1000 Museums

HoMA is a unique gathering place where art, history, culture and education converge, right in the heart of Honolulu. HoMA is a vital part of Hawai‘i’s cultural landscape with a permanent collection that includes over 50,000 works spanning 5,000 years, with significant holdings in Asian art, American and European painting and decorative arts, 19th- and 20th-century art, works on paper, Asian textiles, and traditional works from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

The museum was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke, the daughter of a prominent missionary family on O‘ahu. She donated her family’s Beretania Street property and an endowment of $25,000. New York architect Bertram Goodhue was hired to design the new museum, but he died before the project was completed, and his colleague Hardie Phillip completed the project. Over the years, the museum’s architectural style, which incorporates Hawaiian, Chinese, and Spanish influences, has been imitated in many buildings throughout the state.

Since it opened, the museum has grown steadily, both in acquisitions and in stature, becoming one of the finest museums in the United States. Additions to the original building include an expansion to the library (1956), education wings (1931, 1961), a gift shop (1965), a cafe (1969), a contemporary gallery, administrative offices and 292-seat theater (1977), an art center for studio classes and expanded educational programming (1990), and a new wing housing the shop and café, as well as dedicated gallery space for historic and contemporary art of Hawai‘i (2001).

The museum continues to reflect its founder’s vision by being dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and teaching of the visual arts, and the presentation of exhibitions, performances, films, and public programs that serve Hawai‘i’s diverse communities.