On a recent Thursday afternoon, students and teachers at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School were busy converting the cafeteria into a rehearsal space. They pushed the lunch tables to the far corners of the room, turned on the speakers, and opened the windows to beat the afternoon heat.
As the first notes of the hit song “Timber” rang out, 20 students took their seats in the middle of the cafeteria. For the next two hours, they performed dance numbers on repeat and diligently learned new choreographies, pausing only for drinks.
They laughed, cheered on their colleagues and imagined what their performances would look like at their musical showcase in January.
The high school’s performing arts center holds rehearsals Tuesday through Saturday and serves students in grades 1 through 12 across the state. Over the past 34 years, the center’s activities have become the highlight of the week for many children, said co-director Robin Kitsu.
“Who said learning had to be hard or uncomfortable?” asked Kitsu. “We challenge them just like any math or English teacher.”
For some of Kitsu’s students, dance rehearsals in the cafeteria are the only art classes they take. In Hawaii, art is not a high school diploma, and elementary and middle schools often don’t have the budget to hire art teachers. High schools have more electives, such as ceramics or music, but some students don’t have time to fit those classes into their schedules or feel pressured to focus on other courses and extracurricular activities, such as sports.
Art education has long been underfunded and underappreciated, but since the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s also become a harder sell, says Ashiya Carter, a professional dancer who has also taught at schools on Maui, Kauai, Molokai and Lanai. As schools try to make up for lost class time during the pandemic, art education often falls by the wayside.
Hawaii lacks detailed data on arts instruction, says Danica Rosengren, an education expert at the state Foundation on Culture and the Arts. Last year, the Department of Education reported there were more than 500 arts teachers in middle and high schools, but it hasn’t tracked how that number has changed over time.
Financial support for the arts has also become more precarious in recent years. Earlier this year, lawmakers considered a bill that would have significantly cut funding for the state Foundation for Culture and the Arts, which places local artists in public schools. Although the bill did not pass, concerns about maintaining arts education remain.
“Year after year we have fought to keep these programs alive,” Carter said.
Limited learning and limited funding
In his music classes at Ilima Intermediate in Ewa Beach, Richard Akamine watches his students develop important life skills – perseverance, time management and empathy. Since the pandemic, he said, it’s been especially important for students to have a space to express themselves and learn to work with each other.
But he also knows some music teachers in Hawaii who were unable to return to their elementary and middle school jobs after 2020. When school budgets are tight, arts courses are often the first thing to go, says Akamine, who also serves as president-elect of the Hawaii Music Educators Association.
The State Foundation for Culture and Arts runs an annual program that allows artists to teach a series of courses in public schools. Of the 113 schools participating this year, more than half do not employ a single art teacher.
The numbers are not necessarily representative of the entire state, Rosengren said, but the foundation has limited data on what arts instruction looks like in Hawaii’s schools.
Outside of school, learning centers play a key role in encouraging participation in the arts.
The DOE currently has 29 learning centers that offer activities and courses for students across the state, specializing in subjects such as business, agriculture, and the performing arts. The centers receive their own funding from the department, independent of each school’s annual budget.
At Castle High School, the performing arts center serves up to 300 students and offers classes in dance, singing and theater production that culminate in performances three times a year, said principal Karen Meyer. But it’s hard to meet demand and put on quality shows when their annual budget is around $17,000, Meyer said.
When the center opened in 1984, funding was nearly $74,000 per year.
The funding cuts affect all of the DOE’s education centers, not just those for the arts, said Geneva Esguerra, who directs the performing arts education center at Mililani High School. But she recently heard about the firing of the part-time coordinator who oversees each school’s centers, and she’s not sure if school leaders are willing to use their own budgets to staff and support after-school arts programs.
“Sometimes I feel that the arts are often seen as dispensable,” Esguerra said.
Even when high schools offer arts electives, it’s difficult for students to fit them into their daily schedules, says Promise Jellings-Faletogo, a sophomore at Nanakuli High and Intermediate. The school follows Hawaii’s high school academy model, meaning most of the courses students take are geared toward a specific career path.
Jellings-Faletogo wants to be an actress, but there is no academy specializing in performing arts in Nanakuli. Instead, she takes business courses and attends Nanakuli’s learning center in the afternoons to improve her singing and acting skills.
“I really don’t have anything like that,” said Jellings-Faletogo. “This is the only place or course where I can show my skills.”
Local artists fill the gaps
Due to limited schedules and financial resources, some schools have turned to community organizations to offer art classes.
Through the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, local artists go into public schools and teach classes in jewelry making, ceramics, taiko drumming and more. Although lawmakers tried to cut funding to the foundation earlier this year, Rosengren said the organization’s support for the Artists in Schools program has only grown. The foundation typically supports 120 to 130 schools each year.
The program is not intended to replace full-time art teachers, however. Artists are paid $8,000 to host a handful of classes in schools, Rosengren said, and at least $1,000 of their budget goes toward purchasing materials for students.
On the Big Island, the Prince Dance Company and Institute creates educational, interactive dance performances and performs them on tour for students across the state. The company’s current piece teaches students about astronomy in an hour-long dance performance and invites them to perform on stage with the cast, said Angel Prince, the company’s executive director and artistic director.
Through these dances, Prince said, she hopes to introduce students, especially in rural areas, to more professional art.
“Ultimately, it’s about building a connection with the students,” she said.
At Nanakuli High and Intermediate, students ended their rehearsal by returning the cafeteria to its original state. Students quickly closed the windows, moved the tables to the center of the room, and put on their shoes, as many danced barefoot.
Working at the center isn’t easy, says Haley Sakakida, a sophomore at Mililani High School. Performing on stage is intimidating, she says, but over the past seven years she’s learned to love dancing.
“It definitely helped me get more involved in school activities, make new friends and socialize,” Sakakida said. “It just helped me become a better leader and person.”
Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from the Chamberlin Family Philanthropy..
