When WE Shine Foundation
When WE Shine Foundation is a fully accredited 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. We strengthen and enrich communities through the Arts, through arts education, arts integration and our social artistry network partners. We are driven by the impulse to illuminate the full spectrum of human potential through art, music, and education. We believe that living a meaningful life is the first step to healing ourselves and to bringing greater balance alongside a culture of kindness to our communities and to the world.
When WE Shine Foundation’s base of operations is in the Hawaiian Islands, the home of aloha. The concept of aloha is a model for mindful living. It has a greater meaning than hello and goodbye. Aloha teaches us how to treat ourselves, others, the land, the waters, and all existence, a reminder of the sacredness of life. The responsibility lies with each of us to create peace and kindness within, and to extend that to others. Our world is in a time of deep conflict, stress, and division. We seek to connect and support cultural creatives and social solutionaries that can guide our communities towards realignment and peace. It’s time to write creative new stories for human collaboration and coexistence.
OUR MISSION: We empower communities to live a life they love through the arts and arts integration education.
OUR PURPOSE: We implement arts integration, creative place-making & social artistry to grow strong social systems and networks for healing & human services, especially as it pertains to women, children and the environment.
OUR VISION: We envision a world of diverse, creative, healthy communities where the arts and culture are core components of community planning and development. We believe that the health and well-being of the people and the environment is one and the same, now, and for future generations. Our vision encompasses our home island of Maui, the state of Hawai’i, spreading Aloha throughout the world.
“Art is an effort to create, beside the real world, a more humane world.” ~ Andre Maurois, French Author
This Is How WE Do It!
Arts Integration and Education
Arts integration bestows the powers of creative problem solving, increased self-confidence and self-understanding, enhanced communication skills and improved cognition. It is a research-based approach to teaching and learning that has proven results for the past 30 years.
When WE Shine Foundation provides funding and micro-grants for artists in residence and for professional development for teachers who want to incorporate value-based learning through the arts, to bring arts integration to their school.
Creative Placemaking
The National Endowment for the Arts describes creative-placemaking like this: “…projects in which arts and culture play an intentional and integrated role in place-based planning and development that is human-centric, comprehensive, and locally informed.”
Done well, creative place-making can animate unused public and private spaces and resources, rejuvenate structures and streetscapes, improve local business viability and public safety, and it can bring diverse people together to celebrate, to inspire others, and to be inspired.
Social Artistry
What is Social Artistry? It is state-of-the-art training that calls people to become Social Artists: agents of creative change as artists, practitioners, and stewards of planetary well-being. It is an emerging field that has changed lives and societies worldwide and yielded remarkable results in solving problems.
Social Artistry utilizes the art of enhancing human capacities in the light of social complexity. The social artist seeks to bring new ways of thinking, being and doing to social challenges in the world.
Arts Integration
& Arts Education Projects
When WE Shine Foundation believes that arts integration should be an option for every school’s curriculum. The data collected for students who already include music and arts in their daily classes, expands not only their ability to learn intellectually overall, but improves social and emotional development. Students who learn to play an instrument or stick with a challenging creative art project, also develop abilities at persistent problem-solving in other areas of knowledge. The Arts transform the environment for learning.
Community Building
Partnerships & Projects
Besides education partnerships, When We Shine Foundation is proud to work alongside some leading community activists, advocating for healthy food access for our entire local community, including our school gardens movement and Farm to School in our school cafeterias. These groups and other equally committed food security organizations on Maui, go the extra mile to provide all families with the help and assistance they need for a healthy, active lifestyle throughout their lives. This is our main community building and partnership activity on Maui and Americans for the Arts is our inspiration.
What lights you up?
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.”
– Rabindranath Tagore
What is your mission and how can we help?
Be a part of something bigger than yourself!
Will you join us?
ARTISTS are AWESOME
“Artists are the gate keepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.”
– Artist & Social Activist, Paul Robeson
Everyone can be an Artist and the Arts – whether musical, visual, digital or performing – play an important role in Movements for social change. They serve as a conduit to shift narratives and become records of our social movements.
We commend and recognize Artists for their audacity to dream, commitment to help create dynamic social justice, and dedication to helping make the world a better place …especially for women and girls!