Kona Commons Partners with Lydia8 and EMPRESS: All-Wāhine Arts Festival during Inaugural Year

Kona Commons announced today a partnership with nonprofit organization, Lydia8 and EMPRESS:  All Wāhine Arts Festival.  The partnership helps to support Lydia8’s mission of cultivating transformative artistic and cultural opportunities for the wāhine of Hawaiʻi, to mobilize communities and create real change.

Kona Commons Shopping Center will soon be home to two murals:  one featuring Haumea, the goddess of creation, and the second featuring ‘ulu, a symbol of resilience, perseverance, and security.  “We are honored to partner with Lydia8 and EMPRESS:  All- Wāhine Arts Festival on these murals,” said Madison Wanner, General Manager of Kona Commons.  “This collaboration helps support wāhine and our local communities by building pathways to self-empowerment and innovation.”

The community is invited to help the murals come to life during a community paint day on Tuesday, November 8, from 10am – 3pm.  Community participants will be guided by artists from around the Pacific who have gathered in Kona for the inaugural art festival.  “We look forward to the community’s help in creating our ‘Haumea’ mural", says Mahea Akau, Event Organizer for EMPRESS:  All Wāhine Arts Festival.  “Haumea was known to cast her net into the sky to plot things such as stars and genealogies. Participants can help by filling in the colored base layers with handprints, representing each person’s presence in an ever-expanding genealogy caught in Haumea’s net.”

The inaugural EMPRESS: All-Wāhine Arts Festival will take place throughout Hawaiʻi Island and will feature wāhine Pasifika, their mele and murals; 2022 artists include Kukui Mahoney (Palani Road) and Hana Yoshihata (Kona Commons).  For more information visit: IG@empress.week.