Where should public art go in Maui County? Survey seeks community input

The National Endowment for the Arts awarded Maui County with a $30,000 grant that will support SMALL TOWN * BIG ART’s creative placemaking program in Wailuku Town, and to make plans for countywide expansion.

Over the next two years, the Grants for Arts Project award will fund efforts to sustain and develop place-based, culturally rooted public art collaborations in Wailuku; design and implement public art activities in up to three new Maui County neighborhoods; and deliver a public art master plan for the County of Maui. 

To help identify which Maui County neighborhoods would be a good match for the art project, you can take this survey.

Unlike grants, which award funds to artists based on a proposal of what they envision, this program commissions artists to co-create pieces that address public priorities and community needs that are particular to place.

These pieces reveal themselves through a process of community consultations, artist workshops, panel discussions, public paint and play days, and the guidance of Hale Hōʻikeʻike at the Bailey House/ Maui Historical Society. This process lends equal value to the process and the product and boosts co-ownership of the resulting work of art by each and every individual who participates. 

What was successful for Wailuku Town’s SMALL TOWN * BIG ART program might look different for another neighborhood. Each neighborhood will have a new name for its respective public art program.

The foundation will be the same: people who are willing to share their feedback, places where the artwork can live, and stories about the history and culture of the neighborhood.