For the past 12 years, Bank of Hawaii has been making a significant investment in one of the islands’ most important assets: its people. In 2004 the bank partnered with the Honolulu Academy of Arts (now the Honolulu Museum of Art, HoMA) and The Honolulu Advertiser (now the Honolulu Star-Advertiser) to launch Bank of Hawaii Family Sunday, a free monthly event offering entertainment, activities and a film focused on an exhibition or art principle.

BOH and HoMA have a long-standing relationship. In 1893 businessman Peter Cushman Jones persuaded his close friends Joseph Ballard Atherton and Charles Montague Cooke to help him establish Bank of Hawaii.

Jones was BOH’s first president. When he retired in 1898, Cooke succeeded him and served until 1909.

Cooke’s wife, Anna, was a devoted patron of the arts and champion of programs and services that benefited children. She founded the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1927 with this vision: “That our children of many nationalities and races, born far from the centers of art, may receive an intimation of their own cultural legacy and wake to the ideals embodied in the arts of their neighbors.”

The Cookes donated their Beretania Street home for the museum along with a $25,000 endowment and 500 works of art. It is said Anna Cooke had no qualms about loading art into her car and driving to rural areas so children living there could also learn about it.

For many years the museum presented a monthly “family day” to promote its youth and educational programs and to fulfill its mission of bringing together “great art and people to create a more harmonious, adaptable and enjoyable society in Hawaii.”

Developing that into Family Sunday is largely due to Mike O’Neill (former chairman, president and chief executive officer of BOH) and Sam Cooke (former chairman of the museum’s board of trustees) — friends who shared a passion for the arts and the belief that such an event could unify and galvanize families and the community.

Successive leaders at BOH and HoMA have wholeheartedly supported the program. To date, the bank has contributed more than $650,000 to the program. Its marketing team works with HoMA staffers to devise new themes and activities, and its employees volunteer to assist with everything from greeting guests to helping with activities.

This year’s themes have explored a wide range of topics, including “Go for the Gold,” which celebrated the Summer Olympics; “Plastic Fantastic,” which examined plastic as an art medium and a pollutant; and “Malama Honua,” which focused on the worldwide voyage of the Polynesian voyaging canoes Hokule‘a and Hikianalia currently underway.

The next Family Sunday is themed “The Intimate Universe,” after an eponymous Yun-Fie Ji exhibit (see sidebar). After viewing the exhibit, youngsters can create a watercolor landscape painting and a terrarium, complete with miniature plants and animals.

They can admire intricate Lego creations by the Lego Enthusiasts Association of Hawaii and learn how to juggle, spin plates and perform other circus tricks from Circus Olina members (circus olina.inpunctoit.de), who will also put on a magic show.

The 84-minute movie “Phantom Boy” will be screened at 11:10 a.m. and 1 p.m. in HoMA’s Doris Duke Theatre. It tells the story of a New York detective who joins forces with a boy who has superhuman powers to bring down a gangster who has taken control of the city’s power supply.

In short, it’ll be a full day of fun.

Aaron Padilla’s first job with HoMA was Family Sunday coordinator. Today, 10 years later, as director of the museum’s Spalding House and interim curator of education, he oversees planning for the event.

“Family Sunday is often a family’s first art museum experience and perhaps their first time creating art,” he said. “When they get here, kids, parents and grandparents find it’s an opportunity to bond with each other as well as fellow visitors — and, of course, explore art. Many become repeat visitors and we see them every month.”

HoMA’s 29 galleries showcase art from all over the world. According to Padilla, Family Sunday brings the collections to life, providing valuable insights into the people and cultures they represent.

“It sets the foundation for children to be lifelong supporters of art and the museum, and it’s great to see adults having a good time, too,” he said. “Once a month, thanks to Bank of Hawaii, parents can give their kids a magical day in a beautiful setting.”

On view at HoMA

Beijing-born artist Yun-Fei Ji employs the thousand-year-old practice of Chinese scroll painting to convey often-controversial messages about present-day China. His impressionistic ink-on-paper landscapes depict how the land and people have been influenced by social, political, ecological and economic changes.

For example, some of Ji’s paintings were inspired by his experiences as a fieldworker in rural areas where entire villages had to move to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, a mammoth hydroelectric project that spans the Yangtze River. Completed in 2012, the dam is one of the largest power stations in the world. Construction of it reportedly destroyed cultural and archaeological sites, displaced 1.3 million people and increased the risk of landslides.

On view at the Honolulu Museum of Art through Feb. 5, “Yun-Fei Ji: The Intimate Universe” is Ji’s largest solo exhibition to date in the United States. It features scrolls he created during the last decade as well as new work displayed in public for the first time.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.