“Let’s go visit a museum” is a sentence that won’t always raise the levels of excitement, especially when Hawaii has so many incredible places that are worth seeing and visiting when here. There’s so much more to Hawaii than fabulous weather, beautiful beaches and crystal-clear waters though. The good news is that not every museum is stuffed full of old relics, cobwebs and dust. Take the Honolulu Museum of Art as an example. Pass it by at your peril as you will miss out on a fabulous opportunity to acquaint yourself on a personal level with the style, art and culture of Hawaii and way beyond.
Honolulu Museum of Art – Asian and pan-Pacific art
The Honolulu Museum of Art is no small attraction, standing on a site that extends to over three acres, or the size of two and a half American football fields! Now that’s big… Inside, you will find one of the largest collections of Asian art, especially from Japan and China, as well as pan-Pacific art and local Hawaiian art. From its modest beginnings when its doors first opened in 1927, the museum now boasts over 50,000 works of art, so now you know why it needs so much space!
World-famous artists on display
What may surprise you is the fact that the Honolulu Museum of Art is so highly thought of that it is also home to some fabulous paintings from ‘household names’ across the centuries, including Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, and John Singer Sargent, the leading American portrait painter of his generation.
Not just paintings, but sculptures and 3-D works of art too
No museum of art would be complete without sculptures and 3-D works of art. The Honolulu Museum of Art is proud to boas exhibits from world-renowned sculptors and artists, including David Hockney, Henry Moore, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Auguste Rodin, perhaps best known for the evocative sculptures ‘The Thinker’ and ‘The Kiss’, though sadly these are not in Hawaii!
Not sure if a museum trip is for you?
Unless you live right next to a museum, taking a trip to one usually requires a bit of advance planning and basically saying goodbye to half a day, or more. That needn’t be the case with the Honolulu Museum of Art thanks to the constantly running Waikiki Trolley. It’s the perfect solution, and for all the family if you are vacationing together. The beauty of many museums is that for some, you just don’t know what to expect, so you don’t know how long you may want to stay and explore. For a family, the excitement of visiting the museum may wear off quicker for some than others. Once there you can stay for as long or as short a time as you want, then hop back on the Waikiki Trolley to another attraction. By the way, the Honolulu Museum of Art is on the Waikiki Trolley Red Line.
