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Hawaiian Vacation for Two!

The Isaacs Art Center at Hawaii Preparatory Academy

Published: 08/09/2007

WAIMEA, Big Island of Hawaii—It's been five years in the making and now, thanks to much planning and a good dose of fate, dreams are being realized as the Isaacs Art Center at Hawaii Preparatory Academy enters its second year of operation.

The 5,580 square-foot art center, which previously provided classroom space for the local school since it was built in 1915, was moved to its current site in June 2002 and painstakingly restored to its former glory over the next 20 months.

“The structure was built with old-growth lumber; the spectacular flooring is old Douglas fir,” says Bernard Noguès, director of the Isaacs Art Center. “Historic buildings already are very hard to find, and we are particularly fortunate because this building is in very good condition.”

With community support, the building was placed on the State Register of Historic Places in March 2003. In 2005, the building was nominated by the state of Hawaii to be included on the National Register of Historic Places. The project recently was recognized with a Preservation Honor Award from the Historic Hawaii Foundation.

Showcase pieces in the school's permanent collection include four engravings by Albrecht Dürer, the foremost, most celebrated German engraver of his time, or perhaps all time, according to Noguès. “He worked between the late fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth century,” he says. The four examples we have of his work are very fine, including ‘Nemesis,' one of his most celebrated engravings.”

The Isaacs Art Center gallery offers for sale rare examples of works by the leading Hawaii artists of the twentieth and late nineteenth centuries, Asian furniture and objets d'art, masterpieces of wood sculptures, and selected collectibles of the highest quality. All proceeds benefit the school's financial aid program.

Among the significant works on exhibit are Madge Tennent's “Girl in Red,” “Lei Queen Fantasia,” and “Hawaiians Hanging Holoku,” as well as Herb Kawainui Kane's “The Arrival of Captain Cook at Kealakekua Bay In January 1779.”

“We also have large collections of Jean Charlot's works—oils, serigraphs, and lithographs going as far back as the 1920s and 1930s,” notes Noguès. “We have several oils by Martha Greenwell, Margaret Fleming Waldron, and Shirley Russell. We have a very substantial collection of etchings and drypoints by Huc Luquiens and Horatio Nelson Poole, as well as very large paintings and some spectacular watercolors by Ben Norris.”

“We are most pleased to be associated with the art center,” says George Isaacs, lead donor of the Isaacs Art Center restoration project. “I think a lot of great art could end up here.”

“The Isaacs Art Center will add a dimension to our school that very few others have,” says Noguès. “Art brings a dimension to a community that is very special. This is an extraordinary addition to our school community and to our local community.

“Right now, there isn't very much on the west side (of the Big Island) in terms of an art museum with significant works of art or regular events,” says Noguès, who hopes to bring traveling exhibits from other major museums to the center. “I think one of the most exciting aspects about this center will be the art shows, exhibits, and retrospectives that will be presented, which I think will be unique.”

And even if art is not your thing, Noguès emphasizes the historical significance of the building. “Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of students sat in these rooms since 1915 and many soldiers spent time here when the building was converted into a field hospital during World War II.”

Locations

Big Island

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