Maui, A Center for the Arts in the Pacific

While it’s known for its natural beauty, Maui is also a cultural center of the Islands, a place where music, art, and a spirited international film festival complement the casual Maui lifestyle. With its two theater companies, magnificent arts and cultural center, and its own symphony orchestra, Maui provides world-class offerings in both the visual and performing arts.
 
There are more than 50 art galleries and a thriving community of artists on Maui, many of them world-renowned. The island’s commitment to the arts is most vividly demonstrated in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center that opened in Kahului in the spring of 1994. The MACC houses a 1,200-seat main theater, a smaller theater for experimental performances, a visual arts gallery, outdoor amphitheater, offices, and rehearsal space. In both its state-of-the-art indoor facilities and its grand lawn under the stars, the MACC has hosted countless entertainers of local, national and international fame. The center’s popular “Ho‘onanea Series” has set the standard with its commitment to showcase top-notch Hawaiian music and hula entertainers in the center’s superb facilities.
       
The MACC also hosts regular “First Light” screenings and café theater events for the Maui film community, which goes into rapturous celebration of the film arts with the annual spring Maui Film Festival at Wailea. Committed to compassionate and life-affirming storytelling, the festival is highly regarded nationally, drawing luminaries such as Clint Eastwood, Geena Davis, and many other Hollywood celebrities. Festival-goers bring their blankets and lawn chairs to the Wailea Golf Club for the Celestial Cinema screening under the stars or for late night silent movies on Wailea Beach.
 
The Maui Symphony Orchestra is an active contributor to the cultural life of the island, performing regularly at the MACC with excellent symphonic musicians from the community. Performers tout the MACC as the finest acoustic venue in Hawai‘i and a dream venue for classical musicians. Classical performances by visiting musicians are also featured in the MACC’s robust and diverse year-round entertainment programs.
 
Maui has been a focal point for learning and the arts from the earliest times. Lahaina was the first capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, and with the patronage and encouragement of the royal court, the arts flourished.  

Maui’s first art league was formed by missionary descendant Ethel Baldwin and her circle of friends. Called Hui No‘eau  (“Club of Skills”), the group grew to become a prestigious visual arts organization bringing the world’s leading artists to Maui for exhibits, classes, lectures and workshops. Hui No‘eau is now housed in the gracious old Baldwin estate, Kaluanui, in Makawao, where it hosts some of the island’s most prestigious shows.

Even the lusty whalers of Lahaina left their mark on the arts. Lahaina is the largest market for scrimshaw in the world, specializing in both antique and contemporary pieces. The demand keeps more than 40 Maui scrimshanders busy.
 
Artists aboard the first European ships to visit the Islands left a vast collection of prized sketches and engravings depicting life in Hawai‘i at the time of contact with the outside world. Art has become so associated with Lahaina that every Friday is Art Night, when gallery browsers are offered music, complimentary wine and hors d'oeuvres. The Lahaina Arts Society, an active association of artists, sponsors year-round programs and the weekend Art Mart under the banyan tree in Lahaina, near the old courthouse.
 
Free art tours are offered at several resort hotels with extensive collections of traditional and contemporary European, Asian and Hawaiian art. Major art pieces are scattered about the hotels, in public spaces, gardens and along the shore.
 
Native Hawaiians maintain that Maui has mana, or a spiritual presence, that inspires art and cultural appreciation. An artist perhaps said it best: "Maui is art. It is its own canvas."

The Many Cultures of Maui

Maui people describe their ethnic diversity in just two words: “Chop suey.” They do this with great affection, for racial diversity is cherished on Maui, where interracial marriages approach fifty percent. This rate is among the highest in the nation. 
 
The happy heirs of many cultures, the children of Maui are a golden blend of East and West. When asked about background, many a Maui beauty will proudly reel off an ethnic list that may include Hawaiian, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Irish, Portuguese and German. Islanders happily celebrate each other’s holidays, wearing flowers on Lei Day, donning kimono and honoring ancestors during the Japanese obon season, and flying the Stars and Stripes on the Fourth of July.
       
Maui lifestyles are equally eclectic. Some people choose resort living year-round, settling into a sort of endless holiday along an emerald golf course. Others are happy in their old homes under the palms, along the ocean. Pockets of Beverly Hills pop up in unexpected places. Many islanders prefer the rural charm of small town such as Ha‘iku or Hana, where families have known each other for generations. In old Hawaiian settlements like Kahakuloa and Ke‘anae, people fish, raise taro and let the commotion of the world pass them by.
       
Fans of the old plantation lifestyle remain snug in their own time warp, in tiny homes with tin roofs, front porches and overwhelming gardens, while their offspring might choose the new suburbs of Kahului with bright new kitchens, baths, and a two-car garage.
    
Upcountry, traditionally a farming and ranching community, is trendy and fashionable in many ways, drawing artists, writers, families and recluses to its cool climate and green beauty. Because Upcountry farmers once shipped food to the miners during the gold rush, the area was dubbed Nu Kaliponi or New California. With the new crop of hot tubs, herbal healers, book stores, art galleries and espresso shops, the name still seems to fit.
 
The Paniolo (cowboys) who ride across volcanic meadows know each hill by name and can count the kinds of wind and name the types of rain that fall upon the mountain slopes. They know the many Hawaiian names for rain – the slanting rain, the short rain, the light rain, the drenching rain, the chilly rain – and some even know the name for the red-hued rain that can only be seen from below Haleakala, and only in the late afternoon. The paniolo still call out their commands in Hawaiian as they ride herd and round up the animals.
 
Maui is inclusive. It makes room for a fascinating variety of lifestyles, all clearly visible and accessible. Every Saturday and Sunday, the real estate sections of local newspapers advertise “open house,” homes for sale that are open to the public for viewing. It’s an opportunity for visitors to glimpse Maui’s many lifestyles, and perhaps end up calling Maui home.