Honolulu Museum of Art
Honolulu, HI Hours and Location

Hours of operation

Monday Closed
Tuesday 10am-4:30pm
Wednesday 10am-4:30pm
Thursday 10am-4:30pm
Friday 10am-4:30pm
Saturday 10am-4:30pm
Sunday 10am-4:30pm

Admission

• $20 – Adults
• $10 with ID – Hawai‘i residents
• Free – Age 18 and under
• Free – Members

Free days

• Bank of Hawaii Family Sundays: Third Sunday of the month, 10am-4:30pm
• First Wednesday of every month

Honolulu Academy of Arts

The Honolulu Academy of Arts was founded in 1927 by 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.

As Charles Cooke prospered, he and his wife began to assemble an art collection, starting with “parlor pieces” from the shop of furniture maker Yeun Kwock Fong Inn who had ceramics and textile pieces sent from his brother in China. Fong Inn eventually became one of Honolulu’s leading art importers.
When the Cookes’ art collection outgrew their home, Anna Rice Cooke decided to create Hawai‘i’s first visual arts museum, which would reflect the islands’ multicultural make-up, for the children of Hawai‘i. In 1920, she and her daughter Alice (Mrs. Phillip Spalding), her daughter-in-law Dagmar (Mrs. Richard Cooke), and Mrs. Isaac Cox, an art and drama teacher, began to catalogue and research the collection as a first step.
With little formal training, these women obtained a charter for the museum from the Territory of Hawai‘i in 1922. The Cookes donated their Beretania Street land for the museum, along with an endowment of $25,000, and the family home was torn down to make way for the new institution. They hired New York architect Bertram Goodhue to design the plans. Goodhue died before the project was completed, and his colleague Hardie Phillip finished the job. Over the years, the museum’s revival mission style has been imitated in many buildings throughout the state. 

Since it opened, the museum has grown steadily, both in acquisitions and in stature, to become one of the finest museums in the United States. Additions to the original building include a library (1956), an education wing (1960), a gift shop (1965), a cafe (1969), a contemporary gallery, administrative offices and 280-seat theater (1977), and an art center for studio classes and expanded educational programming (1989).

The museum’s permanent collection has grown from 500 works to more than 50,000 pieces spanning 5,000 years, with significant holdings in Asian art, American and European painting and decorative arts, 19th- and 20th-century art, an extensive collection of works on paper, Asian textiles, and traditional works from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

From Anna Rice Cooke’s vision has grown one of the most beautiful and extraordinary museums in the world with state-of-the-art facilities for displaying its internationally renowned art collection. It is the state’s leading arts institution and the city’s center for visual and performing arts. The Academy’s mission continues to reflect Mrs. Cooke’s vision by being dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and teaching of the visual arts, and the presentation of exhibitions, performing arts, and public programs specifically relevant to Hawai‘i’s ethnically diverse community.

The Contemporary 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.

Honolulu Museum of Art

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.

Getting here

By car
From Waikiki, take H1 to the Lunalilo Street exit, make a left at Ward Avenue, left on Kinau Street, right on Victoria Street, left on Young Street, where you will find the entrance to the parking lot on your left. 
From downtown or the airport, take the H1 to the Kinau Street exit.
Get driving directions.

By bus
From Waikiki, take the #2 bus from Kuhio Avenue towards downtown, approximately 20 minutes. Stops in front of the museum. The museum is on these bus lines: 1, 2, 1L, 2L. 
Get TheBus schedule.

By bike
From Waikiki, cyclists can take the King Street cycle track, turn right on Victoria Street and the main entrance is one block up on Beretania Street. From Kaka’ako, take the South Street protected bike lane to the King Street cycle track, turn right, then make a left on Ward Avenue. Bike racks are located at the Museum’s main entrance on Beretania and at the entrance to Doris Duke Theatre on Kinau Street, as well as at the Honolulu Museum of Art School. Biki riders can park in the station on the corner of Beretania and Ward Avenue, across the street from the main entrance. Four additional Biki stations are conveniently located within a block of the Museum.

By JTB trolley
JTB customers only can get to the museum via the ‘Oli ‘Oli Trolley.
Get the trolley schedule (in Japanese)

JTBツア－でお越しの方は ‘OLI’OLI トロリ － がご利用いただけます。
トロリ －時刻表はこちら

By Waikiki Trolley
Waikiki Trolley customers can get to the museum on the Waikiki Trolley Red Line: Historic Honolulu Sightseeing Tour. Get the schedule.

The Honolulu Museum of Art School is diagonally across from the museum at
1111 Victoria Street between Beretania Street and Young Street.

By courtesy shuttle from Spalding House
On Tuesdays through December 26, the museum offers a free shuttle service between its Beretania and Makiki Heights campuses.

From Beretania campus to Spalding House: 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 1:45pm, 2:15pm
From Spalding House to Beretania campus: 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:15pm

The courtesy shuttle program runs October 3 throuch December 26, 2017.

Parking at the Honolulu Museum of Art

The Honolulu Museum of Art maintains two parking lots
Honolulu Museum of Art School lot
Located behind the Honolulu Museum of Art School, with entrances on Beretania Street and Young Street.
Hours: Mon–Sat 7am–11pm, Sun 10am–6pm
Up to five hours: $5
Each additional 30 minutes or fraction thereof: $2
Managed by Elite Parking, 808-734-7559.

Kinau Street lot
Located at 1035 Kinau Street, between Victoria Street and Pensacola Street (Diamond Head of the Admiral Thomas condominium).
The lot is closed to the public 10am-4:30pm Monday to Friday.
4:30-11pm and weekends: Open to the public and free

Parking for visitors with disabilities
Main building: Parking is available at the museum’s entrance gates on Ward Avenue and Victoria Streets. The five spaces are available on a first-come, first-served basis; they cannot be reserved.
Honolulu Museum of Art School: The parking lot is behind the Art School building, with entrances on Young and Beretania streets. Enter the parking lot through the Young Street entrance, parking for visitors with disabilities is to the left. A ramp at the rear of the building leads to the elevator.