On September 30, 2025, the Pacific Literacy Consortium (PLC) completed its second Artist-in-Residence session at Honouliuli Middle School, demonstrating a two-year collaboration with the school community. In partnership with PLC’s Kaikua‘ana (KAI) Cadre member and acclaimed local artist Kamea Hadar, PLC engaged two student cohorts ( 70 participants) in three weeks of immersive, literacy-infused, and multidisciplinary art-based instruction. The workshops were designed to deepen engagement, promote cross-disciplinary learning, and amplify student voice. Serving as the capstone of both sessions, Kamea Hadar showcased his artistic and technical mastery through the installation of two large-scale murals prominently displayed on campus, each visually embodying the school’s vision and mission. Co-conceptualized by the artist, students, and community, the murals have since become a source of pride and a focal point for the school and surrounding neighborhood, attracting onlookers and fostering a lasting sense of connection.
The Pacific Literacy Consortium develops and deploys a diverse range of services, including expanded learning opportunities, educator professional development, family and community engagement, and supplemental curriculum. By intentionally weaving these programmatic strands into the fabric of each school’s existing systems, PLC builds schoolwide capacity to meet diverse student needs and foster whole-child development.
A core PLC strategy for strengthening collective expertise is activating its Kaikua‘ana (KAI) Cadre, a collaborative network of leaders and entrepreneurs who work directly with students and teachers to enhance learning and instruction through cross-disciplinary experiences integrating science, technology, engineering, arts, literacy, and mathematics. Among the KAI Cadre are local artists who lead PLC’s Artist-in-Residence program, a scaffolded series of workshops designed to build foundational knowledge of visual art concepts and design principles. Under the mentorship of professional artists, participants experiment with a range of media, learning to translate ideas into imagery and to use visual storytelling as a powerful tool for collaboration and self-expression.
Through this creative process, students develop essential 21st-century competencies such as critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving. They also make cross-disciplinary connections that link art to mathematics, literacy, and social awareness. The activities incorporate concepts of ratio, scale, measurement, and proportion, using grids and cooperative strategies to transform complex images into large-format designs.
The residency also includes tailored professional development for teachers, equipping them with strategies to integrate art into their instructional practice and to extend creative learning opportunities beyond the classroom. Reflecting PLC’s mission to promote literacy, real-world learning, and social consciousness, the program culminates in students gaining both enhanced content knowledge and a deeper appreciation for creative expression as a vehicle for personal and community transformation.
As an extension of the Artist-in-Residence program, PLC’s Mo‘olelo in the Murals initiative engages students and educators in designing and installing large-scale murals that transform school campuses into vibrant visual narratives. This literacy-infused, culture- and art-based initiative deepens learning through an integrated framework of visual storytelling, inquiry, and community collaboration.
Bridging art, literacy, and cultural identity, the program leads participants through a phased, iterative process of research, reflection, and creative production that includes field trips, journaling, oral presentations, and hands-on activities connecting historical perspectives with contemporary expression. Each mural project demonstrates how expanded learning opportunities, community partnerships, and problem-based instruction can strengthen student engagement, promote cross-disciplinary skill development, and foster whole-child learning outcomes.
The culminating mural unveiling serves as both a celebration of shared learning and a testament to the power of art to connect, inspire, and renew communities. Over the past eight years, the Pacific Literacy Consortium (PLC) has collaborated with local artists and school communities to install seven large-scale murals across five Hawai‘i public school campuses. Each mural vividly amplifies student voices and visually expresses narratives that are unique to each school community.
