Featuring Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (SFCA) grant recipients and SFCA grant funded projects.
Francis “Palani” Sinenci
Hawaiian Hale Builder from Hana, Hawaiʻi. Dedicated to revitalizing the traditional Hawaiian art form of building thatched houses called hale, Sinenci leads the construction of countless new architectural structures and is training the next generation of practitioners to carry on the practice.
Sinenci also received SFCA Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grants between 2000 and 2017 for Hale Kahiko (Indigenous Architecture) and Master Hale Builder.
Read the full press release on the NEA website: arts.gov/news/press-releases/2022/national-endowment-arts-announces-2022-nea-national-heritage-fellows
Kumu Hula Auliʻi Mitchell
“Hānau Hou Ka Hula Kiʻi: Rebirthing Hula Kiʻi in the 21st Century” exhibit, curated by Kumu Hula Auliʻi Mitchell. July 10-30, 2022. For more information, please visit the DAC website: DowntownArtHI.org.
Mitchell received an SFCA Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant in 2020 for Hula Kiʻi: A Tradition of Hawaiian Puppetry.
Jeff Peterson
Kī Hoʻalu (Hawaiian slack key guitar) master Jeff Peterson has written and published an instructional method book, a project he had been thinking about for a long time to make learning traditional slack key methods more accessible and to perpetuate the art. Cultural and creative economic sectors have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. “I lost all of my regular gigs, which I did for over twenty years six nights a week”, said Peterson. “I want to keep recording and releasing projects, but it is challenging financially.” He had over 2.5 million song streams on a popular online platform last year, yet received less than $1000 from those streams. “I have had to learn to transition to other types of work.”
Funding from the SFCA American Rescue Plan grant helped Peterson learn to write, edit, and compile books, which he now hopes to do as a series. Read more on the SFCA website: sfca.hawaii.gov/sfca-arp-grant-spotlight-jeff-peterson/
Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation
Two recent presentations by the Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation (HHF) are now available online. “The Preservation of the Nancy Bannick Collection at the Hawaiʻi State Archives” (YouTu.be/C9LOliTkoMg) features a project funded in part by the SFCA through an SFCA American Rescue Plan Grant to filmmaker Robin Lung, and “The Honokaʻa Story Map Project: Presentation and Panel Discussion” (YouTu.be/0t2Ojm5hkBM) features a project funded in part by the SFCA.
SFCA Email Newsletter
Originally published in the July 2022 SFCA email newsletter.