The  ARTS at Marks Garage is the key community project of the Hawai'i Arts Alliance.  Located on the seam between Chinatown and the downtown Financial District, the area immediately surrounding Marks Garage has been gathering momentum as an arts and cultural district for Honolulu.  This has led to increasing interest by a growing number of people and phenomenally rapid change.  The primary Shifting Sands issue in the community is how to ensure that the businesses and residents that were in the neighborhood prior to the rise of the arts and culture district both 1) have a voice in the changes to their community; and 2) can benefit directly from those changes.  This includes ensuring that neighborhood businesses are able to tap into the new arts and culture patrons and that neighborhood residents are able to participate in the new arts and cultural offerings in the community through a focus by arts organizations on expanding their audiences to reach traditionally underserved communities.

 To address these goals, The ARTS at Marks Garage has developed a far-reaching strategy that includes the creation of a community organizer position to work full-time on building bridges and increasing awareness of the opportunities the organization's art space provides for dialogue with developers, civic leaders, artists, long-time residents, other community service organizations, etc.  By incorporating the new business interests with the older ones and helping to negotiate a new and fair process for the downtown/Chinatown re-indentification, the ARTS is responding quickly and creatively to their community change.  Examples of this include their "Bright Ideas Project," which provided an opportunity for people to win $4,000 mini-grants for shifting sands-related project ideas, and the "Talk Any Kine Festival," which provided the people who speak a range of different languages with a venue and a process for more easily involving themselves in the community planning dialogue with civic leaders. 

To learn more about The ARTS at Marks Garage visit www.artsatmarks.com or contact: