Art History MA alumna Healoha Johnston has been appointed the Curator for Hawai’i and Pacific Arts and Culture at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. This is one of several new positions supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund the Te Rangi Hiroa Pacific Curators and Caretakers Program, which is intended to develop a new leadership of curators trained in an indigenous framework, and increase the representation of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the field.
Healoha has previously served as Chief Curator and Curator of the Arts of Hawaiʻi, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas at the Honolulu Museum of Art, and worked in contemporary art galleries, arts and culture non-profit organizations, and NOAA’s Pacific National Monument program before joining the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative as Curator for Asian Pacific American Women’s Cultural History.