UH art festival to showcase works by disabled artists

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Landry Fukunaga, 956-9202
Center on Disability Studies
Posted: Jun 25, 2008

HONOLULU - Artists and performers with disabilities will showcase their talents at AHA Arts! — the Abled Hawaii Artists' Festival - on the Big Island on Saturday, July 26, at the Hilo Community College Cafeteria, and in Honolulu on Sunday, July 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Kapiolani Community College's lower parking area.

The public is invited to a day of music, art, food and community. Participating atists will provide demonstrations including mouth-stick painting, and there will be a juried artist exhibit. On-going entertainment throughout the day will include "The What" - an all-deaf rock 'n' roll band.

The free annual festival brings together more than 400 participants for music, visual arts, hands-on demonstrations and other activities. It celebrates the arts and disability in our community and promotes inclusion as a welcoming place for all. Established in 2003, AHA Arts! is a not-for-profit, community activity.

Abled Hawaii Artists is sponsored by the Center on Disability Studies (CDS), at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, the Alliance for Inclusion Advancement-Hawaii, and the Special Education Department, UH Mānoa College of Education.

The CDS, a research unit of the College of Education, works to fulfill its mission to support the quality of life, community inclusion, and self-determination of all persons with disabilities and their families through education, training, service, research, evaluation and dissemination activities.

The Alliance for Inclusion Advancement-Hawaii project is a capacity building grant which targets veterans and adults with disabilities over the age of 14 years and strives to foster volunteerism and national service.

The Department of Special Education at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa is the primary public university unit offering teacher-training programs in Special Education. It provides local and statewide outreach through a variety of programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.