Insider’s Guide to Honolulu Museums
46 cool things to try at O‘ahu’s museums.
Insider’s Guide to Honolulu Museums
46 cool things to try at O‘ahu’s museums.
Galleries & Museums
O‘ahu Museum Ideas: Have Lunch with an Artist at Hawai‘i State Art Museum
The museum includes work from the Art in Public Places Program, dedicated to acquiring, preserving and displaying works of art that relate to the Hawaiian Islands or the culture of its people.
Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum Lets You Climb Into Cockpits
Besides model aircraft and exhibits that depict Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, coast through the skies, dogfight in the air and land on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the museum’s combat flight simulator.
O‘ahu Museum Ideas: Sleep Next to a Volcano at Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
The challenge at this museum has always been how to showcase its 26 million artifacts and objects.
The Bishop Museum’s Melanie Y. Ide on the Future of the World-Class Institution
Melanie Y. Ide, who took the helm of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in January 2018, wants to get the word out.
O‘ahu Museums Ideas: Dance in Front of Homes at Hawai‘i’s Plantation Village
The village is home to 25 structures that depict what life was like for the ethnic groups that lived and worked on Hawai‘i’s plantations.
O‘ahu Museum Ideas: Listen to Stories in a Cemetery at Hawaiian Mission Houses
The mission houses were a site to create and share culture. Two centuries later, they still are.
O‘ahu Museum Ideas: Have a Picnic in Front of Moving Art at HoMA and Spalding House
The Honolulu Museum of Art is a treasure trove of Asian, European, Hawaiian, American and contemporary art.
O‘ahu Museum Ideas: Have Tea at Queen Emma’s Summer Palace
Inside, treasures fill each room: a friendship bracelet containing a lock of English Queen Victoria’s hair; a fireman’s jacket belonging to Emma’s son, Prince Albert Edward; a cloak that survived a bombing in England during World War II
O‘ahu Museum Ideas: Throw a Pier Party at the Battleship “Missouri” Memorial
Best known as the site of the official end of World War II, the USS “Missouri” makes a perfect bookend to the USS “Arizona” Memorial just a few hundred yards off its bow.
O‘ahu Museum Ideas: Return a Royal Relic to ‘Iolani Palace
‘Iolani Palace has shone as a beacon of innovation since 1882, when King Kalākaua first moved in.
Experience Dec. 7, 1941 Virtually at WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument
Spread over nine sites across three states, the WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument honors the people, places and events of World War II in the Pacific theater.
Relive the Vibrant String and Brass Music of Kalākaua’s Reign This January
Award-winning musicians perform “A Night of Sovereign Strings” at the Honolulu Museum of Art on Jan. 12 and 13.
O‘ahu Museum Ideas: Sit in a 19th Century Trial at Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center
The center brings the law to life in a courtroom restored to what it looked like in 1913, with an exhibit depicting the effects of martial law in the Islands.
O‘ahu Museum Ideas: Take a Train Ride at the Hawaiian Railway Society
You can check out local locomotives; watch model trains zip through an expansive miniature landscape; and buy train whistles or exclusive Tori Richard aloha shirts.
Editor’s Page: Hands-On History
Think visiting a Honolulu museum is a spectator sport? That’s history.
These Works of Art by Local Artisans are Available Right Now at Museum Gift Shops
While we’re all for ogling the artwork, style fans know that an expertly curated museum gift shop, showcasing talented local artist-designers, is its own kind of masterpiece.
King Kalākaua’s Newest Birthday Gift Arrives This Week at ‘Iolani Palace
Cultural expert and feather artist brings ancient art to life at the only royal residence in the U.S.
Museum Mystery: Where Are Queen Kapi‘olani’s Victorian Era Jewels From?
The story of how it traveled through the hands of as many as three queens has local museum experts hunting through history.
Insider’s Guide to Free Days at 19 O‘ahu Museums
Bookmark this list and grab your state or military I.D. to take advantage of free admission days all across the island.
Check Out Rare Pieces of Hawaiian Innovation in “Ho‘oulu Hawai‘i” Exhibit
The Honolulu Museum of Art’s newest exhibit includes kingdom telephones, photographs, textiles, royal orders, jewelry from ali‘i collections and more.
New First Friday Brings Major Arts and Music Mojo Back to Chinatown
Headliners include fashion designers, local and Maoli artists, live music, burlesque, art installations, a movie premiere and a Dia de los Muertos sugar mask pop-up.
Hip-Hop and Kung Fu Collide in Pop Culture at HoMA’s Shaw Brother Retrospective
The Honolulu Museum of Art’s Doris Duke Theatre hosts the Shaw Brothers Retrospective, a screening of 30 recently restored films, now through Nov. 2.
Swipe Right for Art: This New App Lets You Experience Honolulu Through Artists’ Eyes
The Art World Escape app lets you select interactive, one-off experiences with local artists as they paint, dance, sculpt and create. In some, you’ll be able to take photos, take part in the creative process or lend your body as a canvas.
