Hawai‘i Artist Collaboration is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working to create opportunities for artists and arts organizations to integrate collective knowledge, experience, and resources for the benefit of our communities. Our flagship event is the week long Hawai‘i Artist Collaboration Gathering in the fall.

The artwork produced each year during Collab is offered for sale at our annual charity art auction. Proceeds from our art sales and ticket purchases help fund art supplies for classrooms, provide scholarships and support future educational and collaboration events.

Art Educators Fund

Helping Teachers Obtain Art Supplies for Classrooms

The Hawai‘i Artist Collaboration Art Educators Fund awards funds to teachers to be spent on supplies for their classrooms. As of 2025 we have provided over $40,000 in assistance to teachers through this program.

We believe that art education is crucial, beneficial, powerful, motivating, and inspirational. We believe it improves the entire learning experience. Creativity needs to be nurtured and supported and teachers are the voice for our keiki.

In 2025 we were able to award 30 Grants for a total of $7,450.00 to Big Island teachers to purchase art supplies for their classrooms.

Many thanks to locally owned Big Island ACE & Ben Franklin Crafts stores who applied an additional 20% discount to teachers when using their award to purchase supplies. And, mahalo to the Gupton Gallery and the many generous doners who donated funds to make this program possible.

The application deadline for this year's program is November 30, 2026.

And lastly, mahalo to all the Big Island teachers for all they do to make our world a better place!

"Hello! Thank you so much for donating money so that my school has supplies for art! As someone who doesn't have money to get my own supplies, I really appreciate the donations. So again, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!" ~ Ray

"Dear Hawaii Artist Collaboration, Thank you so much for donating to Mrs. Zamber's art program! We're really excited to use the new supplies we were able to buy, thanks to your kindness. I know I'm looking forward to trying out the gouache:) Again, thank you for donating & helping us create beautiful art!" ~ Mat

"Dear Hawaii Artist Collaboration, We are all very thankful for your kind donations. I'm excited to use the new supplies that we were able to get with your support. There are so many supplies to use that I've never even heard of." ~ Hiroki

Scholarships

Providing Assistance for Art Education and Collaboration

The Hawai‘i Artist Collaboration provides a variety of scholarship opportunities to help artists and students participate in Collaborative art programs. Some of our recent Scholarships include:

Hawai‘i Artist Collaboration awarded a Summer Experience Scholarship in partnership with the Donkey Mill Art Center to allow a student to take part in their Youth Summer Art Experience. Mahealani Hill, age 17, was invited to participate in the 5-week art experience in 2024.

We provide “Teach the Teacher” Scholarships to participate in the annual Collab event. The goal is to get more tools into the hands of teachers via our projects and develop a curriculum that engages students to collaborate together on projects larger than one person can accomplish.

The Collab provided travel and scholarship help to participating collaborative artists who give so much of their time and talent to Collab events.

Supporting Programs for Children

Helping Children Overcome Challenges Through Art

The Hawai‘i Artist Collaboration and our Collaboration Artists continually find ways to support children in our community. We have given supplies to public, private, and charter schools and have been able to help with numerous art startups and county art programs.

We made funds available for the Maui fire shelters who were running housing and therapy for children affected by the fire.

In 2020 students were working from home due to the Covid epidemic. Many kids had no place to call their own. A woodworker in California named Mitch Couch came up with the idea to build small desks for these kids and the Roberts foundation provided funding for materials. Artists built 35 of these units and Kealekehe middle school distributed them to students who needed them.

We inspired and participated in the first county arts summit with the goal of providing more educational opportunities for at-risk kids.

Hawai‘i County Art Installations

Bringing Art to the Community

Hawai‘i Artist Collaboration is consulting with Hawai‘i County on island wide arts installation ideas.

We are working to build a series of universal mounting bases all across the island. This would allow us to create a ‘sculpture gathering’ to produce works that are relevant to the host communities, then rotate the collection every two years.

The first piece is ready for installation in wonderful downtown Holualoa. We are working on the bases now. The goal is to involve communities in the public art process, but keep the collection accessible and allow more voices to be heard.

More information and photos to come as these are developed.