Vol. 103 No. 2
The student-run newspaper of McKinley High School
Established in 1920
Bridging Art: Past, Present HoMA Exhibits Work of McKinley Artists
These students attended the opening reception to see their work featured at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Leialoha Orta is below her green painting; Audrey Tajiri is below her tiger art; Shanna Nguyen is beside her pink painting.
by Malia Manuel In an exciting and vibrant fusion of creativity and education, McKinley High School and its Art Department collaborated with the Honolulu Museum of Art to give McKinley student artists an opportunity to display their work with their own exhibit in the museum. This exhibit, in addition to revealing the skillful artistry of the MHS students, pays homage to the alum that heavily influenced the Modernism Art Movement in Hawai’i, as well as fostered a deeper gratitude amongst people toward its roots.
The exhibit runs to Jan.12, 2025. General admissions cost $25, $15 for kama’aina, and free for members of the museum and kids age 18 and under. It is open on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm and Friday until 9 p.m. Home of the Tigers: How It Happened The “Home of the Tigers” exhibit began when the Honolulu Museum of Art found a common thread between multiple substantial-artists originating from Hawai’i: all graduated from McKinley High School. The artists are Satoru Abe, Raymond Han, Ralph Iwamoto, Imaikalani Kalahele, Keichi
Kimura, Robert Kobayashi and John Chin Young. The exhibit also recognized their teachers: Minnie Fujita, Charles Higa and Shirley Russell. Eren Star Padilla, an art teacher at MHS and a life-long artist, was involved in getting the ball rolling on this event. She met the curators the year before at an art show she had done in Waikiki with her students called Young Contemporaries. “Just through luck and me being in the art scene community, I met the people who run that organization and we got involved highlighting our McKinley students,” Padilla said. See MUSEUM p. 2 RS 25-0570