Wolfgang's Landscaping

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.

The Honolulu Zoo features more than 1,230 animals in a 300-acre setting that comes from royal beginnings. The zoo was established by grants made by the sovereign monarch of King David Kalakaua. In 1877, the land in the area was beautified and opened as Queen Kapiolani Park in honor of Julia Kapiolani, Queen Consort of Hawaii.

Hawaii Opera Theatre is a bold, successful effort to bring internationally acclaimed performers and the most fantastic opera productions to the Hawaiian island since 1960. Today, Hawaii Opera Theatre is known as one of the largest performing arts organizations in the state and Hawaii's only professional opera company. The Theatre's season is a mix of classical and new opera. The theater has staged notable productions such as "Madama Butterfly," "Le Nozze di Figaro," "La Boheme" and "Carmen." Recent performances have included Faust and La Traviata. The company typically performs three operas at the beginning of the season, then continues through a summer season as well. International artists from the New York Met and throughout Europe and Asia have performed at the Hawaii Opera Theatre throughout the years, competing up to three years in advance to get on stage alongside local Hawaiian talent.