2022
The Gathering Project
The Gathering Project intended to reactivate the role of ʻIolani Palace as a gathering place for discussions of local and global concern as well as futuristic and innovative thinking. In this act of gathering, we looked to time, place and each other to address urgent topics and empower our community through exchange and connection. The Gathering Project was held on three Fridays during Spring 2022.
For six years, CONTACT created space for the most innovative, comprehensive, and disruptive contemporary art exhibition in Hawaiʻi. Founded in 2014, the idea for CONTACT can be traced back to the 2012 ‘Ike Le‘a symposium, which stressed the need to revitalize Hawai‘i’s contemporary art scene and to raise our collective awareness of Maoli (Native Hawaiian) artists. In 2019, Pu’uhonua Society, presenter of CONTACT, closed the exhibition with Acts of Faith. This final show set the sun on an exhibition that saw more than four hundred artists, performers, writers, curators, and arts professionals, participating from across the Hawaiian Islands. With the completion of Acts of Faith, the publication of CONTACT 2014–2019 followed, cataloging the six exhibitions with newly commissioned essays. Edited by co-founders Drew Broderick and Maile Meyer, as well as Josh Tengan and Marika Emi, this publication serves as document, archive, and celebration of Hawai‘i’s rich, ongoing cultural and creative legacy.