Climate Action Artists Residency

The Hawaiʻi State Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission’s (CCMAC) is running an innovative Climate Action Artist Residency program. This Artist’s residency engages local artists in the implementation of Hawaiʻi’s Climate Action Pathways (CAP) through creating works across a range of artistic media.

Through art, this unique program aims to inspire and connect Hawaiʻi residents to critical climate change challenges.

The selected artists engage in key topics from the Climate Action Pathways, including cultural knowledge, land stewardship, waste management, energy efficiency, transportation decarbonization, and community resilience. The finished artworks are exhibited at the Capitol Modern, the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum in Honolulu.

This project is a partnership with the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program and Capitol Modern. The project aligns with the CCMAC’s mission to promote ambitious, climate-neutral, and culturally responsive strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation in Hawaiʻi.

Art in Action

The first cohort of 4 artists, Gillian Dueñas, Benjamin Fairfield, Erin Voss, Keisha Tanaka, were selected in the summer of 2024 from a pool of 65 applications from artists across Hawai’i. Over several months the artists met, engaged with local communities and developed their work in photography, painting, graphic art, and instrument making and music. In October 2025 their work was shown at Capitol Modern in the exhibition titled Kaiāulu: Rising Together.

Opening night of Kaiāulu:

Rising Together, Capitol Modern 2025, photograph by Udi Mandel

Meet the Artists and see their work. A program for the exhibition and more information about the artists can be found here:

Calling for a new cohort of artists!

Now in 2026 we are once again calling for 4 artists to be part of a new cohort for the Climate Action Artist Residency. Selected artists will participate in monthly cohort meetings (1-1.5 hrs) from June to December 2026 and be partnered with a county department where they live developing climate action on the ground. Artists will engage with topics that are relevant for the local context (i.e. Food Waste, Fire risk, Agriculture, Energy, etc.). This will involve learning about the climate related challenges and actions that the county is active in, working with the county department to get to know more about this topic over a period of 6 months (June-December 2026) through: monthly meetings and site visits.

Keisha Tanaka, Erin Voss, Gillian Dueñas, and Ben Fairfield (left to right), Capitol Modern 2025. Photo credit Udi Mandel

By the end of 2026 artists will have their work ready to be exhibited in the Capitol Modern, the Hawaiʻi State Museum in Honolulu at the start of 2027.

We welcome applications from local artists of all media including painting, illustration, sculpture, ceramics, music, digital, videography, clothing and textiles, photography, and many more!

APPLICATION DUE May 1, 2026

Key Details:

Four kamaʻāina artists will be selected from across the State.
Each artist will receive a stipend of $7,000.
Artists will collaborate with climate action occurring at the County agencies in the places where the artist resides.
Artwork will be exhibited at the Capitol Modern, the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum in Honolulu in early 2027.

Click here to submit your application: https://forms.gle/RDD5ahuXojpuBDgt6

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808-587-0391