Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park
On Sacred Ground – An intimate collection of hula images by Dino Morrow
March 30 – May 5, 2019
As the Island of Hawaiʻi prepares for the annual Merrie Monarch Festival, the week-long celebration of Hula featuring the acclaimed hula competition, the Volcano Art Center welcomes you to the exhibition On Sacred Ground – An intimate collection of hula images by Dino Morrow. The exhibit highlights the Hula Arts At Kīlauea Program, which features free monthly Hula Kahiko Performances and other hula related arts on a year-round basis in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, through the documentary photography of Dino Morrow. The exhibit opens on Saturday, March 30th at the Volcano Art Center Gallery in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. The public is invited to an opening reception with the artist that same evening from 5 to 7pm.
Morrow is a documentary and portrait photographer who specializes in candid shots of indigenous and local cultures. His current focus is to witness and respectfully document Hawaiian and indigenous cultures as an intimate and traditional expression: sense of place, identity, connection, art, values, spirituality and offering. For Morrow, the ultimate value of an image is given when the participants accept the perspective, composition and feeling to be honorable and authentic. In order to achieve this, he relies on a personal connection with the subject and a keen sense of a deeper understanding from their perspective. In short, Morrow says “Photography, for me, is trying to see what I feel…with a camera.”
The Volcano Art Center is pleased to have had the contribution of this world-class hula and documentary photographer during the 2018 Hula Arts At Kīlauea Program. His strong visual aesthetic and attention to detail paired perfectly with the dynamic location in capturing authentic Hula Kahiko performances and other hula related arts. The Hula Arts At Kīlauea Program offers the following activities, free of charge, year-round: monthly live outdoor Hula Kahiko Performances paired with hands-on cultural demonstrations, weekly Aloha Friday programs which offer short classes on a wide range of hula arts, monthly Hula Voices presentations featuring evening “talk story” sessions with hula practitioners and an annual May Day Celebration. The performances and hands-on activities given by recognized Hawai’i Island resident practitioners provide a greater awareness of the hula arts as a cultural experience and as a way to feel a deep connection to the environment. The non-performance hula activities provide intimate, hands-on, enriching experiences to participants. All VAC Hula Arts Programs help support cultural practitioners in perpetuating the hula arts and in sharing the Aloha Spirit.
These ongoing programs allow the Volcano Art Center to continue its long tradition of culturally rich programming. Support from Hawaiʻi Tourism’s Community Enrichment Program allows these programs to be shared with visitors to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. For a complete schedule of events please visit www.volcanoartcenter.org/hula-arts/ or call 808-967-7565. The Volcano Art Center invites you to view the beauty and experience last year’s events by visiting the exhibition Ancient Hula Through the Photographer’s Lens by Dino Morrow. The photography exhibition will be on display through May 5th.
A special evening presentation by Morrow will be held on Thursday, April 18th starting at 6:30pm. The evening program will share the extensive collection of intimate images captured during various hula performances. The presentation will take place at the Ni‘aulani Campus of the Volcano Art Center, located at 19-4074 Old Volcano Road, in Volcano Village. Volcano Art Center is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization created in 1974 whose mission is to promote, develop and perpetuate the artistic, cultural and environmental heritage of Hawaii through arts and education. Please visit www.volcanoartcenter.org for more information.