Donkey Mill Art Center Adds New Staff

The Holualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture has announced the addition of new staff members at Holualoa’s historic Donkey Mill Art Center: (left to right) Moriah Kramer, Andi Campognone and Kristin Shiga. Donkey Mill Art Center photo.

The Holualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture has announced the addition of new staff members at Holualoa’s historic Donkey Mill Art Center.

Andi Campognone has been hired as the executive director, Kristin Mitsu Shiga is now the facility’s new core program director and Moriah Smith Kramer has been added as a new member of the Holualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture Board of Directors.

Campognone’s six-month appointment was crafted by the board to capitalize on her skills and address the changing needs of the center. While splitting her time between Kailua-Kona and Los Angeles, Campognone has had a productive history as a Donkey Mill volunteer and activist. She joins the center with over 25 years of experience in arts management both in the commercial gallery and nonprofit sectors.

She was the principal at AC Projects and has worked as the photography coordinator at the Millard Sheets Center for the Arts, associate director and curator of the Riverside Art Museum, museum manager and curator for the Lancaster Museum of Art & History, and served as the appointed cultural arts commissioner for the City of Pomona.

Campognone is an expert in the field of cultural arts, community engagement and social practice through the arts. She is an excellent problem solver who is known for her ability to match organizations with financial and service resources.

“I am thrilled to be serving the community of West Hawai‘i and to help guide the Donkey Mill into the future,” said Campognone.

Campognone is a professional curator and serves as a director on the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation, an advisor to the Los Angeles Arts Association, an advisor to ArtLtd Magazine, serves regularly on granting panels and is an active member of ArTTable.

Most recently, she organized the 2016 Donkey Mill Art Center Kipaipai professional development workshop and is the executive producer of MANA The Film, which was shot on the Big Island and debuted at the Kona Surf Film Festival in 2015.

Originally from New York City, Shiga comes to the Donkey Mill Art Center after 20 years living and working in Portland, Oregon. Her various professional roles have included gallery director at Museum of Contemporary Craft, extension program director at Oregon College of Art & Craft and conference director for the Society of North American Goldsmiths. She currently serves as chair of the Board of Trustees of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine.

Shiga comes from a long line of teachers, and has taught classes and workshops in various craft media and mindfulness practice around the world since 1992. She has established successful metalsmithing programs at art centers in Portland and New York, and is looking forward to returning to the metals studio at DMAC, which she helped launch during her Laila Twigg-Smith residency in 2015.

As a maker, she is deeply inspired by her participation in various collaborations, including the biennial EMMA International Collaboration in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; CollaboratioNZ in Whangarei, New Zealand; and Hawaii Artist Collaboration right here in Holualoa.

Her work is featured in numerous publications, including Art Jewelry Today, The Art of Enameling and several of Lark Books’ “500” series. She has shown her work internationally and is included in notable collections, such as the Kamm Artful Teapot collection and the Permanent Collection of the White House.

“Since I first walked in the door of the the mill in fall of 2015, I felt like I had come home,” said Shiga.

She is excited to officially join the dedicated team of staff and volunteers that makes Donkey Mill Art Center thrive.

As Donkey Mill Art Center expands it programming so does the need for community partnerships and fundraising. To aid in these efforts, Holualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture has appointed Kramer to the foundation’s board. Born and raised on the Big Island, Kramer is a passionate believer in the arts as a vital part of a healthy education and has been involved in the growing contemporary art scene in both Los Angeles and O‘ahu for over 17 years.

As vice president at Friends of Sunset Beach, she led a fruitful arts advocacy campaign which included fundraising to keep arts in the classroom.

“The Donkey Mill Art Center offers so many programs for children, a passion of mine,” said Kramer. “I feel that art is vital to a healthy education and should be elevated to a place of importance in every community.”

The Donkey Mill Art Center is located at 78-6670 Māmalahoa Highway in Holualoa.

Call (808) 322-3362 or visit www.donkeymillartcenter.org for more information.

ABOUT DONKEY MILL ART CENTER

The Donkey Mill Art Center is a community art center serving West Hawai‘i residents and visitors at its facility in Holualoa. DMAC staff also provide art education and experiences in local schools and throughout the community. Donkey Mill Art Center offers classes, workshops, and events for artists of all levels, and presents world-class art and culture exhibits year-round. The mill gift shop provides local artists with a venue to sell their work, and enables art lovers to support the work of local makers.