The Public Art Podcast
”Episodes” talk story with the artists, community members, project facilitators, small business owners, supporters and story holders working together to envision Wailuku as an arts district. ”Hui Mo‘olelo” and ”Talk Story” posts explore Maui sense of place, later forming the basis for annual requests for proposals to be interpreted as a work of public art in collaboration with Maui community members.
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Episodes
Monday Jul 19, 2021
Monday Jul 19, 2021
Get to know internationally-acclaimed light art phenom Andy Behrle, who led Wailuku's SMALL TOWN * BIG ART program's very first community collaboration in the Fall of 2019. Following four months of project development, Andy worked with dozens of community members to research, reimagine and refine a light installation depicting a stained glass window from St. Anthony’s Church before it was lost to a devastating fire in 1977. Through hours of footage collected at different points of the Wailuku River, panes of glass were replaced with visions of water. Inspired by ʻōlelo Ma ka hana ka ‘ike (in working, one learns), the piece was on view for one night only, projected onto the historic ʻĪao Theater, yet has lived on as an exemplary moment of Wailuku community building, historic preservation and outstanding public art. Learn more at https://www.smalltownbig.org/behrle.html.
Friday Jul 16, 2021
Friday Jul 16, 2021
A visual artist, Associate Professor, Humanities Department Chair and Visual Arts Program Coordinator at University of Hawaiʻi Maui College, Michael Takemoto's November 2020 ʻAlalā Renaissance brought pre-registered, socially-distanced artists together in Wailuku, HI to insert hundreds of brightly colored chalk ʻalalā silhouettes throughout town in an expression of hope, rebirth and healing. “I want people to realize what a powerful tool the arts are. Not only the visual arts, but spoken art; it’s all about the human experience,” shares Takemoto, “looking to the ʻalalā and their plight kind of reflects on our own experience now. We’ve been locked up for - I don't know how many months - and we see that not only are the ʻalalā fragile but so are human beings, so it’s a bigger idea not only of them but of us as well. Relating one person to another, relating our history, our mana'o, from one generation to another and how we hope to perpetuate this and continue this art for our community.” Learn more at https://www.smalltownbig.org/takemoto.html
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Meet sculptor Jessica Kay Bodner, a hybrid Hawaii-Montana-based artist specializing in woven steel vessel forms reminiscent of archeological artifacts. From large nautilus forms to abstract gestures, metal is twisted and hewn to create woven thickets where light and shadow pass through creating an interplay between the natural backdrop, the changing seasons and direction of the sun. Learn more about her ST*BA piece Hīnaʻi (December 2019) at https://www.smalltownbig.org/bodner.html.
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Recorded in July 2021, Amanda shares her experiences creating the Wailuku Town public artworks Resemble The 'Alalā (February 2019), Pō Meke‘au (December 2019) and Haʻahaʻa (June 2021), all of which can be found at https://www.smalltownbig.org/art.html.