Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center

Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center
Name	Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center
Location	Honolulu, Hawaii
Established	1970s
Type	Cultural center, museum, community space
Founder	Community organizations, civic leaders
Director	Cultural administrators

Contents

Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center is a community-based institution in Honolulu that celebrates the histories, arts, and contemporary cultures of Asian and Pacific Islander peoples. It functions as a hub for artists, scholars, activists, and families connected to communities such as Chinese American, Japanese American, Korean American, Filipino American, Indian American, Vietnamese American, Thai American, Cambodian American, Laotian American, Hmong American, Samoan American, Tongan American, Fijian American, Marshallese, Chamorro, Palauan, Micronesian, Hawaiian People, Native Hawaiian, Kanaka Maoli and diasporic networks across the Pacific Ocean, Asia, Oceania and the United States. It engages with partnering institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Asian American Studies programs at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, and University of Washington.

History

Founded amid a wave of ethnic mobilization in the 1970s that included activism by organizations such as the Asian American Political Alliance, Japanese American Citizens League, Filipino American National Historical Society, Chinese Historical Society of America, and community leaders linked to the Civil Rights Movement, the center grew from neighborhood efforts, arts collectives, and landmark events like the International World Expo-era cultural exchanges. Early collaborations involved activists and cultural figures connected to Yuri Kochiyama, Grace Lee Boggs, Philip Vera Cruz, Larry Itliong, Doris Matsui and Filipino farmworker movements, while academic synergies emerged with scholars from Ronald Takaki, Emma Gee, Guy Kawasaki-era tech and media allies. The center’s archives document migrations tied to treaties such as the Treaty of Waitangi and labor histories involving United States Immigration and Naturalization Service policies, reflecting transnational links to ports like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Honolulu Harbor, Manila, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Bangkok, Hanoi, Suva, Pohnpei and sites of diasporic memory including Angel Island and Ellis Island.

The center’s mission draws on models from institutions such as the Museum of Chinese in America, Japanese American National Museum, Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Filipino American National Historical Society Museum, Polynesian Cultural Center, and the Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), emphasizing cultural preservation, contemporary arts, and social justice. Programs include artist residencies inspired by exchanges with the Asia Society, fellowship models similar to the MacArthur Fellows Program and partnerships with funding bodies like the Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Kresge Foundation, and Hewlett Foundation. Public programming often features collaborations with ensembles such as the Royal Hawaiian Band, Kumu Hula, Chinese Opera troupes, Kabuki practitioners, Bharatanatyam dancers, Taiko groups, Samoan siva afi performers, and writers connected to the PEN America network.

Collections span material culture, visual arts, and ephemera connected to figures and movements represented by holdings similar to those at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, National Museum of the American Indian, and major university archives like Bancroft Library. Exhibitions have featured works by artists and makers comparable to Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, Ai Weiwei, Yoko Ono, Anish Kapoor, Nam June Paik, Lee Mingwei, Rashid Johnson, Ruth Asawa, Isamu Noguchi, Maya Lin, Jeffrey Gibson, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Cai Guo-Qiang, Chiharu Shiota, Do Ho Suh and regional artisans echoing traditions like batik, ikat, kapa cloth, aloalo, tapa cloth, adornment, porcelain, celadon, lacquerware, silk painting and woodblock printing. The archive holds oral histories influenced by projects like the Densho Project and curatorial frameworks paralleling exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, National Gallery of Art, and British Museum.

Educational initiatives align with curricula from institutions such as Kamehameha Schools, Punahou School, Waipahu High School, Kalani High School, University Laboratory School (Ōhālau) and community-based adult learning linked to organizations like AARP and YWCA. Workshops, festivals, and youth programs draw visitors familiar with events like the Honolulu Festival, Cherry Blossom Festival, Obon celebrations, Lunar New Year, Diwali, Songkran, Bon Odori, and commemorations such as Japanese American Day of Remembrance and Filipino Veterans Day. The center runs partnerships with labor and civic groups including United Farm Workers, Migrant Clinicians Network, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance), National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, and arts networks linked to Americans for the Arts.

Governance follows nonprofit models with a board featuring civic leaders, philanthropists, and cultural specialists drawn from networks that include trustees with ties to institutions such as the Boeing Company, Hawaiian Electric Industries, First Hawaiian Bank, Alexander & Baldwin, Kamehameha Schools', and foundations like the Hawaiian Community Foundation. Funding sources include government agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, municipal arts councils like the Honolulu Office of Culture and the Arts, private philanthropy from families connected to Punahou School alumni, corporate sponsorships from Hawaiian Airlines and partnerships with academic grant programs at National Institutes of Health and Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Located near civic landmarks and transit nodes comparable to Ala Moana Center, Iolani Palace, Aloha Tower Marketplace, and Bishop Museum, the center occupies adaptive reuse spaces or purpose-built galleries reflecting architectural dialogues with works by designers associated with Frank Lloyd Wright, Isamu Noguchi, I.M. Pei, Renzo Piano, Kenzo Tange, Kengo Kuma, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid and landscape influences referencing Hawaiian lei traditions, loʻi kalo taro terraces, and coastal site planning found in projects around Waikiki and Kakaʻako. Facilities typically include multiuse galleries, performance halls, classrooms, conservation labs, and archives equipped with climate control comparable to standards at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Category:Cultural centers in Hawaii Category:Asian American culture Category:Pacific Islands culture