequented the shop of furniture maker Yeun Kwock Fong Inn who often had ceramics and textile pieces sent from his brother in China. Fong Inn eventually became one of Honolulu’s leading art importers.

The Cookes’ art collection outgrew their own home and the homes of their children. In 1920, she and her daughter Alice (Mrs. Phillip Spalding), her daughter-in-law Dagmar (Mrs. Richard Cooke), and Mrs. Isaac Cox, an art and drama teacher, began to catalogue and research the collection with the intent to display the items in a museum for the children of Hawaii.

With little formal training, these women obtained a charter for the museum from the Territory of Hawaii in 1922, while continuing to catalogue each art treasure in the collection. From the beginning, Anna Rice Cooke, who spoke fluent Hawaiian, wanted a museum that reflected the unique attributes of Hawaii’s multi-cultural make-up. Not bound by the traditional western idea of art museums, she also wanted to create an institution that showcased the island’s natural beauty and climate in an open and airy environment. Her thoughtful consideration is evidenced in the unusual and charming courtyards that interconnect the various galleries throughout the Academy.

The Cookes donated their Beretania Street land for the museum, along with an endowment of $25,000, and the family home was torn down to make way for the new institution. New York architect Bertram Goodhue designed the plans for a classic Hawaiian-style building with the mountains as a dramatic backdrop and colorful blossoming trees, flowers, and shrubs complementing the simple off-white exteriors and tiled roofs. Goodhue died before the project was completed. Stepping in to finish the job was Hardie Phillip. Over the years, the museum's revival mission style has been imitated in many buildings throughout the state. 

At the 1927 opening there was a traditional Hawaiian blessing and the Royal Hawaiian Band, under the direction of Henry Berger, played. Since then, Anna’s hopes for the museum to be an ever-changing place, an evolving entity that residents could keep coming back to for a lifetime, have been realized.

With the opening of the museum came the gifts of many fine art pieces, sometimes even entire collections. The museum has grown steadily, both in acquisitions and in stature, becoming one of the finest museums in the United States. Additions to the original building have included a library (1956), an education wing (1960), a gift shop (1965), a cafe (1969), a contemporary gallery, administrative offices and 280-seat theater (1977), and an art center for studio classes and expanded educational programming (1989). In 1999, the Academy created a children’s interactive gallery, lecture hall, and office suite in the education wing.

The original building was named Hawai‘i’s best building by the Hawai‘i Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture and is registered as a National and State Historical site. The Academy is accredited by the American Association of Museums.

In 1998, an era of extensive renovation throughout the Academy began. The Asian wing was gutted and renovated. In September 1999, the Academy began construction on the John Hara-designed Henry R. Luce Pavilion Complex, which opened May 13, 2001. It includes expanded spaces for The Pavilion Café and The Academy Shop and a new two-story exhibition structure which houses the Academy’s unrivaled collection of art documenting the history of art in Hawai‘i and a gallery for changing exhibitions. The Luce Complex is named for Henry R. Luce, the late co-founder and editor of Time Magazine (1923). He also founded Fortune (1930); Life (1936); House and Home (1952); and Sports Illustrated (1954). His widow, Clare Boothe Luce, had a residence in Hawai‘i and served on the Academy’s board of trustees from 1972-1977.

New galleries exploring cross-cultural influences, East Meets West, were renovated and re-opened in the Western Wing in November 1999. A new gallery for Korean art was opened in June 2001. New galleries for the arts of India, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia were renovated and opened in January 2002. A new gallery for the art of the Philippines named for retiring Academy Director and his wife, George and Nancy Ellis, opened in 2003. In February 2005, the Academy opened an Asian Painting Conservation Studio and in December 2005, the renovation and reinstallation of the Western Art galleries was completed.

In 2001, the Academy entered into a partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art to become the orientation center for tours to Doris Duke’s Honolulu estate, Shangri La, The Academy Theater was refurbished and renamed, The Doris Duke Theatre at the Academy, in July 2002. In addition to film and entertainment offerings, the theater hosts lectures and musical performances. In October 2002, the Academy opened Arts of the Islamic World, a new gallery that serves as the orientation center for all tours to Shangri La. On November 6, 2002, public tours for Shangri La began at the Academy.
The Academy’s permanent collection has grown to more than 50,000 pieces with significant holdings in Asian art, American and European painting and decorative arts, 19th- and 20th-century art, an extensive collection of works on paper, Asian textiles, and traditional works from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

In 2008, the Academy gained international recognition for its exhibitions Hawaiian Modern: The Architecture of Vladimir Ossipoff and The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, both of which are traveling around the globe.

As Hawai‘i’s only general fine arts museum, the Academy continues to fulfill the dreams of Anna Rice Cooke by providing exhibitions, education programs, collections, publications, studio art classes, and theater activities. All of these activities are designed to serve, engage, and enrich the individual and community and reflect the international and multi-cultural nature of Honolulu.

From Anna Rice Cooke’s vision has grown one of the most beautiful and extraordinary museums in the world with state-of-the-art facilities for displaying its internationally renowned art collection. It is the state’s leading arts institution and the city’s center for visual and performing arts. The Academy’s mission will continue to reflect Mrs. Cooke’s vision by being dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and teaching of the visual arts, and the presentation of exhibitions, performing arts, and public programs specifically relevant to Hawaii’s ethnically diverse community. Her great grandson, Samuel A. Cooke, was the previous Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In May of 2007, Lynne Johnson, who is also a direct heir of Anna Rice Cooke, became the current Board of Trustees Chair. She is currently the Interim Director. Click here for a list of trustees and staff department heads.

American Association of Museums
The Honolulu Academy of Arts is the only art museum in Hawai'i accredited by the American Association of Museums (AAM). AAM has been bringing museums together since 1906, helping develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and providing advocacy on issues of concern to the entire museum community. AAM is dedicated to ensuring that museums remain a vital part of the American landscape, connecting people with the greatest achievements of the human experience in the past, present, and future.

AAM is the only organization comprehensively representing museums and the staff who work for and with them. AAM currently represents more than 15,000 individual museum professional and volunteer staff members, 3,000 institutions, and 300 corporate members. Individual members span the entire range of museum occupations, including directors, curators, registrars, educators, exhibition designers, public relations officers, development officers, security managers, trustees, and volunteers.