Mayor's Office of
Culture & the Arts
Ke Ke‘ena Mo‘omeheu a me ka Pāheona
Bringing our communities together through culture and the arts.
Established in 1971, the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts (MOCA) serves as the City and County of Honolulu’s official arts and culture agency. Created to steward the City’s growing public art collection and integrate culture and the arts into civic planning, MOCA works to ensure that Honolulu’s cultural identity is reflected in its public spaces, programs, and partnerships.
Join the Huaka‘i
Wahi Pana:
Storied Places
Wahi Pana is a temporary public art project of the City and County of Honolulu Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts (MOCA) and is a winner of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge grant.
Beginning February 2025, the project will feature art installations across the island of O‘ahu that connect each site with their indigenous, Native Hawaiian mo‘olelo (stories).
Upcoming Events
Announcements
ʻUmeke Lāʻau Relocates
to Kapolei Hale
Umeke Lā‘au: Culture Medicine is a sculptural calabash symbolizing care and cultural practice. A Hawaiian place of learning, this installation is a gathering space for all to experience art and culture as a form of medicine and healing. The accompanying audio voices the names of tens of thousands of Hawaiians who signed the Kūʻē Petitions in 1897, which resoundingly protested the illegal annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States “in any form or shape”.
Art in City Buildings
The Art in City Buildings collection consists of more than 1,100 objects moveable and permanent Public works of art from monuments to murals, paintings to plaques, and a variety of sculptures that are displayed in City facilities and recreational parks. Explore the collection here.
Modular #5 (1970)
by J. Halley Cox
Community Murals
Interested in creating a community mural on City & County of Honolulu managed property? The Commission on Culture and the Arts reviews proposals in terms of its design, implementation, placement and appropriateness with the existing architecture, landscape, interior design, grounds and facilities.
Art at Thomas Square
Art at Thomas Square is a public park space for contemporary art installations by O‘ahu-based artists to reevaluate the present and ruminate on the future. Sculptures by Marques Hanalei Marzan and Cory Kamehanaokalā Holt Taum are on view now.
E Hoʻi I Ke Ea (2025)
Cory Kamehanaokalā Holt Taum
MOCA awarded Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge Grant
