Day One of the ʻAkiapōlaʻau mural installation (photo by Joe Poellot)

(BIVN) – A new mural featuring an endangered native Hawaiian bird is being installed in Hilo.

Artist Andrea Holmes is painting The Akiapōlaʻau Mural on the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s Science and Technology Building over Thanksgiving week. The mural is being sponsored by the Friends of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge.

From a Friends of Hakalau Forest NWR news release:

The Friends of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge (FOHF) will be sponsoring a series of murals around Hawaiʻi Island over the next few years to raise awareness and inform our community about our endangered forest birds and plants at both the Hakalau and Kona Forest Units of the Refuge.

In 2014, the Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project started this artistic movement with the well-known Palila mural on Mamo Street in Downtown Hilo painted by local artist, Kathleen Kam with funds provided by the American Bird Conservancy. At the time, the goal of the mural was described as “to inspire and educate the community about the Palila and how the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is preserving this special, native bird and the māmane-naio forest they depend upon”.

The Akiapōlaʻau Mural, to help support DLNR’s Year of the Forest Birds, is being painted by Andrea Holmes, a young Texas muralist who specializes in birds. The endangered ʻAkiapōlaʻau will be installed at UH Hilo’s Science and Technology Building Thanksgiving week.

Andrea Holmes and Kumu Ola Jenkins blessing the mural site (photo by Joe Poellot)

Holmes, who has a bachelor’s in arts and technology, has been a fulltime artist since 2017, and is the host of Birdtober (a daily art challenge during October where she creates two prompt lists – national and international birds – one for each day). Last month, artists uploaded 13,500 social media posts using the hashtag #birdtober2024. Those who complete the challenge of submitting artwork each day receive Birdtober stickers and postcards.

Andrea is perhaps even better known as a muralist specializing in birds. This year, she created a new mural project “Wings Across the World” with a goal of creating 100 bird murals around the world; 10 in Texas cities, 49 – one in each other states and 41 more across the world. The Friends of Hakalau Forest contacted Andrea upon learning about the global project and formed a partnership, resulting in our upcoming ʻAkiapōlaʻau mural in Hilo.

In 2025 to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Refuge, the Friends of Hakalau Forest will invite local artists to submit designs for our second mural on Hawaiʻi Island. One design will be selected to be painted on an appropriate wall, perhaps in Kailua-Kona.