Anna Rice Cooke (1853–1934), daughter of New England missionaries and founder of the Honolulu Museum of Art, in her dedication statement at the opening of the museum on April 8, 1927, said: That our children of many nationalities and races, born far from the centers of art, may receive an intimation of their own cultural legacy and wake to the ideals embodied in the arts of their neighbors ... that Hawaiians, Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Northern Europeans and all other people living here, contacting through the channel of art those deep intuitions common to all, may perceive a foundation on which a new culture, enriched by the old strains may be built in the islands. File:Courtyard at the Honolulu Museum of Art.tif|Courtyard at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Photograph from the National Gallery of Art Library. File:Honolulu Museum of Art Passageway.tif|Passageway at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Photograph from the National Gallery of Art Library. File:Gallery at the Honolulu Museum of Art.tif|Gallery at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Photograph from the National Gallery of Art Library. Born on
Oahu in 1853, Cooke grew up on
Kauai island in a home that appreciated the arts. In 1874, she married
Charles Montague Cooke, and the two eventually settled in Honolulu. In 1882, they built a home on Beretania Street, across from
Thomas Square. As Cooke's career prospered, they gathered their private art collection. First were "parlor pieces" for their home. She frequented the shop of furniture maker Yeun Kwock Fong Inn, who often had ceramics and textile pieces sent from his brother in China. The Cookes' art collection outgrew their home and the homes of their children. In 1920, she and her daughter Alice (Mrs. Phillip Spalding), her daughter-in-law Dagmar (Mrs. Richard Cooke), and
Catharine E. B. Cox (Mrs. Isaac Cox), an art and drama teacher, began to catalogue and research the collection with the intent to display the items in a museum. With little formal training, these women obtained a charter for the museum from the
Territory of Hawaii in 1922 while continuing to catalogue the collection. Cooke wanted a museum that reflected Hawaii's multicultural makeup. Not bound by the traditional western idea of art museums, she also wanted to showcase the island's climate in an open and airy environment, using courtyards that interconnect the galleries. The Cookes donated their Beretania Street land along with an endowment of $25,000. Their home was torn down to make way for the museum. New York architect
Bertram Goodhue designed a classic Hawaiian-style building with simple off-white exteriors and tiled roofs. He died before the project was completed; it was finished by
Hardie Phillip. This style has been imitated in many buildings throughout the state. On April 8, 1927, the Honolulu Museum of Art opened. There was a traditional Hawaiian blessing and the
Royal Hawaiian Band, under the direction of
Henri Berger, played at festivities. With the opening of the museum came gifts of many pieces, sometimes even entire collections. Additions to the original building include a library (1956), an education wing (1960), a gift shop (1965), a cafe (1969), a contemporary gallery, administrative offices and 292-seat theater (1977), and an art center for studio classes and expanded educational programming (1989). In 1999, the museum created a children's interactive gallery, lecture hall, and offices.
The Contemporary Museum and Honolulu Academy of Arts merge The former
Contemporary Museum, Honolulu in
Makiki Heights was integrated into the Honolulu Academy of Arts in July 2011. The academy's board of trustees voted in December 2011 to change the museum's public name to the Honolulu Museum of Art as of March 2012, retaining its legal name as the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The former Contemporary Museum, or
Spalding House, became the Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House, the Art Center at Linekona became the
Honolulu Museum of Art School, and The Contemporary Museum at
First Hawaiian Center became the Honolulu Museum of Art at First Hawaiian Center.
Sale of Spalding House On July 16, 2019, the museum announced that its board of trustees would sell
Spalding House in an effort to "allow the museum to focus its resources on its main campus at Beretania Street." Interim director and trustee Mark Burak said: "From a fiduciary standpoint, we've taken a very long and hard look at this from all angles. While the Spalding House property's beauty and historic significance make it hard to part with, it has also been challenging splitting our attention between two large, resource-intensive art campuses, one limited by several factors that have made it difficult to deliver the kind of quality art exhibitions, programs and services we have desired." Trustee and chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee Jim Pierce added: "The committee concluded unanimously that it would be to the long-term benefit of HoMA to prepare
Spalding House for sale. We are fortunate to have a board and employees who carefully evaluate all options for the future and are continually making changes to ensure that we maintain the solid financial footing necessary to fulfill our mission. Making and enabling this decision has been determined to represent good business practice for the long term." Following these comments regarding the fiduciary responsibility of the Board, many community members speculated about the institution's wellbeing. In his editorial Loss Of Spalding House A Reminder Old Money Alone Won't Sustain The Arts, Sterling Higa speculated about the financial history of the institution, widespread urban development across Honolulu, and the arrival of new foreign investment. He writes: "Our islands play host to out-of-state wealth. Japanese, Canadian and Chinese money pours in. Silicon Valley billionaires plant roots. Given the context, it seems likely that Spalding House will be sold to a foreign buyer, and the grounds will no longer be accessible to the general public. We can pray for salvation, but salvation may not come. Better to hope that the new oligarchy is as generous as the old oligarchy, which bequeathed us relics like Spalding House."
Directors • Interim Penni Hall: 2025 to present • Halona Norton-Westbrook: 2020 to 2025 • Sean O’Harrow: 2017 to 2019 • Stephan Jost: 2011 to 2016 • Stephen Little: 2003 to 2010 • George R. Ellis: 1982 to 2003 • James W. Foster: 1963 to 1982 • Robert P. Griffing, Jr.: 1947 to 1963 • Edgar C. Schenck: 1935 to 1947 • Kathrine McLane Jenks: 1929 to 1935 • Catharine E. B. Cox: 1927 to 1928 • Frank M. Moore: 1924 to 1927 ==Education==