The nearly completed St. Damien mural fronts the Kamiano Center on the Fort Street Mall in downtown Honolulu next to the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace. (Photo courtesy of Michael Amerino)
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Walk along the Fort Street Mall near the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace and you’ll see a colorful new mural on the boarded-up front of the Kamiano Center next to the church. The all-purpose building’s conditions have deteriorated in recent years, and while the Diocese of Honolulu decides what to do with it, temporary artwork keeps the storefront cheery.
A little history
The buildings that make up the Kamiano Center were originally owned and used by the Sacred Hearts Sisters in the early 1900s as their convent and school, stretching from the cathedral to down near Hotel Street. The sisters eventually relocated the school and convent to the present Sacred Hearts Academy site in Kaimuki and a Nuuanu campus.
The Sacred Hearts sisters eventually sold their Fort Street buildings, which were then used for retail and office space over the years. In 2007 and 2009, the Diocese of Honolulu bought back the two remaining buildings next to the cathedral to be used for church and diocesan activities and called the space the Kamiano (Hawaiian for Damien) Center.
“The buildings are now beyond [their] physical and economic life, and after doing a study on [their] use, we are embarking on a consideration of highest and best use, which should be finished this year,” said Marlene De Costa, the diocese’s director of real estate, in an email.
Plywood boards were put up in front of the buildings but they were soon vandalized. A large number of people who are homeless tend to gather on that end of the mall near a small park and were setting up camp in front of the building as well.
So in March, cathedral parishioner and volunteer John Fielding came up with the idea to paint a mural on the boards to deter future misuse and graffiti. He asked Glenn Medeiros, president of Saint Louis School in Kaimuki, if his students would want to create artwork for the space.
Saint Louis School students start their mural. (Photo courtesy Michael Amerino)
While Damien Memorial School in Kalihi was named after the saint, Damien de Veuster finished his priestly studies at the College of Ahuimanu, the predecessor to St. Louis College and now school.
Michael Amerino, the Saint Louis fine arts department chair, assigned his art students the task of coming up with a mural design to fit the boarded-up section of the center. Top designs were submitted to Bishop Larry Silva who picked the final two mural choices.
On the left side of the building is the name “DAMIEN” in large block letters, and the word Saint overlapping them in the middle. A quotation by St. Damien will be added. To the right is an image of Father Damien superimposed in front of St. Philomena Church in Kalawao on the Kalaupapa peninsula.
15-20 student artists
Amerino said that about 15-20 art students helped paint the in-progress mural on weekends. Many of the artists were 12th graders and the work has slowed some since graduation. Amerino expects the project to be finished with a few more weekends’ work.
The boys have gotten a lot of positive feedback while working on the project. They also received community service hours for working on the mural.
“When they saw the reactions of parishioners coming out of church and just people walking by, they saw how art can impact the community and how it can be a service to the community and beautifying that area,” Amerino said. “They really did grasp that, ‘Wow, I’m making a difference to this neighborhood.’”
Amerino said that some of the street people who hang around the cathedral have taken a sense of ownership over the mural and told him they will protect the new art from vandalism.
He said the art brightens up the area.
“Boarded up buildings send the wrong message, but a building with a mural honoring a saint does not,” De Costa said. “They are doing a great service to the entire diocese by painting this mural, honoring St. Damien at this location.”