Honolulu has a new government champion for culture and the arts.
Jennifer Santos has been on the job for more than a month as head of the Mayor's Office of Culture and the Arts. She wants to rebrand the department, provide more public access to art and implement career development workshops for artists.
She’s the third executive director under Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration.
The mission of the city office, also known as MOCA, is to promote arts and culture across O‘ahu through murals, sculptures and other arts forms.
“If you ask people what MOCA is, you’ll get a pretty diverse set of responses,” Santos said.
MOCA was created in 1971, about four years after a law was passed allocating 1% of state building construction and renovation costs to acquire artworks.
The office has acquired more than 1,100 artworks displayed throughout the city, such as the King Kamehameha III bronze statue at Thomas Square.
Santos oversees a budget of $938,500 for culture and arts, the Arts in City Buildings Program, the Sister Cities Program, Honolulu City Lights, and community-centered culture and arts programs throughout the city and county.
She also oversees the temporary art project “Wahi Pana: Storied Places,” which is funded by a grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge.
She said some of her short-term goals are to meet with community members and stakeholders to come up with ideas to support culture and the arts in neighborhoods and other public places that don’t have such access.
“There’s this notion that we’re a little bit too centralized, and I don’t want culture and arts to feel like a destination that our communities have to go to,” she said.
“I want to be able to find ways that we can bring this offering to them, and we can do that by partnering with schools, local artists, surrounding small businesses to revive underutilized spaces, spaces that could be repurposed for community celebrations,” she continued.
Vincent Hazen is the chair of the Honolulu Commission on Culture and the Arts, an 11-member advisory board that works with the MOCA executive director.
He said the board has already met with Santos and is open to her ideas.
“She seems culturally grounded and enthusiastic,” he said. “I look forward to getting to know her better.”
Santos has more than 20 years of experience across corporate and nonprofit organizations. She recently served as director of strategy, planning, and operations for business acceleration at VMware, a company that develops virtualization software.
She’s an alumnus of the University of San Francisco with a degree in applied economics and a graduate degree in project management. She is currently attending the University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu for a certificate in ʻŌlelo Hawai‘i.
Her kids attend Ke Kula Kaiapuni ʻo Ānuenue in Pālolo Valley. She and her family speak ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi at home and in public.
Principal Baba Yim described Santos as a firecracker when it comes to working on projects. He said that Santos was instrumental in helping the school with rebranding.
Yim said the school’s rebranding initially started with a new logo for the school’s athletics, but then it grew into creating a brand for new school uniforms. He said Santos helped with spreading the word among parents through social media.
“When it comes to projects, she gets really excited,” he said. “Her energy and enthusiasm is pretty infectious.”
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