Meet the MAMo Planning Commmittee:
Co-Chair: Vicky Holt Takamine
PAʻI Foundation’s Executive Director, Vicky Holt Takamine, is well known throughout the native Hawaiian community as an advocate for tiave rights and social and economic justice. She is also a well known Kumu Hula, has her own hālau hula, is a judge at Merrie Monarch, president of both ʻĪlioʻulaokalani, a grassroots organization of native Hawaiian cultural practitioners and KĀHEA: the Hawaiian Environmental Alliance. Vicky is also a lecturer at teh University of Hawaiʻi and Leeward Community College. She has worked with the native Hawaiian arts community for over thirty years. She was the Conference Director for Healing Our Spirit Worldwide which was held in Honolulu during the month of September 2010. Vicky has pulled together a team of artists and cultural practitioners that form the committee that plans events and activities for MAMo.
Co-Chair: Noelle Kahanu
Project Manager-Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi (March 2000 to present). Noelle has managed several educational projects, including the federally-funded Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations project, the New Trade Winds project, and the Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Cultural Practitioners, Cultural Outreach and Native Hawaiian Arts Market projects. Responsibilities include: managing staff and budgets; developing exhibits and public programming (from community consultation through implementation); writing reports; marketing and public outreach. Recent exhibits include: It’s Naʻau or Newa, Hoʻohuli, Nā Akua Wahine, Lono-I-Ka-Makahiki, E Kū Mau Mau, Kū Everlasting and a traveling exhibit and Hui Panalaʻau-Hawaiian Colonists, American Citizens.
Arts Advisor: Bob Freitas
Freitas is a sculptor whose work involves compsitions which contrast carefully selected materials. Balance is a recurring theme in his work and he enjoys designing installations and insuring that viewers are constantly interacting with art, through the coordination of shows and has, since 2006, been a member of the MAMo planning committee. He continues to participate in international cultural exchanges that focus on issues of evolving contemporary native art in a global marketplace.
MAMo Awardee: Imaikalani Kalāhele
Among the first MAMo Awardees in 2006, Imaikalani Kalāhele was born on Oʻahu and raised in Kalihi, where he currently resides. A husband, father of four and grandfather of ten, Kalāhele is the consummate poet/musician/warrior/artist. Multi-talented and multi-faceted, Kalāhele paints, draws and creates fibrous sculptures, often infused with his long grey hair. His words and works address issues of cultural and social jsutice for the Native Hawaiian people. A prolific artist, Kalāhele is also honored for his work on behalf of the Hawaiian arts community, having organized scores of exhibitions over the last 30 years. He has been a member of the Mao planning commitee since 2006 and has assisted in the coordination of MAMo gallery shows in Downtown.
2012 MAMo Poster Artist: Bernice Akamine
Bernice was the gallery coordinator for the MAMo exhibit at the Wailoa Art Gallery in 2011. She continues to serve as an advisor and participant in MAMo activities. In the spring of 2012, she is participating in an internship at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.
2012 Gallery Coordinator: Duncan Kaohu Seto
Kaohu will serve as the gallery coordinator for the MAMo Exhibit in 2012 at the Wailoa Art Gallery in Hilo, Hawai’i. Kaohu has participated in numerous MAMo exhibits over the last seven years.
