Past educator workshops

The Art of Inquiry: Art as a Catalyst for Conversations/INSIGHT Arts

April 12, 2025, 2–5pm

HoMA is excited to welcome back INSIGHT Arts on Saturday,  April 12, 2–5pm for an in-gallery educator workshop exploring the potential of using inquiry as a springboard to build rich conversations about works of art.

The Art of Inquiry workshop will investigate how artists create possible narratives that allow for multiple interpretations by embedding visual information in their compositions.
INSIGHT Arts will share strategies and activities that educators can implement in their classrooms to support the development of inquiry.

About INSIGHT Arts
INSIGHT Arts is a collaboration between three Hawai‘i-based arts education specialists. Lei Ahsing, Susan Hogan, and Marcia Pasqua each have extensive experience as artists, educators, arts administrators, and presenters. 

They have worked individually and together on programs and projects for the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (the Artists in the Schools Program and the museum-focused Art Bento Program), the UH Mānoa College of Education, and the Hawai‘i Arts Alliance (Turnaround Arts: Hawai‘i).

The Art of the Islamic World: Connecting Art Through Social Studies

Monday, March 17, 10am–12:30pm
Tuesday, March 18, 10am–4pm 

Join us for this special two-day HoMA educator workshop focused on Islamic art and social studies.  On Monday, we meet at HoMA to explore the Islamic gallery then follow up with your own Islamic inspired artmaking. On Tuesday, we take a shuttle to Shangri La for a unique and memorable introduction to Islamic art, culture, and design. Our visit will help us learn about the global cultures of Islamic art and design in new and inspiring ways. We return to HoMA and spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the interdisciplinary aspects of art making and social studies while developing skills and strategies to apply in the classroom. Integrating social studies through art will become easier than you think. 

This workshop is designed for K-5 educators and is limited to eighteen people. Please bring a brown bag lunch. Admission and shuttle to Shangri La are free. Parking at HoMA is free.

The Art of Wellbeing: The Social and Emotional Power of Art

Saturday, February 22, 2025, 2-5pm 
Honolulu Museum of Art School • Room 202

Explore how art and mindfulness practices can help students foster a sense of awareness, belonging, and interconnectedness. We will use the museum’s collection and grounds as a vehicle to engage in mindful art practices including creating mandalas and labyrinths. We will explore ways students can invite present-moment awareness through “breath-drawing,” free-form mark-making, close and slow looking, reflection, and sharing. Through it all, participants are encouraged to share their observations, interpretations, and reflections, joining other educators in a collaborative endeavor of discovery and meaning-making.

The Art of Objects: Object-Based Learning

January 25, 2025

HoMA’s Lending Collection is an incredible resource for educators, and this workshop shares a way to get the most out of it. Learn how to let creativity direct what objects you choose from the Lending Collection, and how you use them to help teach content. Whether you are looking for ways to introduce a new topic or searching for an assessment tool that reaches a diversity of learners, object-based learning uses artifacts to engage students in close observation and deep critical thinking while making concepts tangible to more learners.

HoMA Night for Educators

Dec 20, 2024 

Join us for a special HoMA Night for Educators to recognize the outstanding dedication and commitment of teachers. Enjoy refreshments, art supply giveaways, art making, and gratitude for all you do.

Travel stipends are not available for this workshop.

The Art of Beat and Words: Soundshop

Nov 9, 2024

Join Soundshop mentors for a hip-hop education workshop exploring creativity, self-expression, lyric writing, and beat making in the classroom. Discover ways to guide students in the power of sharing their own stories and perspectives through personal interpretation of music, art, and dance. 

This workshop is designed for all educators regardless of grade level and content expertise. Lesson plans, activities, and resources will be provided. Wear comfortable clothing and be prepared to get actively involved and have fun! 

The Art of Science, The Science of Art: STEAM

Oct 26, 2024 

The Art of Integration: Art in All Content Areas

Sep 21, 2024

Led by HoMA staff you will visit galleries and courtyards to explore how selected works of art catalyze discussions on a variety of subjects as they exemplify the use of the elements of art. Next visit the Kīna‘u Courtyard studio to discover, through your own hands-on artmaking experiences, how the elements of art and artmaking can be integrated across content areas.

The Art of Planning: Integrating Art in All Content Areas

Saturday, May 11, 2024 • 2–5 pm 
Honolulu Museum Art School – Room 201

The Art of Planning: Integrating Art in All Content Areas is an opportunity for you to consider ways to enrich and enliven the classroom learning experience through art. You will explore all of HoMA’s education resources and learn how you can incorporate them in your lesson plans. You’ll try out art activities used during school tours, experiment with a variety of art materials, browse the Lending Collection, and visit galleries and the library. You can share ideas with your peers and receive guidance and support from museum staff. This workshop will help you make art a part of all you teach!

The Art of Critical Pedagogy and Difficult Knowledge: Kū I Ka Mana

Saturday, April 27, 2024 • 2–5 pm
Honolulu Museum Art School – Room 201

“How can educators engage with and facilitate conversations on challenging topics?” Guided by the question, three educators whose work centers on Hawaiian culture and voices, or the curricular problems preventing it, will discuss strategies to help teachers and students understand the significance of the art installation Kapulani Landgraf: ʻAuʻa and its ability to inspire and challenge different viewers.

Workshop presenters Noelle Kahanu, Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, and Karen Kosasa will introduce the topic of “difficult knowledge,” along with learning strategies associated with critical pedagogy, and recent conversations on settler colonialism, decolonization, and Indigenization. They will share strategies and activities educators can implement in their classrooms to support critically important but sometimes difficult conversations. This workshop is designed for all educators regardless of grade level and content expertise.

Presenters:

Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu is an Associate Specialist of Public Humanities and Native Hawaiian programs in the American Studies Department of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and serves as the acting director of the Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program.

Halena Kapuni-Reynolds is a Native Hawaiian educator, researcher, curator, and haku mele (composer) from Hawai’i Island whose research interests center around Hawaiian history and the relationship of Native Hawaiians to museums.

Karen K. Kosasa received an MFA from the University of Hawai‘i (1993), and taught in the studio arts for seven years before enrolling in the Visual and Cultural Studies program at

the University of Rochester where she received an MA and PhD (2002). She recently retired as the Director of the Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program and Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi.

The Art of the Islamic World: Connecting Art Through Math

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 • 10:00am-3:00pm
Meet at museum front entrance on Beretania St.

Join us for this very special all-day HoMA educator workshop focused on Islamic art and math. We will meet at HoMA at 10:00am for a tour of our Islamic gallery. There we will explore the beauty of the Islamic art world and learn how artists have used math to solve art and design challenges. Next, we will take a shuttle to Shangri La for a unique and memorable introduction to Islamic art, culture, and design. Our visit will help us learn about the global cultures of Islamic art and design in new and inspiring ways. We return to HoMA for lunch, then spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the interdisciplinary aspects of art making and math while developing skills and strategies to apply in the classroom. Integrating math through art will become easier than you think!

This workshop is designed for K-5 educators and is limited to 18 people. Please bring a brown bag lunch or purchase lunch at the HoMA cafe. Admission and shuttle to Shangri La is free. Parking at HoMA is free.

The Art of Storytelling: INSIGHT ARTS

Saturday, February 10, 2024 • 2–5pm
Honolulu Museum Art School – Room 101

HoMA is excited to welcome back INSIGHT Arts for an in-gallery educator workshop exploring the potential of using artworks to “find and read art stories”. The workshop will investigate how artists such as David Hockney share ideas and create possible narratives by intentionally embedding visual information in their compositions. INSIGHT Arts will share strategies and activities educators can implement in their classrooms to support the development of visual literacy in their students. This workshop is designed for all educators regardless of grade level and content expertise.

The Art of Making: Teaching for Artistic Behaviors

Saturday, January 20, 2024 • 2–5pm
Honolulu Museum Art School – Room 101

In this exciting hands-on experience, we will explore the principles of Teaching for Artistic Behaviors (TAB). Learn the key ideas behind the TAB philosophy of student-directed artmaking, centered on using HoMA’s collection with this pedagogical approach.

TAB is a centers-based approach to art education that focuses on awareness and the development of artistic behaviors through a choice-based pedagogy. TAB puts students at the center of their artmaking to follow their own interests and select their message, materials, and process. We will explore how TAB methods connect to your own values and the content you teach.

The Art of Objects: Object- Based Learning

Saturday, November 18, 2023 • 2–5pm
Honolulu Museum Art School – Room 101

Ignite your lessons with hands-on object-based learning experiences using HoMA’s Lending Collection. Object-based learning uses artifacts to engage students in close observation and deep critical thinking. Objects become conduits for storytelling as well as for developing cultural understanding. Learning to teach any content through the lens of objects inspires curiosity and helps make concepts tangible to more learners.

The Art of Inquiry: Question Formulation Technique

Saturday, October 21, 2023 • 2–5pm
Honolulu Museum Art School – Room 101

Inquiry-based education is an approach to learning that actively engages students in the learning process and encourages them to ask questions, explore materials, and investigate real-world issues through firsthand experiences. In this educator workshop we

will focus on how to help students develop inquiry-based questions using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) developed by the Right Question Institute. QFT distills sophisticated forms of divergent, convergent, and meta cognitive thinking into a straightforward process that helps students stay engaged and curious. And curiosity is what motivates us to learn and keeps us learning throughout our lives!

The Art of Hip-hop: Soundshop Educator Workshop

Saturday, September 16, 2023 • 2–5pm
Doris Duke Theatre

Join Soundshop mentors for a hip- hop education workshop exploring creativity, self-expression, lyric writing, and beat making in the classroom. Discover ways to guide students in the power of sharing their own stories and perspectives through personal interpretation of music, art, and dance.

This workshop is designed for all educators regardless of grade level and content expertise. Lesson plans, activities, and resources will be provided. Wear comfortable clothing and be prepared to get actively involved and have fun!

Soundshop workshop for educators

Saturday, April 22, 2023 • 2pm–5pm
Doris Duke Theatre

Join Soundshop mentor and beatmaker Scott Ohtoro for a hip hop education workshop exploring creativity, self-expression, lyric writing, and beatmaking in the classroom. Discover ways to guide students on the power of sharing their own stories and perspectives through personal interpretation of music, art, and dance.

This workshop is designed for all educators regardless of grade level and content expertise. Lesson plans, activities, and resources will be provided. Wear comfortable clothing and be prepared to get actively involved and have fun!

Click here for more information about Soundshop, Scott and other Soundshop mentors.

Visual Literacy with INSIGHT Arts

Thursday, September 8, 2022 • 4pm–6pm
Meet at museum front entrance on Beretania St.

HoMA is excited to welcome back INSIGHT Arts for an in-gallery workshop exploring the engagement strategy How to Read a Portrait (HTRAP). HTRAP encourages viewers to look at artworks in depth and share their thoughts, drawing both nuanced and broad observations about the work, artist, and larger context of the piece. The workshop will also investigate how artists use the elements of art and principles of design in their work. All are welcome to join us for lively art conversation—this workshop is suitable for those with no art background and art lovers alike!

Teaching for Artistic Behaviors with TAB Inc.

Thursday, July 28, 2022 • 4pm–6pm
Art School, Room 201

We’re thrilled to welcome special guest facilitators and educators Melissa Purtee and Jen Rankey-Zona who will lead a hands-on workshop exploring the principles of Teaching for Artistic Behaviors (TAB). This workshop will introduce participants to the key ideas behind the TAB philosophy of student-directed artmaking, centered on using HoMA’s collection with this pedagogical approach. You will explore how TAB methods connect to your own values and investigate the power of student-directed learning experiences and how they affect student engagement.

TAB is a centers-based approach to art education that focuses on an awareness and the development of artistic behaviors through a choice-based pedagogy.