Honolulu Museum of Art

The Honolulu Museum of Art, initially known as the Honolulu Academy of Arts, was chartered in 1922 and opened to the public on April 8, 1927, with a progressive, forward-looking vision: to give the gift of art and art education to Hawai‘i’s diverse, multicultural community. Founder Anna Rice Cooke envisioned a future where art could be a catalyst for greater understanding of ourselves, of one another, and the world around us, making the community of tomorrow even stronger than the present day.

Anna Charlotte Rice was born into a missionary family on O‘ahu in 1853. She went on to marry businessman Charles Montague Cooke, also of a missionary family. In an era when the societal roles and rights of women were limited, Anna Rice Cooke devoted herself to assembling an art collection, raising seven children, and making a home in the family residence on Beretania Street.

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