Pauline Adamek
Hula has been a part of Indigenous Hawaiian culture for hundreds of years. Hula was a way of passing along knowledge from generation to generation. Over the past two centuries, hula has transitioned from a sacred ritual practice to a tourist attraction, becoming a target of appropriation as it gained popularity in American popular culture.
Two new exhibitions can be experienced at Catalina Museum for Art & History.
Through original artifacts, music, and related ephemera, including historical photographs exploring the Hawaiian craze of the late 1890s to the present, visitors are invited to dance their way through the gallery and directly into challenging histories of authenticity, American colonialism, appropriation, complicity and resistance.
From the press release:
Skirting Issues: Hula Moves Stateside opens on March 18, 2023 and will be open through Fall of 2023. Through original artifacts, music, and related ephemera, including historical photographs exploring the Hawaiian craze of the late 1890s to the present, visitors are invited to dance their way through the gallery and directly into challenging histories of authenticity, American colonialism, appropriation, complicity and resistance.
Additionally Tall Tiki Tales: Catalina as a South Seas Island, currently open through September 3, 2023, explores Catalina Island’s contribution, as a film set, in the evolution and popularization of tiki culture—tracing the origins from adventure books, their adaptations into Hollywood films, to the subsequent South Seas-themed restaurants and bars that dotted the country beginning in the mid-1930s. Tall Tiki Tales is curated by the author, tiki scholar, and cinematographer Sven Kirsten and includes artifacts, film ephemera, original books and artwork that showcase the evolution of stories and culture, in addition to an interactive one-of-a-kind tropical immersive experience designed by master tiki bar designer Bamboo Ben.
For more information about Tall Tiki Tales: Catalina as a South Seas Island exhibition at Catalina Museum for Art & History, visit CatalinaMuseum.org/Upcoming-Exhibits. For more information about the Crossing Waters: Contemporary Tongva Artists Carrying Pimugna exhibition, visit CatalinaMuseum.org/whats-happening.
The Catalina Museum for Art & History offers the best in art and history exhibitions, music and dance performances, lectures by guest speakers from all over the world, and the finest in silent, documentary and international film. The museum is located in the heart of Avalon at 217 Metropole Avenue.
Catalina Museum for Art & History is open Tuesday through Sunday and closed on Mondays.
To stay connected, follow the museum’s social media platforms @CatalinaMuseum on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
