A state-owned Satoru Abe sculpture installed at the former Aloha Stadium box office is in the way of planned roadway work, creating a funding and preservation question for Hawaiʻi arts officials. The 45-year-old bronze and copper work, titled Volcano, may require nearly $600,000 or more to move, store, conserve, and maintain during redevelopment. Commissioners of the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts have been weighing whether to relocate it, seek public funding, or remove it from the state collection.
Volcano was created and installed at the Aloha Stadium Box Office Plaza in 1981, according to the Public Art Archive. Aloha State Daily reported that the sculpture, formerly positioned in front of the stadium ticket office, now must be moved as construction proceeds. Karen Ewald, executive director of the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, estimated the combined cost of relocation, storage, conservation, and maintenance at about $600,000 or more.
The Works of Art Special Fund receives 1% of state appropriations for construction or renovation of state buildings. The SFCA’s current webpage, citing HRS section 103-8.5 as amended by Act 122 in 2026, lists upkeep, storage, and transportation of artworks among allowable uses. The question for Volcano is whether that framework provides a sufficient and clearly authorized source for a construction-related relocation.
A funding question rooted in the state’s percent-for-art law
Hawaiʻi’s percent-for-art program has deep roots. The state became the first in the nation to pass a percent-for-art statute when it enacted the Art in State Buildings Law in 1967, according to the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. The legislature later established the Works of Art Special Fund in 1989 under Act 389, codified as Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 103-8.5, to expand the assessment to building renovations, per the Hawaiʻi State Legislature.
How public artworks have been handled in Hawaiʻi
Volcano is not the first SFCA artwork to face a change in stewardship, although the circumstances differ. In 2020, the foundation worked to transfer two bronze sculptures at Kakaʻako Waterfront Park to the Honolulu Mayor’s Office on Culture and the Arts after the park changed ownership, according to the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. That case involved a transfer between public agencies, rather than moving an artwork to accommodate road and stadium construction. The transportation changes around the former stadium are part of a broader adopted plan. The City and County of Honolulu’s Hālawa Area TOD Plan, adopted in October 2020, calls for new roads and internal street connections and envisions gateways marked by features such as art, landscaping, lighting, signage, or building orientation. Those plans provide the redevelopment context for discussions about both Volcano’s current location and a possible new one…