East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center

East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center A vibrant and thriving gathering place centered on art and culture. EHCC is also home to SPACE: a curated store.

Located across from Kalakaua Park in the Old Police Station of Downtown Hilo, the East Hawai'i Cultural Center is a non-profit organization largely run by volunteers, supporting the arts and culture in the Hilo community for over 50 years. Current programs include the Youth Arts Series, Kahua 'Elua Theatre, Gamelan of the Molten Blossom, and exhibitions featuring local and international artists.

Don't forget to stop by the Wailoa Center to see the Young At Art show - last day to see it is March 25th!
03/22/2026

Don't forget to stop by the Wailoa Center to see the Young At Art show - last day to see it is March 25th!

03/13/2026

Due to the unfortunate incoming weather, we have made the hard decision to cancel YAS Fest. ⁣
⁣
We love our arts community and the many hands that went into preparing for this year's event. ⁣
Wishing everyone a safe weekend ☔️⁣

The galleries at East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center will be closed for the month of March as we prepare for our next two exhib...
02/26/2026

The galleries at East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center will be closed for the month of March as we prepare for our next two exhibitions opening in April.

🎨 NOTE: The 38th Young At Art Exhibition is on view at Wailoa Center throughout March 🎉

During this time, our curatorial team will be readying the galleries and installing new work for the experiences ahead. We look forward to welcoming you back at our April opening to share these new exhibitions with our community. Look out for more updates and information in our March e-newsletter and on our website.

✨ All other EHCC programs will continue as scheduled. ✨

Mahalo for your continued support!

🔴 OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS36 Views of Mauna LoaJuried ExhibitionEast Hawaiʻi Cultural Center invites artists to submit work...
01/21/2026

🔴 OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS
36 Views of Mauna Loa
Juried Exhibition

East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center invites artists to submit work for 36 Views of Mauna Loa, a juried exhibition exploring Mauna Loa as landscape, presence, and lived experience.

Inspired by Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, this exhibition considers how artists engage with Mauna Loa, its physical form, cultural meaning, ecological impact, and ongoing transformation. Artists working in all media are encouraged to apply.

Submission Deadline: January 1 ─ 31, 2026

Jurors:
• Kanani Daley
• Stephen Freedman
• Andrzej Kramarz

Selected works will be featured in an exhibition at East Hawaiʻi Cultural Center in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, offering artists the opportunity to be part of a powerful, place-based dialogue rooted in Hawaiʻi Island.

Submit Your Work: Apply now at ARTCALL.ORG
Visit the submission page for full guidelines and eligibility details:
https://36viewsofmaunaloa.artcall.org

Additional questions? Email [email protected]

Tides: Gender Beyond the Binary in OceaniaPanel Discussion with with Keiva Lei Cadena, Lenore Kuʻumeaaloha Gomes, & Pete...
01/06/2026

Tides: Gender Beyond the Binary in Oceania
Panel Discussion with with Keiva Lei Cadena, Lenore Kuʻumeaaloha Gomes, & Peter Tuiolosega Silva. Moderated by Rodney "Ni" Powell.
January 10th, 2026 from 3 - 5 pm.

As part of the TIDES exhibition, this January panel discussion brings together powerful Indigenous Pacific voices to explore how gender long understood across Oceania beyond Western binaries has endured, adapted, and returned through culture, care, and resistance. Featuring Keiva Lei Cadena, a Native Hawaiian transgender advocate and cultural practitioner; Kuʻumeaaloha Gomes, a revered Hawaiian healer, educator, and early leader of Nā Mamo o Hawaiʻi; Rodney “Ni” Powell, a Pacific Island social worker, tattooist, and longtime UTOPIA collaborator; and Peter Tuiolosega Silva, CEO of Kumukahi Health and Wellness and decades long māhū and LGBTQ advocate, the panel reflects on community led movements like UTOPIA and Nā Mamo o Hawaiʻi and asks how gender moves like tides shaped by displacement, resilience, and return.

🔸 Photos of "Tides: Gender Beyond the Binary in Oceania" exhibition now available to view online 🔸Featuring works from F...
12/19/2025

🔸 Photos of "Tides: Gender Beyond the Binary in Oceania" exhibition now available to view online 🔸

Featuring works from FAFASWAG Collective, Connie M. Florez, Adriana Māhanga Lear, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, and Peter Waples- Crowe.
On view December 6th 2025 - February 27th, 2026.

This exhibition delves into the fluid and evolving concept of the non-binary gender in Oceania – a historically recognized identity in many Pacific cultures. Notes Kramarz, “Just as the tides are shaped by the gravitational forces of the moon, sun, and Earth's orbit, our identities are continually formed by a complex interplay of time, external pressures, and cultural forces. Before Christian colonization, many Oceanic societies embraced a wide spectrum of gender identities beyond the binary of male and female. These third-gender roles were an integral part of the social and spiritual fabric of communities.”

The exhibition showcases painting, photography, film, multimedia, and performance by four artists and the FAFSWAG collective.

This exhibition was made possible by funding from the County of Hawai’i and McInerny Foundation - Bank of Hawai’i, Trustee.

Full description and photos at the exhibition webpage: https://ehcc.org/content/tides-gender-beyond-binary-oceania
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🎁 Stop by this Saturday, November 29 from 10am - 2pm start your holiday shopping early! 🛍 🌈 Come check out the opening o...
11/28/2025

🎁 Stop by this Saturday, November 29 from 10am - 2pm start your holiday shopping early! 🛍

🌈 Come check out the opening of our Pop-Up Shop for some unique holiday gift shopping! Featured item is ʻImpermanenceʻ, a collection of works by Shingo Honda.

✨ Shop will only be open for the remaining Saturdays in November. Don't miss this opportunity!

easthawaii downtownhilo books shingohonda photography visualart presentation art gifts shoplocal donation nonprofit supportthearts

✨️Stop by on Saturday and start your holiday shopping early! ✨️
11/21/2025

✨️Stop by on Saturday and start your holiday shopping early! ✨️

EHCC is pleased to host Puʻuhonua Society for an information session about their 2026 Hoʻākea Source Grant Cycle, a prog...
11/18/2025

EHCC is pleased to host Puʻuhonua Society for an information session about their 2026 Hoʻākea Source Grant Cycle, a program created in partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program. This year, Hoʻākea Source will award $122,000 directly to artists, art collectives, and cultural practitioners across Hawaiʻi.

Since its launch in 2024, the program has supported 22 artists, art collectives, and cultural practitioners with more than $150,000 in unrestricted funding. Thanks to generous support from the Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation and the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, this upcoming grant cycle expands statewide and, for the first time, offers dedicated funding for cultural practitioners whose work is rooted in Hawaiian material practices.

Awarded projects have ranged from experimental publications and community-based efforts to contemporary dance films, cultural archiving, activist mapping projects, service-learning trips, and joyful explorations of māhū identity. This information session will offer an overview of the grant program, eligibility, and application process. For the upcoming 2025-2026 grant cycle Hoʻākea Source announces a new set of strategic priorities, as a cyclical evolution to the program and as a response to current events affecting Hawaiʻi nei.

- Moemoeā (Dreams): Proposals that begin from a place beyond waking life; proposals that highlight the fantastic potential of the unrealized or yet-to-be; proposals that imagine alternative
ways of being and knowing…

- Puʻuhonua (Refuges): Proposals that revolve around individuals, groups, communities, spaces, times, and/or places of sanctuary; proposals that counteract the violence of daily life
under ongoing U.S. occupation…

- Ea (Freedoms): Proposals that embody life, breath, sovereignty, self-determination, and/or independence; proposals that address obstacles to and/or clear pathways for Indigenous growth, health, and wellbeing. Proposals that rise…

With an official launch date of November 28, 2025 to coincide with Lā Kūʻokoʻa, Hawaiian Independence Day, full program details can be found at hoakeasource.org and general inquiries can be emailed to [email protected].

We are excited to welcome Puʻuhonua Society to EHCC and invite our community to learn more about this opportunity.

About Pu‘uhonua Society: Puʻuhonua Society is a Native Hawaiian women-led non-profit organization based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Active at the intersections of contemporary art, cultural practice, environmental stewardship, and community archiving, Puʻuhonua Society cultivates space(s) where Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based artists and cultural practitioners can continue creative practices for the collective transformation of Hawaiʻi. For more information and to donate to support the work of Hawaiʻi’s artists and cultural practitioners, visit https://www.puuhonua-society.org/

📚 TOMORROW, November 15th, 10am - 2pm.🌈 Come check out the opening of our Pop-Up Shop for some unique holiday gift shopp...
11/15/2025

📚 TOMORROW, November 15th, 10am - 2pm.

🌈 Come check out the opening of our Pop-Up Shop for some unique holiday gift shopping! Featured item is ʻImpermanenceʻ, a collection of works by Shingo Honda.

✨ Shop will only be open for the remaining Saturdays in November. Don't miss this opportunity!

Address

141 Kalakaua Street
Hilo, HI
96720

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 2pm

Telephone

(808) 961-5711

Website

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