Marks Like Lofters

Marks Likes Lofters 
July 31 through September 1
A gallery exhibition of synergy; from the Chinatown Artists Lofts to The ARTS at Marks Garage.

Opening Reception: Tuesday, July 31, 7- 9pm, 1001 Friends quarterly gathering, and artist-guided gallery tour. Featuring Dr. Sketchy's Honolulu, live drawing with models from Cherry Blossom Cabaret. 

First Friday Honolulu: August 3, 5-10pm, performances 6-10 pm. Featuring Dr. Sketchy's Honolulu, live drawing with models from Cherry Blossom Cabaret. 

Bring your own drawing supplies, donations suggested to help pay for models!

Starving artists? Good for business. In the old days people used to move to an area to find jobs. Nowadays innovative jobs move to an area to find creative people. Why are the arts associated with poverty? The Arts have transformed Chinatown. Art attracts business and scares away crime. According to Americans for the Arts people spend about $27 in our neighborhood above the cost of a ticket to a non-profit arts event on parking, food, drinks, retail, etc. That's 3.5 million USD Marks Partners pump into the local economy per year!

Remember when an arts degree was viewed as frivolous, or a luxury, or even a liability? Those days are over. Creativity is in the top 5 applied skills desired by business leaders, and a college arts degree is regarded as the biggest creativity indicator. 72 percent of business leaders now say creativity is of high importance when hiring.

Who wants to deal with a bunch of artists? We do. Artists make innovative and lasting improvements to the places they live in, and, they give back. Many of the artists represented here also participate as mentors in our after school program, Chinatown Art Corps, that connects at-risk teens from low-income housing to the dozens of successful working artists through internships.

Two years ago, artists' lofts were virtually unheard of in Honolulu. Now we can inventory and display the results of informal artistic networking between the "Lofters" and the "Partners" at Marks. HAPA: Hawaii Academy of Performing Arts manages both projects, and our mission is to transform our community with the power of the arts, and establish Chinatown, Honolulu as the creative capital of the pacific.

Confirmed participants in this survey include Cheyne Gallarde (photography), Kris Goto (pen and ink), Ruth Sorensen (oil on canvass), James Anshutz (digital images, portraits), Sergio Garzon (prints), Professor Pandemonium (installation), Michelle Poppler (set design), Jackie Mild Lau (installation), and Abi Goode (sculpture). Special installations and performances by Partners and loft residents t.b.a.