Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center’s Board of Directors is pleased to announce the permanent appointment of Anne-Marie Forsythe as Executive Director. Previously she had been announced as the Interim Executive Director. Anne-Marie will continue to oversee all operations and fundraising. While transitioning into her new role the Hui embarked on their first mobile off-island field trip to Moloka’i with support from The Samuel N. & Mary Castle Foundation.
On December 18, Teaching Artists Emilia De Castro and Megan Pripusich taught a hands-on visual art lesson to eighteen (18) 3–5 year olds from Kamehameha Kalamaʻula Preschool. The children learned art vocabulary and concepts while creating a mixed-media artwork with watercolor and collage. The students were educated about the ‘ohia lehua, mamaki, and Kamehameha butterfly, which formed the subjects of their art pieces. “The Hui is thrilled to be able to support arts education for students on the island of Molokai. We have been able to reach Maui preschoolers in Hana in previous years but have been striving to visit Molokai for some time. It was incredibly rewarding to see this field trip come to fruition. At the Hui, we believe arts education should be accessible to all and this includes those students living in more remote areas of Maui and our entire Maui County,” said Executive Director Anne-Marie Forsythe.
This mobile field trip was one part of the Hui’s Preschool Arts Program, which annually serves 400 Maui preschool students and more than 100 teacher and family chaperones with hands-on visual arts education programs. The program is designed to support children of ages of 5 years and younger through exploratory art activities, gallery tours, and artist demonstrations. By encouraging creative exploration and arts awareness early in a child’s life, Hui No‘eau is providing a framework for the development of cognitive and fine motor skills, social awareness, and emotional regulation that will serve children as they continue to grow and thrive. The Preschool Arts Program is supported by the Samuel N. & Mary Castle Foundation. The Samuel N. & Mary Castle Foundation, founded in 1894, is one of America’s oldest foundations. The Foundation’s purpose is to support equal opportunity for young children to thrive in school. The Foundation concentrates its efforts in places where there are barriers to educational success.
About Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center
Hui No‘eau is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, community-based, visual arts education organization offering open access to quality visual arts instruction by professional teaching artists and arts opportunities through year round youth and adult art classes, exhibitions, outreach programs, community art events, and more. The Hui is open to the public daily from 9am–4pm with free admission. www.huinoeau.com
