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For Sean O’Harrow, taking on the director’s role at the Honolulu Museum of Art is something of a homecoming.
He’s the first top administrator in the institution’s 90-year history to have grown up in the islands. And from age 4 through his teen years, he spent many weekend hours taking art lessons in the museum’s basement or simply roaming the galleries and airy grounds.
O’Harrow, who left a director’s post at the University of Iowa Museum of Art to return to Honolulu this month, said although he has not lived here in three decades much of what he sees feels familiar.
“Deep down inside it is very similar to what it was when I was growing up. There’s a lot of change … but there are certain areas, like neighborhoods, that have not changed at all.” O’Harrow laughed, adding, “I can tell you growing up in St. Louis Heights, that guy still hasn’t fixed his car and that person still hasn’t painted their wall.”
The University Laboratory School grad earned degrees in art history from Harvard and Cambridge universities and established a career in museum administration in England as well as the Midwest.
“I’m in the career I’m in because of my time I spent here,” said O’Harrow, seated in his office at the Honolulu museum. “You know when you declare your college major and decide what kind of path you want to take, I looked back and thought about what were the happiest days of my life … and they were here. So at the age of 18, I said this is where I want to end up.”
O’Harrow will pick up where the previous director, Stephan Jost, left off. During Jost’s five years at the museum, education programs expanded and membership figures doubled. Jost also oversaw the 2011 merger of the Honolulu Academy of Arts and The Contemporary Museum. The overall institution now encompasses the two museums, an art school, two cafés, two shops and a theater. Total attendance in 2016 was nearly 294,000.
Question: How did you end up spending so much time at the art museum as a young child?
Answer: I was attracted to music and art. At the time, the art lessons were in the basement of the museum, and I had a mother who was early to everything and would drop me off a few hours before class started. And I had a father who was often late picking me up. So, as a little kid, I would spend part of my weekend wandering the art museum. That serendipitous, almost accidental type of learning can be powerful because you discover things on your own. … I would choose a different painting every time I was here, and look at it and try to figure things out. Then in art lessons I would try to copy things, work things out in the same way.
Q: What sorts of goals do you have in mind for the museum’s future?
A: One I have, in general, is to make the institution internationally known. … It needs to be a destination, one of the great institutions people see when they come to Hawaii. Another goal I have — building on the successes of my predecessor and merger of the museums — is to make the institution relevant to the needs of the people of Hawaii on a number of levels. Not only education and quality of life, but also relevant to tourism, relevant to the direction that people want Hawaii to develop. I want it to be a significant player in this overall cultural offering in Hawaii — from the point of view of providing education programs and exhibitions, and from the point of view of facilitating development so that we can, as a state, live up to our potential.
Q: While you were director at the University of Iowa museum, between 2010 and 2015 annual museum attendance increased more than 500 percent to 215,000 people. Do you have attendance-related goals here?
A: I would like to attract more tourists … and grow our outreach programs to other parts of Oahu and the state. I know that’s a geographical challenge but that’s something we need to look seriously at. I truly believe that as tourism and other types of visits develop in Hawaii there’s a lot of room for attracting cultural tourists who are interested in high-quality arts experiences.
I think there’s an obligation by this institution to support and facilitate the development of arts and arts education in Hawaii and to sort of raise the game so that people around the world know what we have. Perhaps I’m biased because I grew up here, but I always felt that what we have to offer arts-wise are some of the most wonderful, high-quality arts experiences in the world, but very few people know about them. A lot of people who visit Hawaii don’t expect to see them.
Q: The museum’s collection spans 5,000 years and includes Asian and Western masterpieces. What do you see as a particular strength in the experience a visitor gets here?
A: To me, an experience in a museum is the full experience. Oftentimes there is a scale that is so huge it becomes almost oppressive, whereas in our galleries the scale is human and there are spaces that you want to spend hours and days and years in. … This has a home feel about it, which I think is a great asset that other museums cannot replicate. There’s a patina to the stones. There’s light quality in the galleries and the gardens. It’s totally accessible in terms of its architecture. And I have worked in spectacular museums — designed by award-winning architects — that would scare people away. I appreciate glass and steel as much as anyone but I think that they can sometimes promote cold barriers to entry. … I find this the least scary of any museum I have been to.
Q: What’s in the works for programs involving schoolchildren?
A: It’s been 30 years since I’ve lived in Hawaii. What really impresses me … is that the school-age art program has increased over the years. … It’s nice to see that’s still part of culture in Hawaii. The museum is going down this road of bringing more art to schools, and more students come here — programs in both directions. There has been a systematic purge of the arts in schools. … This museum has inherited the responsibility of educating our public in arts.
Q: During Jost’s tenure, exhibits included Asian, European and American art as well as some unexpected offerings, such as one exhibition featuring Native Hawaiian tattoo work, and one spotlighting surf fashion. Will you continue the variety-pack approach?
A: Sure. We have to appeal to people with all sorts of interests. Everything is art in many ways. … I was not raised to think that art was only painting and sculpture. I always felt that wood-turning or ceramics or making chairs or light fixtures could be art as well. Oftentimes people’s interests in things that are art-oriented come through in designs of things like shoes, tables or cars. … We are obliged to cover all forms of art.
Q: When Jost joined the institution in 2011, the museum had $15.1 million in debt. Due in part to the recession in 2008, endowments and donations had dropped. At the time of his departure in March, the budget was running at surplus and debt had been reduced to $2.4 million. What are your thoughts on the nonprofit’s current financial picture?
A: I’m grateful to my predecessor and the (museum) board. Now that the institution is stable, there are a lot of opportunities that we can take advantage of because we’re not in a situation where we’re desperate to fix things.
Now, really, it’s using that foundation to move the arts in Hawaii up a level. For example, working with artists to produce work that is recognized around the world as great art. And I know that’s a challenge because we’re so isolated. The art scene, art museums, art galleries … on the mainland can interact with one another in a way that the arts in Hawaii would find difficult.
Also, now I think we need to reach a (budgetary) level that is sustainable. … I describe museums (like HoMA) as “forever institutions.” They’re not businesses in the sense that they can go bankrupt and be revived. They must always succeed. They will care for future generations and are also the caretakers of our legacy.
I take very seriously the warnings that come from seeing what happened to the (Honolulu) Symphony or seeing … (the demise of) great institutions on the mainland. I’m always slightly anxious on purpose to make sure that I push the institution to the sustainable goal. … The 100th anniversary is 2027. Right now my thought is that definitely by that date it needs to be fully sustainable.
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