Blue Sea Artisans honoring Felicia Fry during August
In remem-brance of member artist and watercolor painter Felicia Fry the Blue Sea Artisans Gallery will be featuring her work for the month of August.
Fry graduated from Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Canada, in 1948. She took many workshops and lessons from well-known artists. In the 1980s she moved to Kona with her late husband, Miles. She was an active member of cooperative galleries in Kona for 33 years, and was one of the co-founders of the Kailua Village Artist Gallery in 1987 and was a working member over two and a half decades. She joined the Blue Sea Artisans in 2013 as a working member artist. She painted with West Hawaii Plein Air Group at various scenic locations around Kona over 15 years. Many of her plein air paintings are displayed at the gallery.
Fry was an inspiration to the art world in Kona over three deacdes. Her contributions and dedication to the cooperative galleries, her vision and humor will always be remembered and missed by artists and friends that shared the journey with her along the way. She was humble and gracious until the very end. At 94 years old, she passed away on May 11.
The gallery, located in the Keauhou Shopping Center, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 6 p.m. on Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
For more information, call the gallery at (808) 329-8000.
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KVA featuring marine art this month
The Kailua Village Artists featured theme artist for the month of August is marine art, a collective art exhibit by all member artists of the gallery.
The Kailua Village Artists Gallery has been a local co-operative gallery since 1987. The gallery is owned and operated by its resident member artists and is now the oldest co-operative gallery in the state. All art featured in the gallery is made on the Big Island by KVA’s 17 artists.
The gallery is located at 75-5729 Alii Drive, Suite C-110, in the Kona Marketplace in Kailua-Kona. It is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
For more information, call (808) 329-6653 or visit www.kailuavillageartists.com.
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Kahilu Theatre welcomes new board members
Kahilu Theatre Thursday announced the addition of two new members to its Board of Directors: Kapena Alapa’i and Mari-Ela Chock. Alapa‘i has also been elected board president.
Alapa‘i joined the board after serving on Kahilu’s DEIA Committee and Community Engagement taskforce. He currently serves as project and development Coordinator for Arts in a Changing America, which has a mission to reframe the national arts conversation by embracing the cultural assets of demographic change. ArtChangeUS is creating a vast network of artists, idea producers, and organizations that serves as an urgently needed catalyst to bring unheard leadership voices to the forefront of social discourse, arts production, and community change.
With family roots in Puuanahulu and Holualoa, Alapa‘i is a graduate of Ka Haka Ula O Ke‘elikōlani Hawaiian Language College at University of Hawaii at Hilo and holds a master’s degree in arts and cultural management from Pratt Institute in New York City. He is a graphic artist, arts administrator, and culture bearer whose passions come from the intersection of Hawaiian history and culture, artistic expression, and community benefit. Alapa‘i plans to focus his stewardship on community benefit and agency within the theatre, creating local economic opportunity and building equitable relationships with the cultural assets of Hawaii Island.
A 10-year resident of Waimea, Chock also joined the board after first serving on Kahilu Theatre’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Committee. As a child of Filipino immigrants growing up in the Bay Area, Chock understands the importance of DEIA and cares about shaping environments such that everyone is valued, respected, and feels safe being their true authentic selves
Chock is the communications officer for W. M. Keck Observatory and is a member of the External Relations team, which leads community engagement efforts as part of the organization’s commitment to a thriving Hawaii Island community. Prior to that, she was Statewide Engagement Lead for Hawaii’s Blue Zones Project, a national health and well-being initiative where her work involved extensive collaborative efforts from local businesses, schools, government, and community leaders.
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Human rights lawyer to discuss new book
International Human Rights Lawyer and Writer Julian Aguon will discuss his newest book as part of a Hawaii State Judiciary program slated Aug. 27.
Join the conversation with internationally renowned human rights lawyer and writer Julian Aguon as he reflects on his work and his new book, “The Properties of Perpetual Light” from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. via Zoom.
“The Properties of Perpetual Light” is a collection of soulful ruminations about love, loss, struggle, resilience, and power. Part memoir, part manifesto, the book is both a coming-of-age story and a call for justice — for everyone but in particular for indigenous peoples — Aguon’s own and others. His bracing prose and bouts of poetry weave together stories from his childhood in the villages of Guam, with searing political commentary about everything from nuclear weapons to climate change. Aguon deftly deploys the feminist insight that the personal is political, and culls from the light of his own life experiences from losing his father to cancer to working for Mother Teresa to meeting Sherman Alexie in a Spokane bookstore, to illuminate a path out of the darkness.
Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WGoSNEFFQfWq0dzP5VZ99A. Those who need accommodation for a disability should email info@jhchawaii.net or call (808) 539-4999.