2007 Annual Statewide Exhibition Award Winners:

Award of Excellence: Robert W. Butts, "Kolohe`ohe” Wood
Award of Excellence: Jackie Mild-Lau, "Big Not So Bad Wolf” Clay
Award of Excellence & John Natsoulas
Purchase Award: May Izumi “Picking the Apple of the Sun”, Mixed
Award of Excellence: Francisco Clemente, Oahu, “Capricho”, Wood
Award of Excellence: Tim & Tiffany Shafto, Hawai`i, “Blossoming Gem" Wood
Award of Excellence: Wilfred Y. Yamasawa, "Koi, Moi, Poi", Hawai`i, Glass
W.R. Hancock Memorial Award: Queenie Kwok, Oahu, "Eve of a New Beginning", Clay

Click HERE to see the Honolulu Star Bulletin Review



This exhibit holds the central place in Hawai`i Craftsmen programs, being the finest vehicle available in Hawai`i for craft artists throughout the state to display the superb quality of their work. It culminates a year of workshops and other activities and allows us to assess our accomplishments during the year and highlight our excellence.

Although there are several juried art exhibits in Honolulu, none other feature fine crafts - both contemporary or traditional. Artists have a difficult time making ends meet through artwork sales with no place to display them. The plethora of craft fairs lulls the public into accepting a limited quality of craftsmanship. Our exhibit draws the public and aspiring craft artists to consider the lofty goals inherent in crafts and the prestige available to those who achieve them. It demonstrates how contemporary crafts can cross over into the realm of conceptual art and the sort of interaction between artwork and viewer that adds to the dimension of appreciation and questioning. It also makes these works available for purchase. These activities increase the economic and artistic viability of local artists.

Our annual exhibit is not just statewide in that we accept entries from all islands, it is statewide because both jurying and community building activities occur in all counties, ameliorating the costs of keeping in touch--the majority of which fall on the shoulders of neighbor islanders--and easing our isolation from each other. We send jurors to the neighbor islands to see and feel the artwork in its own home, rather than looking at slides or requiring entries to be shipped to Honolulu. The juror also has an opportunity to present a slide lecture in a small and interactive setting.

Members who live in the outer reaches of our neighbor islands really appreciate the high quality of stimulating dialog brought to their doorsteps. To infuse new ideas and techniques into the local scene and offer input into the national scene, we bring a juror/artist of national or international fame from out-of-state. He or she travels inter-island to jury, talking with local artists, and giving lectures--free to the public--on their own work or the current state of the art. Hawai`i Craftsmen pays to ship all pieces chosen for the exhibit to Honolulu which features 90-130 artwork chosen from 250 artists. The O`ahu slide lecture is given at the Honolulu Academy of Art.

Lasting at least 10 days, the exhibit opened with a reception at which cash awards are given and art work is for sale. Artists and Hawai`i Craftsmen members were present to help visitors enjoy and interpret the entries on display. Over 2000 people attend the exhibit.