(BIVN) – Youth Art Month 2024 is being celebrated in Hilo, with exhibitions at the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center and Kalākaua Park.

From the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center:

March is Youth Art Month on the Big Island, and once again the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center and its collaborators are celebrating with an island-wide exhibition of student artwork and a novel installation in Kalākaua Park. 

From March 1 to March 29, the Park will showcase more than 400 artworks cut from recycled aluminum cans and painted by island children and youth. The cans are shaped into the Hawaiian native plants naupaka, kupu kupu fern, and koa leaves and flowers. 

Some of the painting was done by students from Mt. View, Nāʻālehu and Kohala Elementary Schools during EHCC-sponsored “Art Nights,” free family fun events that included dinner and a take-home art activity along with the native plant painting. 

Keiki who attended EHCC’s free art activities (held each second Saturday of the month) in January and February also contributed to the painting, as well as students from Hilo High School Art Club, Konawaena High School National Art Honor Society, and Haʻaheo Elementary School.

The native plant art in the Park is accompanied by signage and native birds, also fashioned from recycled aluminum cans, made by the Waiākea Intermediate School Art Club under the direction of advisor Carrie Edgil.

This month also includes The 36th annual Young At Art satellite exhibition. Young At Art is a juried exhibition that recognizes the brilliance and creativity of K-12 students on Hawai‘i Island from public, charter, private and home schools. This year’s judges are: artist, muralist, and arts educator Boz Schurr; founder and director of Laulima Nature Center Danya Weber; and PangeaSeed Foundation’s founder and executive director Tré Packard and director of operations Akira Biondo.

The judges selected 221 artworks that are showcased at 22 locations around the island, including the Mayor’s office, the Palace Theater, Queen’s Marketplace, the West Hawai’i Civic Center, Keaʻau Public Library, and more. (See the EHCC website at ehcc.org for a full list of locations.)

Explains EHCC’s Youth Education Director Kellie Miyazu, “This is just the second year that we have expanded Young At Art into the community, instead of hosting it exclusively on our premises. We’ve been able to build on what we learned from our first efforts last year. What really stood out to us was, and that we are thrilled to continue, is making the art accessible to a much wider population of families and keiki across the island, by bringing displays closer to home. And by exhibiting in such diverse locations as Big Island Climbing, the Aupuni Center, and Pahala Public Library, we are reaching – and hopefully delighting – audiences that might not otherwise have an opportunity to visit the gallery.”

For more information, visit EHCC online at ehcc.org, call 961-5711, or visit EHCC at 141 Kalākaua Street. Current gallery and office hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. The gallery is also open on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.