NO. 01 — OUR STORY
Everyone deserves an art department.
School art programs keep getting cut, and most adults haven’t had an art class since grade school. They tell us “I’m not creative,” then spend two hours making something they’re proud of.
Claire, a longtime art teacher, started hosting pop-up classes at local restaurants, and they sold out almost every time. Hana has spent her career building places people want to gather. Together we saw the same thing: the room was never the point. The people and the making are.
So we started what we call our haart department: art at the center, heart in the spelling, and a department for everyone who lost theirs. We bring every material, set the table, teach the technique and pack up after. You leave with something you made, and usually a few new people in your life.
— Claire & Hana, Aloha Art Studios
NO. 02 — CO-FOUNDERS
Claire Ogden & Hana Dreiling
Claire Ogden and Hana Dreiling are the co-founders of Aloha Art Studios. Claire has taught art for more than ten years, from pre-K classrooms to the Honolulu Museum of Art, murals with Mele Murals and Peace Corps work in Cambodia. Hana has spent her career building places people gather, starting with a Sunday donut pop-up in Hanalei that grew into shops on Oʻahu and in Los Angeles.
Different table, same idea: bring people close and give them something to make together. This time, it’s art.
Read Hana’s Female Disruptors interview →
WHAT WE DO
Hands-on art classes, taught by paid local artists, brought to the places people already gather on Oʻahu, so anyone who hasn’t made art since grade school gets a seat at the table.
