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Bishop Museum June 2024 Exhibitions, Public Programs, and Events

Bishop Museum shares its June 2024 exhibitions, public programs, and events, including FestPAC kālai and kākau uhi villages, Celebrate Micronesia Festival, and special programming.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaiʻi Museum of Natural and Cultural History, shares its June 2024 exhibitions, public programs, and events. A full and continually updated listing can be found on the Museum's website, BishopMuseum.org. For more information on any of the items listed herein, please contact Lance Aquino with Stryker Weiner & Yokota Public Relations, Inc.

In June, Bishop Museum welcomes the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture (FestPAC) kālai (carving) and kākau uhi (tattoo) villages to its campus, as well as special programming inspired by the Festival. June also sees the return of the Celebrate Micronesia Festival to the Museum, hosted in partnership with the Pacific Islands Development Program (DIDP) and the East-West Center.

June 2024

  • OngoingKa ʻUla Wena: Oceanic RedCastle Memorial BuildingIncluded with Museum admission. Free for Bishop Museum Members.Ka ʻUla Wena: Oceanic Red explores manifestations of red in the landscapes, memory, and created expressions of Oceania. Ka ʻUla Wena originates in Hawaiʻi, but we reach out to embrace our cousins across the vast Moananuiākea.The phrase "ka ʻula wena" refers to a glowing red, one whose warmth envelops Hawaiʻi each day, first at Kumukahi, the storied easternmost point of the Islands. It is the strength of the sun but also the bounty of reds found in the plants and animals it nourishes. Ka ʻula wena is a red experienced beyond seeing. This redness is felt in mele (song), moʻolelo (stories), and the wena (warmth) of kinship. Red conveys a constellation of ideas densely populated by meaning. Red, beyond color, shade, or hue, elevates the senses, shifts emotions, affirms kinships, enlivens passions, consecrates the sacred, and sets apart the profane.Ka ʻUla Wena: Oceanic Red celebrates the distinctly unique reds of Oceania and the redness of our connection.
  • Ongoing | ExhibitionCorned Beef & KaloJ. M. Long GalleryIncluded with Museum admission. Free for Bishop Museum Members.Corned Beef & Kalo features Pisupo lua afe (Corned beef 2000) by Michel Tuffery, and KALO by Bernice Akamine. The exhibition brings together two iconic works of contemporary art to consider how artists make visible issues related to agricultural subsistence, environmental sustainability, and everyday life where food imports and structured land use intertwine.
  • Ongoing | ExhibitLalo: Science and Conservation in the Northwestern Hawaiian IslandsScience Adventure CenterIncluded with Museum admission. Free for Bishop Museum Members.Lalo: Science and Conservation in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands tells the cultural and scientific significance of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) as the kūpuna islands of Hawaiʻi. The exhibit features "The Ongoing Legacy of Coral Reef Exploration," "The Lalo Plastic Story," as well as 2D and 3D digital experiences that allow visitors to view terrestrial and underwater scenes and experience them as a series of immersive storylines about PMNM.
  • Ongoing | InstallationFifty Years of Life: ʻUmeke from King Kalākaua's JubileeHawaiian HallIncluded with Museum admission. Free for Bishop Museum Members.Fifty Years of Life: ʻUmeke from King Kalākaua's Jubilee introduces three ʻumeke (bowls) that were gifted to King David Kalākaua for his 50th birthday on Nov. 16, 1886. The case also features a bust of Kalākaua made by sculptor Allen Hutchinson.
  • Ongoing | InstallationsCampus MuralsThroughout the Museum campus.Included with Museum admission. Free for Bishop Museum Members.Bishop Museum's outdoor murals provide an immersive art experience that bridges traditional culture, creative expression, and indigenous perspectives. The initial round of murals was completed in 2021 in conjunction with the special exhibit POW! WOW! The First Decade: From Hawaiʻi to the World, and was expanded in May 2023 during the Hawaiʻi Walls Mural Festival in Kalihi. The additional murals were inspired by the Kalihi community, local histories, and Bishop Museum's cultural and scientific collections and resources.
  • Fridays-TuesdaysPlanetarium ShowsJ. Watumull Planetarium$3 with General Admission. Free for Bishop Museum Members.Join us in the J. Watumull Planetarium at Bishop Museum to connect with the environment and peoples of the Pacific region, the expanse of our universe, and the stories we pass on from generation to generation.
  • Saturday, June 8, 2024, 10-11 a.m. | Public ProgramKanikapila ma KaiwiʻulaNā Ulu Kaiwiʻula Native Hawaiian GardenIncluded with Museum admission. Free for Bishop Museum Members.E hoʻokani pila pū kākou! Join members of the ʻUkulele Guild of Hawaiʻi in our Nā Ulu Kaiwiʻula Native Hawaiian Garden. Bring your ʻukulele or borrow one. Learn new techniques, share moʻolelo, or just enjoy the music as ʻUkulele Guild of Hawaiʻi leads guests through selections from He Mele Aloha: A Hawaiian Songbook.
  • Thursday, June 13, 2024, 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. | Public ProgramVoyaging Traditions Across the PacificThroughout the Museum campus.Included with Museum admission. Free for Bishop Museum Members.Join us for a full day honoring the voyaging traditions of the Pacific.
  • Saturday, June 15, 2024, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. | EventCelebrate Micronesia Festival 2024Throughout the Museum campus.Reduced admission: $5 for kamaʻāina and military with ID.Join us as we celebrate our Micronesian cultures and Pacific communities at the annual Celebrate Micronesia Festival!The Festival showcases traditional and contemporary art, dance, fashion, stories, poetry, food, and music of the people and cultures of the Republic of Palau, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Guåhan (Guam), Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Kiribati and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
  • Friday, June 21, 2024, 6-7 p.m. and 7:30-8:30 p.m. | EventThe Stars TonightJ. Watumull PlanetariumCapacity is limited, and registration is required. $10 General Adult, $7 General Youth. Children 3 and under are free but will be expected to share a seat with an adult or guardian. 50% discount for Bishop Museum Members.Come study the stars, travel across the Earth and into our solar system, and share stories with us in our J. Watumull Planetarium! For June's program, enter our Trivia Dome and test yourself with quiz questions spanning astronomy, natural sciences, and pop culture. The first show is followed by stargazing on the Great Lawn with the Hawaiian Astronomical Society, weather permitting.

Looking past June, Bishop Museum is also excited to preview the following upcoming exhibits and public programs in 2024:

  • July 19 | Faith and Philanthropy: Queen Emma Kaleleonālani's Visit to England, 1865-1866 (installation)
  • Summer 2024 | Updates to Science Adventure Center installations
  • Oct. 5 | Kū a Lanakila! Expressions of Sovereignty in Early-Territorial Hawaii (exhibition)
  • Fall 2024 | Kāhuli Festival 2024
  • Fall/Winter 2024 | Updates to Science on a Sphere ("SOS") Rotunda exhibit

Bishop Museum also holds Daily Programs for all guests, as well as in-person J. Watumull Planetarium shows. Its Signature Galleries include Hawaiian Hall, Pacific Hall, Picture Gallery, Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kāhili Room, Nā Ulu o Kaiwiʻula Native Hawaiian Garden, Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center, and Campus Murals. For more information, please visit BishopMuseum.org.

About Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the State of Hawaiʻi Museum of Natural and Cultural History

Bishop Museum’s mission is to inspire our community and visitors through the exploration, celebration, and perpetuation of the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. The Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a royal descendant of King Kamehameha I. Today, the Museum thrives as an educational center for the community and is widely regarded as the world’s premier institution for Hawaiian and Pacific content.

Bishop Museum’s vast collections of more than 25 million objects and specimens represent nine disciplines and include more than 22 million biological specimens, over 2 million cultural objects, 115,000 historical publications, and 1 million photographs, films, works of art, audio recordings, and manuscripts. These collections tell the stories of the cultures and biodiversity of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific as well as the proud legacy of scholarly research spanning 130 years.

Bishop Museum proudly serves more than 200,000 visitors each year, including 20,000 children on school visits. Guests are encouraged to pre-plan their trip to #HawaiisMuseum with its free digital guide, available through Bloomberg Connects.

To learn more about the Museum’s research, collections, exhibits, and programs, visit BishopMuseum.org, follow @BishopMuseum on Facebook and Instagram, visit Bishop Museum’s YouTube channel, or call (808) 847-3511. Bishop Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Bishop Museum is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, and welcomes applicants from the military, veterans, and those with disabilities. Learn about careers at Bishop Museum at BishopMuseum.org/Careers and on its LinkedIn page.

Bishop Museum Press is Hawaiʻi’s oldest book publisher and one of the first scholarly publishers in the Western Hemisphere, and has published over 1,200 titles and distributed over 1 million books in 72 countries worldwide. Bishop Museum hosts a restaurant and gift shop on campus, Tūtū’s Place by Highway Inn and Shop Pacifica by Nā Mea Hawaiʻi.