Garden Island Arts Council

Fostering a New Generation of Artists

Photo courtesy of Kelly Sinclair Vicars

Located off Rice Street in Līhu‘e is a brightly painted mural that artist Kelly Sinclair Vicars and a group of residents created together. The mural, which wraps around three sides of a storage container in a community garden, uses stylized sunflowers to represent the sun at three stages – morning, noon, and evening, and includes images of native plants and animals.

The group, which includes volunteers of all ages, chose the concept proposed by a middle school student. “This girl had an idea that became the inspiration for the whole mural,” Sinclair Vicars says. “It was amazing for her to see her creative vision realized.”

I feel this urgency that so many young, talented people are trying to find their way, and we need to help them along. It takes somebody holding your hand and making you believe, ‘OK, I can do this.’

- Carol Yotsuda, Executive Director, Garden Island Arts Council

This mural is part of the Garden Island Arts Council’s (GIAC) mission of bringing arts to the people and the people to the arts. The nonprofit has promoted public participation in the arts on Kauaʻi for more than 40 years through programs like Hawaiian music performances, airport art displays, and a mobile art van that conducts workshops in schools and communities around the island. Now, longtime executive director Carol Yotsuda is focused on growing the next generation of artists.

“I feel this urgency that so many young, talented people are trying to find their way, and we need to help them along,” she says. “It takes somebody holding your hand and making you believe, ‘OK, I can do this.’”

The mural Sinclair Vicars led is part of NirMānā Fest, a week-long mural festival in which up-and-coming resident artists collaborate with and mentor young people to create vibrant murals around Kauaʻi. The festival, which launched in 2020, gets its name from the Sanskrit word for creation, “nirmana,” and the Hawaiian word for spiritual energy, “mana.”

“The process is collaborative and engaging,” says Seth Womble, NirMānā director. “The artists work with their kids to use their concepts, their ideas, their imagery, and then they work together to create these public works of art.”

Some 10 murals involving 50 youth participants are in the works for 2021, although projects often draw far more people than planned as parents, siblings, and friends join in to help.

Womble says the projects are about more than creating public art for Kauaʻi. “It’s about passing the reins to the kids as well as these rising young artists,” he says. “We’re all learning.”

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