2009 Juror

 

Lisa Yoshihara

Lisa Yoshihara received an MFA in sculpture from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 1992. Since 2006, she has served as an assistant professor and the Director of the University of Hawai‘i Art Gallery at the Department of Art & Art History, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she also teaches Exhibition Design and Gallery Management. Yoshihara was co-curator with Dr. Kate Lingley, of the 2007 exhibition “Excelling the Work of Heaven: Personal Adornment from China” that featured 700 of personal adornment from Ming and Qing dynasties from the San Francisco-based Shyn Collection. The exhibition’s educational website and catalogue received national recognition from the American Association of Museums. The interactive website received a bronze 2008 MUSE Award in the category of Teaching and Outreach from the Media & Technology Committee and the catalogue received an honorable mention in the annual museum publication design competition. For 20 years Yoshihara was curator of the Art in Public Places program at the State Foundation for Culture and the Arts and was the founding director of the Hawai‘i State Art Museum. She was editor and project director of “Collective Visions 1967–1997,” a catalogue and exhibition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Art in Public Places Program.

"Serving as a juror for an art exhibition is an honor and always very rewarding to learn of something new. It is a discovery, an opportunity to see the work of an emerging artist and the evolving growth of an established artist. I am drawn to works of art that speak to me, visually, conceptually, or emotionally, and capture my attention with a deeper dialogue on multiple levels of interpretations. When judging, I look for whether the artistic expression and technical expertise come together to communicate a lasting impression."