Activation of the Well VI: Artist & Curator Talk Story (Zoom)

Thursday, July 1 from 5:00 - 6:30PM

Miho - Program Support

Zoom Registration Required HERE

Description: Join Artist-in-Residence James Jack and Curator Mina Elison on their shared experiences, process and reflection in creating the exhibition a guide to loving water. What has this process taught them and where may they continue to explore these ideas?

James Jack is an American Asian artist who works at the mouth of the Pandan River where freshwater meets the sea in Western Singapore. Engaging layered histories of place to achieve positive change through community-led initiatives woven together with raising sensitivity to ecological networks, his works have been exhibited at Honolulu Museum of Art, Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Setouchi International Art Festival, Busan Biennale, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art. James Jack is a graduate of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and currently teaches at Yale-NUS College.

Mina Elison currently serves as Communications Director & Curator at the Donkey Mill Art Center. Dedicated to creating opportunities in our community for the sharing of stories and mo'olelo through artistic expression, Mina hopes these experiences serve as a catalyst for reflection, introspection, connecting and meaningful dialogue. From historic artifacts to contemporary art, Mina has worked with diverse collections and is interested in the exploration of artifacts as art and art as artifact, challenging the ways in which we learn from and relate to the world around us. As the former Museum Curator at Kona Historical Society, Mina earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in French and Anthropology and a Masters degree in Museum Studies from New York University.

This program is offered as a part of the exhibition a guide to loving water, a collaborative project of James Jack and the Donkey Mill Art Center that asks the question: what happens when we listen to the water? In this experiential exhibition, the Gallery is a participatory space for sharing methods of love for the water and land which we depend upon. Together, with the Donkey Mill Art Center, artist James Jack invites the community of Kona and beyond to engage with water, and listen to the stories and wisdom which water shares with us today. This open-ended exploration of water weaves language, creative process and indigenous knowledge to form the basis for an exhibition presenting a collection of listening to water as interdependent parts of documenting imaginative ways of connecting. 

This exhibition and programs are made possible by the Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund of the Hawai’i Community Foundation and County of Hawaiʻi Contingency Funds from Holeka Goro Inaba (North Kona, District 8).