Anna Ranch Heritage Center

The Honolulu Academy of Arts was founded in 1922 and opened to the public on April 8, 1927. It was the vision of Anna Rice Cooke, a woman born into a prominent missionary family on O‘ahu in 1853. Growing up in a home that appreciated the arts, she went on to marry Charles Montague Cooke, also of a prominent missionary family, and the two settled in Honolulu. In 1882, they built a home on Beretania Street, on the site that would become home to the museum. In 1961, Thurston Twigg-Smith opened an art gallery—the Contemporary Art Center—within the Honolulu Advertiser building, which he owned. The gallery featured work from Twigg-Smith's collection and work by local artists. In 1988, the Twigg-Smith family donated Spalding House, which was built by Honolulu Academy of Arts founder Anna Rice Cooke, to create The Contemporary Museum, a private, nonprofit museum for contemporary art in Honolulu. In 2011, The Contemporary Museum gifted its assets and collection to the Honolulu Academy of Arts and in 2012, the combined museum changed its name to the Honolulu Museum of Art.

Kumu Kahua is a theater that celebrates and examines life in Hawaii, showcasing some of the state's most talented actors, directors, playwrights and technicians. The theater stages plays about life in Hawaii, plays by Hawaiian playwrights, and plays for Hawaii's people. The 100-seat playhouse is an intimate affair, the perfect setting to watch world premieres by local playwrights such as Dennis Carroll, Lee Cataluna, Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, Edward Sakamoto and Lee A. Tonouchi. Performances have included notable favorites such as "Ghosts in the Plague Year," "The Great Kaua'i Train Robbery" and "It's All Relative." Another unique aspect of the theater is that it encourages actors to use their natural local dialect or accent. Many of the plays are written in Hawaii Creole English. The theater promotes local talent by offering classes in acting and writing, as well as sponsoring an annual playwriting contest. Located in Honolulu, Kumu Kahua Theatre was founded in 1971.