Music stars to shine for Japan

Henry Kapono and special guests Michael McDonald and Mick Fleetwood are among the entertainers who have signed on for the “Kokua for Japan” fundraiser April 10 at the Great Lawn of the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Other performers include the Brothers Cazimero, Amy Hanaiali‘i, Na Leo, John Cruz and Robi Kahakalau. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at www.honoluluboxoffice.com or charge-by-phone at (808) 550-8457. All proceeds will benefit the American Red Cross relief efforts on behalf of Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims. Visit www.kokuaforjapan.com for more information.

Give teddy bears for abused kids

Prevent Child Abuse Hawaii is collecting teddy bears from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 9 at Pearlridge Center’s Uptown Center Court.

The 14th annual Teddy Bear Round-Up welcomes stuffed bears of all sizes, shapes, colors and textures.

“The stuffed animals that are collected will be shared with children who have suffered from child abuse. These stuffed animals provide children with happiness and comfort,” explains Elsie Foster, Teddy Bear Round-Up volunteer chairwoman and owner of Foster Realty Inc.

The public is welcome to take photos with Pooh, Tigger and Elmo, who will also be on hand to help collect the bears, along with volunteers from local Lions Clubs.

More events are scheduled throughout the month of April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Visit preventchildabusehawaii.org for more information.

15 isle students honored for art

Fifteen student artists from Hawaii have received top honors from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, a national program that recognizes outstanding creative teenagers and offers scholarship opportunities.

The 88-year-old program, administered by the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, is the longest-running award program of its kind. Previous winners have included filmmaker Robert Redford, artist Andy Warhol, writer Truman Capote and photographer Richard Avedon.

Winners of the awards are eligible to attend a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City on May 31, and some of the art and writing will be exhibited at the World Financial Center.

This year’s recipients, listed by name, category, school and grade:

GOLD MEDAL
» Gabriella Yates, Sculpture, Kamehameha Schools Kapalama senior
» Emily Char, Ceramics & Glass, Kamehameha Schools Kapalama senior
» Kasie Kashimoto, Drawing, ‘Iolani School junior
» Courtney Overland, Sculpture, ‘Iolani School eighth-grader

SILVER MEDAL
» Courtney Abellera, Sculpture, Education Laboratory PCS sophomore
» Tyler Akaka, Photography, Kamehameha Schools Maui senior
» Alicia Buntenbah-Leong, Photography, ‘Iolani School senior
» Nakea Choy, Digital Art, Kamehameha Schools Kapalama senior
» Kealaka‘i Dudoit, Sculpture, Kamehameha Schools Kapalama senior
» Hye Mi Lee, Drawing, Aliamanu Middle School eighth-grader
» Jessica Leung, Drawing, Moanalua High School senior
» Chavez Moala, Drawing, Leilehua High School sophomore
» Joshua Pane‘e, Ceramics & Glass, Kamehameha Schools Kapalama senior
» Beethoven Sausal, Drawing, Waipahu High School sophomore
» Kristen Tanabe, Sculpture, ‘Iolani School junior

Arboretum holds huge plant sale

In 1918 the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association — who never saw a patch of dirt they didn’t want to cultivate — established an arboretum in the back of Manoa Valley. HSPA botanist Harold Lyon tended it for more than four decades, even after the HSPA deeded the site to the University of Hawaii-Manoa, and when Lyon passed on to that great garden shed in the sky, UH named it Lyon Arboretum.

Arboretums aren’t exactly tree museums — they’re more like living collections. And because collections tend to (literally) grow, every once in a while it has to be culled.

The arboretum is having what it describes as “the biggest horticultural plant sale of the year,” running 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 2 at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.

We’re talking hundreds, maybe thousands, of plants, many from nurseries other than the arboretum — herbs, vegetable seeds, exotic fruit trees, roses, orchids, gingers, heliconias, tillandsias and other bromeliads, native Hawaiian plants, flowering trees, ti, desert rose, succulents, hibiscus, lanai and landscape plants, according to publicity materials.

Got a sick plant Plant doctors will be on hand for querying, plus volunteers from Hui Hana Hawai‘i, selling jams, jellies and haku lei.

Proceeds benefit the arboretum. Admission is free. For information, call 988-0456 or visit www.hawaii.edu/lyonarboretum.

See preservation of Louis painting

All art, from the humblest Elvis-on-black-velvet to the highest of high-brow masterpieces, are affected by environment and, just like their keepers, degrade and dirty with age. It takes an artist’s eye and a surgeon’s hand to restore fragile works of art.

Art conservation is usually carried out in climate-controlled clean rooms. The Honolulu Academy of Arts, however, is conducting a painting conservation now through April 1 in full view of visitors. During this period, conservator Larry Pace will apply his magic to Morris Louis’ “Turning,” in the Clare Booth Luce Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art

The conservation is funded by the Morris Louis Conservation Fund, established by the artist’s widow in 2001 to conserve Louis paintings in permanent collections in public museums. “Turning” was on the organization’s list of paintings to preserve. When the academy accepted, the organization sent experts to study the works and prepare a checklist of treatments. The painting is in pretty good shape, so Pace will simply clean and restretch the canvas.

Pace’s methods involve freshly baked bread. “Traditionally, old frescoes in Italy were cleaned with bread and white wine,” explained Pace in a release. “Conservators normally use crumbled erasers for works on paper. You gently abrade the surface, and dirt is soaked up into the eraser. That’s what happens with the bread — bread is lightly absorbant, and it’s like thousands of tiny little sponges that we manipulate with our fingers. The trick is to get it done uniformly. There aren’t many big paintings like this in Hawaii — we don’t usually do this type of work on such a large scale. This will be fun.”

Academy of Arts hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is $10, with discounts for seniors, students and military; members and children 12 and under are free. For information, call 532-8701 or visit www.honoluluacademy.org.