Isaacs Art Center, Art museum in Waimea, Hawaii County, United States
The Isaacs Art Center is an art museum and retail gallery in Waimea, housed in a 5,580-square-foot building constructed in 1915 as Waimea Elementary School. Its installations intermix a permanent collection of Hawaiian, Pan-Pacific, and Asian art with loans and works for sale, primarily paintings by early and mid-twentieth-century Hawaii artists.
The building was constructed in 1915 as the Waimea Elementary School, the first public school in the ranching community of Waimea and one of the earliest schoolhouses in the Hawaiian plantation style. It welcomed its first students in 1916, most of them children of Parker Ranch employees. From 1942 to 1946 it served as a makeshift field hospital for U.S. Marine Corps troops stationed around Waimea. It was restored between 2002 and 2004 with George Isaacs as the major donor, received a Historic Preservation Honor Award in 2003, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, and opened as a museum in 2004.
The center displays works by local artists and holds one of the largest collections of paintings and watercolors by Madge Tennent in existence. Pieces by Jean Charlot and D. Howard Hitchcock add depth to what visitors encounter, showing the artistic voices that shaped the region.
The center occupies a 5,580-square-foot former schoolhouse in Waimea, on the Island of Hawaii. It is run by and for Hawaii Preparatory Academy, so opening depends on the school calendar; confirm hours before traveling. Proceeds from sales support the academy's scholarship fund.
The building was not moved: it still stands on its original site, restored in place between 2002 and 2004 with George Isaacs as the major donor. The restoration earned a Historic Preservation Honor Award from the Historic Hawaii Foundation in 2003, and the building joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
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