Photo: Konawaena High School students using ʻohe kāpala to stamp borders on bandanas.
“Given our location and access, many South Kona students do not have extended learning and experiential opportunities, whether it is to attend camps, classes, or have consistent, meaningful interactions with our incredible community artists. This grant continues to afford our students those extended opportunities.” – Momilani Kaehuaea, then-Konawaena High School, Vice Principal (Kaehuaea is currently Poʻokumu at Ke Kula ʻO ʻEhunuikaimalino School).
In a letter to state lawmakers, then-Konawaena High School Vice Principal Momilani Kaehuaea wrote “Given our location and access, many South Kona students do not have extended learning and experiential opportunities, whether it is to attend camps, classes, or have consistent, meaningful interactions with our incredible community artists. This grant continues to afford our students those extended opportunities. In addition to providing instruction on fine arts standards, it also provides/provided classroom teachers with a hands-on mentor to better teach the arts in their curriculum and definitely supports student emotional well-being.” (Kaehuaea is currently Poʻokumu at Ke Kula ʻO ʻEhunuikaimalino School).
“The final sumi-e project was a collaborative mural to help students learn to remember that we need each other and with the help of others, we make something which we could not make by ourselves. […] The collaborative murals really emphasized that when they work together well, they are able to accomplish so much more and they can be proud of what they did.” – Leigh Nakamura, Konawaena High School, classroom teacher (from the school year 2024 final report to the SFCA).
About the SFCA Artists in the Schools program
SFCA Artists in the Schools (AITS) arts residency grants provide engaging, creative, and fun learning experiences based on the Fine Arts standards for all grade levels, through residencies with qualified, trained teaching artists from the Artistic Teaching Partners (ATP) Roster. Many of these teaching artists integrate their art form with other core curriculum areas, such as language arts, math, social studies, and science, meeting both Fine Arts and other core standards.
Artists in the Schools is funded with state appropriations from the State of Hawai‘i Legislature, federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, and private matching funds from the Hawai‘i Community Foundation. All public and charter schools in the state are eligible to apply for Artists in the Schools for classrooms pre-K through 12. In the 2023-2024 school year, 125 schools received funds to conduct their arts residencies.
- Learn more about Artists in the Schools: sfca.hawaii.gov/aits.
- Additional Artists in the Schools spotlight posts: sfca.hawaii.gov/category/arts-education/artists-in-the-schools.