May 18, 2010 – August 8, 2010
Hawaii’s Alfred Shaheen: Fabric to Fashion is the first major retrospective of Hawaiian textiles and aloha wear manufactured by Alfred Shaheen on the island of Oahu over a 40-year period. Co-curated by Museum curator Deborah Corsini and Hawaiian textile scholar Dr. Linda Arthur, the exhibit will feature 100+ objects drawn from the collection of Camille Shaheen Tunberg, the artist's daughter. Stunning yardage representing the textile designs Shaheen produced, and key examples of the men's, women's and children's garments that visually conjure Hawaii's complex cultural history will fill all three Museum galleries. In addition to textiles, the exhibit will showcase archival photos and ads that illuminate how the textiles and garments were designed, manufactured and marketed.

Alfred Shaheen wed technological innovation to socially responsible business practices in the service of revitalizing Pacific Island/Asian textile traditions to forge a fusion fashion design aesthetic now recognized worldwide as a visual marker--not only of a transnational Hawaiian culture--but of a West Coast "American" lifestyle that is informal, environmentally aware, and multi-cultural. A Lebanese immigrant/engineer, Shaheen pioneered a silk-screening method, professionally trained Hawaiians as Shaheen's City of Craftsmen, and mined the visual iconography of Hawaii's multi-ethnic community to create a new design aesthetic.

May 18, 2010 – August 8, 2010
Grand Appliqué: Hawaiian Quilts is a selection of pieces by master contemporary quiltmaker Carol Kamaile of Honolulu. Quilting was introduced to Hawaii in 1820 by missionaries, and was originally of patchwork designs. Hawaiian women soon created their own appliqué style, and Carol Kamaile is a master of this highly prized Hawaiian quilting technique.

May 18, 2010 – August 8, 2010
Wendeanne Ki’aka Stitt: Contemporary Kapa is an exhibition of contemporary fiber art by a Santa Cruz-based artist that draws inspiration from the Hawaiian kapa cloth tradition. Santa Cruz artist Stitt combines traditional kappa-making with quilting to make her unique graphic textile pieces.

Kapa is a native Hawaiian textile made from the bast fibers of certain species of trees and shrubs. The making of kappa largely died out with the advent of commercially available cloth. The artistic beauty of the cloth made of pounded bark from the mulberry tree comes to life through the capable hands and vision of Wendeanne Ke’aka Stitt.