HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0436.012 1998-2000
Millie Kim 645 atadki nad •HiLn HI 96720' Phrme (mil 969-3114•F2L93~~ Emal1• m11~Q)aranei
Thursday October t 4, 1999
TO: Members of the Hawaii County Council
FR: Millie Kim
RE: East Hawaii Cultural Center
1 am sorry I am unable to be at this meeting in person, and 1 hope you will accept instead
this written statement as being read by my friend and East Hawaii Culture Center board
member Kay Yokoyama. I have long been a supporter of this organization because it has
helped many projects see the Ilght of day in the past 10 to 15 years I've come to know it.
In the beginning, as chairman of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts board, I
knew it to be the only "umbrella" culture and arts organization for many big island groups
who wanted to submit grants applications for art workshops and cultural events. For a
long time, it has been the only community-based arts activities center that one could go to
for various types of lessons and workshops, from Okinawan dancing to Lauhala weaving.
It serves the purpose of enhancing what the County Parks and Recreation arts program
does. and extends the reach of the county In this regard.
It is an organization which is presently going through the pains of transition from one
leadership style to another. While this is an enormously slow and drawn out process, its
promise as an arts center for downtown Hilo, the Island and the State continues to be even
more important. It could always be something better, and now is the best time to see what
needs to be done to make this happen. Downtown continues to be in great need of more
places to visit and things to do.
The current leadership is committed to making the East Hawaii Cultural Center focus on
arts education, in partnership with the State Department o/ Education, as well as with
downtown merchants, while at the same time continuing its wide variety of programming
for the community. Its activities hive ranged from "Young at Art", where public school
student art is juried and presented~an opening reception at the Center for several hundred
parents and friends, to sponsorship of the annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival with
well over a thousand in attendance each year. A recent art reception drew almost 800
people, with attendance at the public gallery running an average of 50 people a day. It has
been the venue for islandwide art competitions through the Big Island Arts Guild, and
continues to offer workshop space for drawing sessions and art classes.
For the proposed $1 a year lease rent, the County is heavily subsidizing the arts and
should therefore be a part of the planning and direction for the East Hawaii Cultural
Center. Downtown Hilo is in need of all the color, character, identify and local attractions
it can get for the many rental car tourists and cruise ship visitors who now have discovered
"old Hilo". The high number of repeat .visitors on this island can only help support places
like the East Hawaii Cultural Center.
Your favorable action on approval of a continuing lease at $1 a year for this organization
and the offering of any guidelines and directions for its near and long range future will be
greatly appreciated. Thank you for our time and attention to my statement.
Comm. No.
Ftile No. ~ ~ N
Ref. Tw Present®r~ COUNU ~
OCT 4
Ref. Date