Tuesday Panel to Assess 'State of the Arts'

Oct 25, 2015

A "top-flight panel" spanning a wide range of creative media will convene in downtown Honolulu on Tuesday to explore the strengths, weaknesses, and future prospects of the island arts scene.

"State of the Arts – Inspiration for Everyone" is the latest downtown forum presented by the Anthology Marketing Group and ThinkTech Hawaii and sponsored by Hawaii Business magazine. In addition to gauging the current health of the arts in Hawaii, the discussion will steer toward how to make local arts programs stronger.

"What a play! What a cast!" reads the invitation. "Come for an congenial discussion of what’s going on in the arts in Hawaii these days... the successes, the failures and the challenges at hand, and what we can do to achieve global excellence and greater local interest and support."

The panel's specialties and speakers include:

Music: Jonathan Parrish, Executive Director at Hawaii Symphony Orchestra
Opera: Simon Crookall, Executive Director at Hawaii Opera Theatre
Theatre: Deena Dray, Executive Director at Diamond Head Theatre
Dance: Pamela Taylor Tongg, Artistic Director at Ballet Hawaii
Fine Arts: Stephan Jost, Director at the Honolulu Museum of Arts
Ceramics: Yukio Ozaki, Visual Fine Arts Professor at Chaminade University
Digital Arts: Gerard Elmore, Editor and Lecturer at the Academy for Creative Media

An interactive screen powered by locally-grown startup MeetingSift.com will provide real-time audience feedback during the discussion, and facilitate the question and answer session that follows.

Like last month's downtown forum focused on tourism, "State of the Arts" will be hosted at the Anthology Theatre, located on the 8th floor of Pauahi Tower at Bishop Square (1003 Bishop Street). The program will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and lincludes lunch. Advance online registration is $30 or $35 at the door (with student and pair discounts available).