Hoʻākea Source

Information for Grant Seekers 

Our 2026 grant cycle will open on November 28, 2025, coinciding with Lā Kūʻokoʻa, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi’s National Independence Day.

Distribution of Funds:
Hoʻākea Source will award grants ranging from $2,000 to $10,000, to selected projects. In our inaugural two-year grant period, we will prioritize visual artists, collaboratives, and collectives living and working across the island of Oʻahu. In the case of collaboratives and collectives, some contributors may live off island, but the lead applicant must live and work on Oʻahu. Applications from members of historically marginalized communities that serve all of Hawai‘i’s people are especially encouraged. Total award monies distributed in the 2024-2025 grant cycle will be $90,000, thanks to the additional support of the Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation.


Review Criteria:
All proposals will be considered based on the following criteria. Proposed Research and Projects should speak directly to one or more of the following three strategic priorities:

• ʻĀina  (That which feeds): Proposals that are rooted in place; proposals that center love and/or stewardship of land, sky, and sea.
  
  
• Pilina  (Relationality): Proposals that build meaningful relationships; proposals that weave past, present and future together through emerging and/or sustained commitment to groups, collaborations, and/or collectives. 
  
  
• Huli  (Change): Proposals that affirm a (k)new way of being; proposals that advance more just futures and/or contribute to systemic transformation.
  
  

Applications will be reviewed on overall concept and feasibility, with an emphasis on experimentation and risk taking; unconventional viewpoints are encouraged. Applicants should describe their relationship to Hawai‘i and how their work as a visual artist demonstrates a commitment to this place. Responses should speak to how long they have been an active participant in the local arts ecosystem and in what ways their work serves Hawaiʻi. 

A successful application will: 

• Speak directly to what the proposal is, who it involves, and which of the three strategic priorities it most closely aligns with and why
• Situate an artistic practice within a larger visual arts genealogy of Hawaiʻi 
• Demonstrate a capacity to realize the project on time and within budget 
• Explain how the public would engage with the project with an emphasis on non-conventional exhibition spaces
• Describe the potential impact on a local community and the larger arts and culture landscape of Hawaiʻi 

Selection Panel:
A selection committee of 3 members; with the majority being Hawai‘i based artists and curators well respected across local communities, as well as an invited curator or artist from outside of Hawaiʻi, will review eligible applications over two days with oversight and assistance by the Program Director and Puʻuhonua Society Executive Director.

About the Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation:
Laila Twigg-Smith was a well-known art collector, patron of artists and museums, artist and visionary. The Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation continues this legacy in her name. It aims to nurture and promote Hawaiʻi as a global center for the exchange of contemporary arts and artists.

The fund supports projects and initiatives that afford artists opportunities to immerse themselves in new environments, to absorb different influences, and to realize fresh visions free of the issues of day-to-day survival.

Pu‘uhonua Society creates opportunities for Native Hawaiian and Hawai‘i-based artists and cultural practitioners to express themselves and engage with and impact audiences. We support artists and makers who serve as translators/mediators/amplifiers of social justice issues in the community.

Pu‘uhonua Society traces its history back to 1972, when Emma Aluli Meyer originally founded the organization as the Young of Heart Workshop & Gallery. Emma was the youngest daughter of Noa Webster Aluli, a Hawaiian attorney and community advocate. She started the Young of Heart Workshop & Gallery in Kailua, O‘ahu, to inspire and empower young people through art and creativity. 

For more than 15 years, the community center presented art exhibitions and offered classes in woodworking, ceramics, drawing, cooking, and painting, as well as performances. During that time, the center hosted the first Windward performance by the Honolulu Symphony; gallery shows by artists Jean Charlot, Claude Horan, and Juliette May Frazier; and the premier of Terrance Knapp’s Father Damien monologue.

In 1996, Emma’s third daughter, Maile Meyer, became Executive Director, and in 2004, Young of Heart Workshop changed its name to Pu‘uhonua Society* to better reflect its renewed mission as a safe haven for artists and cultural practitioners. For 25 years Maile envisioned and worked to create thriving creative spaces including CONTACT, an annual curated-juried exhibition of innovative, comprehensive and disruptive contemporary art that ran for six years; The Gathering Project, reactivating ʻIolani Palace as a gathering place for community exchange and connection; and Aupuni Space, a contemporary art gallery, artist studios and community space in Kakaʻako that continues today, alongside countless other community driven programs and projects.

Today, Puʻuhonua Society is led by a third generation of Meyer wahine, with Emma Broderick, eldest daughter of Maile, serving as Executive Director. Puʻuhonua Societyʻs programs also include Keanahala, a community weaving program that perpetuates the Native Hawaiian practice of ulana lauhala; Hoʻomau Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina, working to preserve and make publicly accessible Nā Maka o ka ʻĀinaʻs entire 8,000 moving image archive; KĪPUKA, a makersʻ space and series of classes and workshops that are focused around the perpetuation of material cultural practices, and NiUNOW!, a cultural agroforestry movement affirming the importance of niu and uluniu, coconut and coconut groves to the health of Hawaiʻi and its people.

* The first pu‘uhonua organization was established in 1914 by a group of Hawaiians that included Noa Webster Aluli. ʻAhahui Pu‘uhonua o Nā Hawai‘i was a social and legal services center focused on helping Hawaiians during this difficult time in our nation’s history following the illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom.