About the Artistic Teaching Partner
- Location: Maui
- Service Area: Statewide
- Grade Level: K-12
- Category: Visual Art, Music, Dance, Drama/Theatre, Literary Arts, Media Arts, Cultural Arts
Artist Statement
The Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Senior Teaching team have decades of experience in classrooms, MACC CanDo! Days, community centers and in studios honing their expertise in the intersections of teaching, learning and artistic practice. With the recent DOE emphasis on Nā Hopena A’o (HĀ), the National Core Arts Standards (NCAS) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL), MACC teaching team has curated multiple lessons, frameworks and approaches to address the intersections of them.
About the Maui Arts and Cultural Center Education Department
About the Maui Arts & Cultural Center: As the state’s most comprehensive nonprofit multi-disciplinary arts facility, more than 5 million adults and children have been served by the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s activities since 1994. The MACC has developed a statewide and national identity through its performing arts, visual arts and arts education programs. As an educational resource, Maui Arts & Cultural Center serves all ages from pre-school to adults, enhancing arts education in schools as well as professional development for classroom teachers. Based on significant research that arts education is vital for every child, the MACC works closely with national and local teaching artists to develop arts integration curriculum, which meets common core standards. Research shows that arts integration prepares students for the future by developing valuable life skills: collaboration, creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and communication. In 1995, the MACC partnered with the Hawai‘i Department of Education, Maui District to become Hawaii’s first recognized team affiliated with the prestigious national network, Partners in Education, a program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. The MACC/DOE, Maui District partnership team continues to date, and is recognized as one of the most advanced of the 110 teams in 40 states. Maui Arts & Cultural Center is also part of the statewide coalition of organizations known as ARTS FIRST Partners of Hawai‘i, which is dedicated to insuring that every child in Hawai‘i receives an arts education.
Teaching Artists
- Cara Griffin
- Kilihune Kaʻaihue
- Jennie Lindsey
- Julie Matheis
- Nohealani Cabanting
- Tanya Delury-Wilson
- Makalani Franco-Francis
- Skyler Sands
- Uʻilani Tevaga
Contact
- Contact Person: Stacey Gonsalves
- Telephone: (808) 242-4282
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: MauiArts.org
- Education Portal: MauiArtsEducation.org
About the Artistic Teaching Partner Roster
The Artistic Teaching Partners (ATP) Roster is an adjudicated directory of Hawai‘i professional teaching artists qualified to conduct in-depth residencies in educational settings. Each artist or arts organization has a page in the directory with contact information, a short bio, and an artist statement. The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts draws from this roster for arts education programs including Art Bento at the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum and Artists in the Schools.
Teaching Artists
Stacey Gonsalves
Director of Education. Stacey Gonsalves is the Director of Education at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, where she leads the creation and implementation of arts education programs that celebrate cultural heritage and engage communities throughout Maui. With over a decade of experience in arts administration, multimedia production, and strategic program development, Stacey has a proven track record in building impactful initiatives that integrate arts, education, and local culture. A graduate of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, she has served in multiple leadership roles at MACC and is passionate about advancing Native Hawaiian culture and fostering partnerships with schools, educators, and community organizations statewide.
Nohealani Cabanting
Program Manager. Nohealani Cabanting, a homegrown product of upcountry Maui’s rich soil and vibrant culture, has crafted a life deeply rooted in ʻāina and heritage. For over two decades, she has called a working ranch home, where the pastures and rugged landscape helped shape her strong sense of resilience, responsibility, and aloha. A proud mother of two and married for 22 years, she draws daily inspiration from her ʻohana and the values they share. With a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, Nohealani has spent her career serving as both a social worker and educator, roles in which she has empowered youth and ʻohana through culturally grounded support and advocacy. Passionate about preserving Hawaiian traditions and artistic expression, she shares this love generously and is especially committed to uplifting the next generation.
Kilihune Kaʻaihue
Teaching Artist – Movement. Kilihune Ka’aihue was born and raised on the shores of Kailua, ‘O’ahu. With over 40 years of hula training, she’s dedicated her life to building a firm foundation in health and wellness as a Hawaiian cultural practioner and educator. She recently completed her formal ‘ūniki training as kumu hula and believes that our mana lies within the valuable connections we establish to our three piko, in simple terms; mind, body and spirit. When we culturally engage and mālama our mental (mind), physical (body) and emotional (spirt) well-being, we become well-balanced kanaka rich in our identity and purposeful in serving our lāhui in beneficial ways. As an aerialist, dancer and yoga teacher on Maui for the past 24 years, she has seen the longevity of her career apparent in her cultural approach to movement, yoga, breath work and diet. She hopes to instill these ‘ike Hawaiʻi health practices to the next generation building stronger self connections for our youth to thrive.
Maka Franco-Francis
Teaching Artist – Theater. Makalani Franco-Francis is a teaching artist at Can Do! Days and a proud mother of three keiki, born and raised on Maui. As a cultural practitioner and Pale Keiki, she has dedicated 26 years to the practice of hula. Makalani is currently a Hawaiian Studies student at the University of Hawaii Maui College (UHMC) and is also studying traditional healing practices. She is passionate about contributing to the empowerment of ʻohana and community through birth and aloha ʻāina, and she feels honored to be a part of the Pacific Birth Collective. Makalani brings her cultural knowledge and personal experiences to her work as a teaching artist, where she inspires students to connect with the land, culture, and spirit of aloha.
Tanya Delury-Wilson
Teaching Artist – Visual Art. Tanya Delury-Wilson is a Teaching Artist who specializes in integrating drama, creative movement, breathing techniques, poetry, and natural history and ecology into her visual arts lessons. Tanya has crafted a playful approach to teaching, believing in the power of laughter to inspire students of all age groups to explore their creative and personal strengths. Since 1999, Tanya has enjoyed being a part of the Teaching Artist team for the CanDo! Days program at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center. She has also worked with the Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center, including the Children’s Art Camps and the after-school Nā Keiki No‘eau program at various elementary schools on Maui. Tanya Delury-Wilson studied at Nedlands Teachers College in Western Australia, graduating with a Diploma of Teaching in Theater Arts and English Literature. This led to a full-time teaching position at Perth’s Mount Lawley Senior High School in her specialized fields from 1987 to 1990. She later traveled abroad to the United Kingdom, where she was privileged to teach workshops at the Red Roofs Theatre School in Berkshire, England, in 1991.
Julie Matheis
Teaching Artist – Visual Art. Julie Matheis attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Jewelry and Light Metals, with a minor in Art History. Prior to this, she attended the Chicago Academy for the Arts, high school, where she studied fine art in a variety of 2-d & 3-d media. Her fine art jewelry has been featured in galleries internationally and in printed publications, most notably 21st Century Jewelry, by Lark Books. After moving to Hawaii, her jewelry focus shifted to production work, but she continues to handcraft each of her pieces, which are available at boutiques around Maui. As a mother of 4 children, her teaching focus has changed from teaching art classes to all age groups, to focusing primarily on creating keiki lessons that are arts integrated experiences, layered with learning, integrity, and empowerment. She hopes that inspiring our youth to observe the world around them, while developing their creative problem solving skills, will help guide her children’s generation into a place where all can thrive. She is currently on the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts teaching artist roster, has taught at the Hui No’eau Visual Art Center since 2006, and has taught Can Do Day! At the Maui Arts and Cultural Center Since 2014.
Skyler Sands
Teaching Artist – Visual Art. Skyler Sands, a teaching visual artist, is a recent University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa graduate with a Bachelor of Studio Arts. She is passionate in a wide variety of mediums ranging from sculptural aspects of glass, metal, jewelry, and wood to 2D watercolor, collage, drawing, and graphic design. Skyler is driven to share her passion for the creative arts with the keiki of her community. She teaches primarily visual arts through the MACC as well as through The Hui No’eau. This passion of teaching encouraged her to get her Trauma Informed Teaching Artist certificate to further understand and adapt to serve her Maui ʻohana after the devastating fires. She loves to spend her free time immersed in nature mauka to makai , gaining inspiration from the ʻāina and kai that surrounds her.
Uʻilani Tevaga
Teaching Artist – Music. U’ilani Tevaga’s childhood was spent dancing and singing. She was an annual keiki hula participant as a child and Merrie Monarch participant as a teen, nurturing her deep connection to Hawaiian culture from a young age. She later moved to Maui to continue her passion as a professional entertainer and entrepreneur. Her greatest role, however, is as a mother. She is a proud mama to five children who share her love for singing and performing.
Grounded in her ancestral roots, U’ilani grew up in Oahu surrounded by the traditions of Hawaiian music, hula With a passion for the performing arts, and loving she has sung in top honor choir groups, taught ukulele to elementary students, and created May Day performances for various schools. Coming from a long line of hula masters, she recently completed her formal Kumu Hula training.
Married to a local musician and first responder, music and dance are central to their home life. She is also a yoga and meditation teacher. A passionate world traveler, U’ilani joyfully shares her heritage and cultural knowledge with young learners during their field trip days.
Cara K. Griffin
Teaching Artist – Movement and Theater. Cara K. Griffin is a Maui-based multidisciplinary artist and trauma-informed movement educator with nearly 20 years of experience as a teaching artist. Her work blends visual art, somatics, and ritual to support healing, creative expression, and embodied empowerment across age groups and communities.
As founder of Free the Pelvis™, Cara leads immersive workshops and performances that integrate painting, sculpture, and liberatory movement. Her pedagogy draws from anatomy, mythology, and trauma-informed practice, guiding participants into deeper relationships with their bodies, stories, and creative potential.
She has taught in universities, public schools, and community programs nationally and internationally, and continues to develop The Free the Pelvis Method™ as a model for integrating art, education, and wellness.
Jennie Lindsey
Teaching Artist – Weaving. Born and raised on Maui, Jennie Lindsey, is a proud mother of five and a skilled coconut weaver. Deeply rooted in a lifestyle of fishing, diving, sailing, and canoe paddling, her cultural practices are a way of life. Her passion for weaving was passed down through generations, learned intuitively from her grandmother, Waipuilani Paki of Lahaina.
She believes that traditional arts like weaving can spark curiosity and inspire the next generation to explore and embrace cultural knowledge. For Hawaiians, weaving was once an essential part of daily life, a tradition she proudly continues and shares around the world. Her journey has even taken her to Africa, where she relied on Hawaiian survival practices during her time on the television series Naked and Afraid.
Today, she is dedicated to empowering young girls, encouraging confidence, resilience, and a connection to cultural identity. Through her teaching, she shares the wisdom that from a single coconut tree, one can provide everything needed, from the mountains to the sea.
Pasha Lani-Montira
Teaching Artist – Music and Theater. Leialoha Pasha Lani-Montira was born and raised on Maui and is a mother, grandmother, and cultural practitioner deeply rooted in Hawaiʻi. Guided by Ke Akua and aloha ʻāina, she shares her love for Maui and Hawaiʻi through the arts, including hula, mele, ʻukulele, moʻolelo, and Hawaiian arts and crafts. She has danced hula since childhood and believes teaching, storytelling, and creative expression are powerful ways to create meaningful learning spaces for keiki.
Leialoha serves as a substitute kumu, mele kumu, ʻukulele kumu, and kōkua with the Maui Arts & Cultural Center Education Department, supporting students through theatre, mele, and cultural arts. She is also an intern working with rare native Hawaiian plants and the endangered kāhuli snail, strengthening her commitment to mālama ʻāina. She holds an Associate’s degree in Liberal Arts and is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration to further support educational, cultural, and community-based programs.