ARTafterDARK brightens nights

Derek Paiva

Advertiser

Friday, March 25, 2005

THE NIGHT STUFF

It's that rare after-hours event that lets you move in mere minutes from a tour of industrial German contemporary art to a hipster-crowded courtyard with a Berlin techno turntablist to a darkened gallery with only your sweetie and a giant bull's head for company.

The theme at the Honolulu Academy of Arts' ARTafterDark event 28 nights ago was "NeoNite: Encounters at the Edge." Post-work tonight, I'll be noshing on sushi and fried rice, sampling sake, listening to live Asian fusion jams and learning the artistic possibilities of our favorite sticky starch on "Planet Rice."

Still not one of the 800 or so young (and OK, even boomer-aged) Honolulans checking out AafterD each month? Skip H-1 traffic tonight, friend.

The Honolulu Academy of Arts has long been a place crying out for post-sunset noshing, entertainment and mingling. It always seemed a waste to let the museum - with its classic kama'aina architecture, intimate courtyards, diverse art collections and air of refined yet laid-back charm - spend so many weekend nights like some dateless single alone in the dark watching "JAG."

A dozen or so twenty- and thirtysomething Honolulu professionals - some of them museum staff, others volunteers - decided to change that.

ARTafterDark is the groovy result - a museum-hosted Friday pau-hana mixer with a goal of exposing young urbanites to all that is wonderful about the arts, visual, performance or otherwise. Launched in February 2004, AafterD has hosted 10 parties smartly designed to take full thematic advantage of the academy's diverse permanent collections and visiting exhibits.

"French Cafe" featured Jean Renoir films, caricaturists and tours of an interactive "Art; Life in Paris and the Countryside" exhibit. "Tiki Nights" had live Don Tiki grooves, Hawaiian grinds and a "Blue Hawaii" screening. Live salsa ruled at "Dia de los Muertos."

Monthly ARTafterDARK events will continue through October (see box) before a brief rest for the holidays.

"It's important that the academy be infused with young people, because there are a lot of things here that can appeal to them," said AafterD coordinator Lori Admiral. "The diversity of events keeps ARTafterDARK exciting.

"And it needs to stay diverse to appeal to as many different tastes as possible, because people are different. We'd never be able to capture a wide audience if we always did wine, cheese and jazz."

Admiral agreed that the museum was long overdue for a regular evening event like ARTafterDARK.

"The academy itself is so incredibly beautiful," said Admiral. "And it changes in complexity in the evening when you have the lighting and the courtyards. It just becomes a wonderful place to enjoy."