Collection & Exhibitions

From an initial gift of 4,500 works of art from Mrs. Charles Montague Cooke in 1927, the Honolulu Museum of Art’s permanent collection has grown to more than 50,000 objects. The collection is at the heart of the museum’s mission to collect, preserve, interpret, and teach the visual arts for future generations. It represents all the major cultures of Hawai‘i and spans 5,000 years, from ancient times to today.