Keywords

Inherent Expression

We believe in an expansive definition of the Arts. Arts and culture is both tangible and intangible and fluid in community practice. These are learned, passed on by ancestors and also shaped by the public sphere. It can be found in our cultural institutions such as taiko dojos, temples, and museums; in our rituals and celebrations like lion dances and pig roasts; as well as in the ways in which we greet our neighborhood elders as ‘kapuna’ or ‘pau pau.’ Arts and culture are vital to our sustainability and growth—and should not be commodified, appropriated or colonized. They are a means of resistance, of bringing us together, and imagining new futures.