Hawaiian Kapa Arts with Dalani Tanahy ***CANCELED

Hawaiian Kapa Arts with Dalani Tanahy *** CANCELED

Enjoy a hands-on learning experience in the art of Hawaiian Kapa making. Kapa is the traditional bark cloth of not only the Pacific but in many places around the globe. In our class you will learn about the history, art, demise, and rebirth of Hawaiian kapa as you strip and beat the wauke tree bark, learn about traditional designs and create and use some designs of your own, and get a glimpse into the mystery of making and using natural dyes. At the end of class, you will have done the initial beating of a piece of kapa, carved your own ohe kapala bamboo stamp and a “fourth-grade friendly” stamp, printed on a canvas bag and created a dye sampler on a piece of Fijian masi bark cloth.

Dalani Tanahy of O‘ahu-based Kapa Hawaii will be teaching this “Hawaiian Kapa Arts” workshop on Sunday, April 5, 2020, from 10am – 1pm at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village, the day after the opening of the lauhala and kapa exhibit at VAC Gallery, where she is exhibiting together with master lauhala weaver and artist Ka‘eo Izon from April 4 through May 10.

The class fee is $60/$55 VAC members plus a $35 supply fee. All tools and materials will be supplied by the instructor. Advance registration is required.

Dalani Tanahy is an expert in kapa-making, or the making of bark cloth, and is the proprietor of Kapa Hawaii LLC. She has taught children and adults about kapa in Hawaiʻi’s schools for over 20 years, imparting some of the knowledge she gained from hours studying kapa collections in museums in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere. She has produced kapa clothing for hula hālau and has expanded traditional kapa designs into hotels and other modern settings. Her work has been exhibited at the British Museum in London, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, and the Bishop Museum. In 2015, Tanahy was one of a dozen Native Hawaiian artists who were selected for the first Native Hawaiian Fellowships by the Native Arts and Culture Foundation.