On Giving Tuesday, Your Order Benefits Donkey Mill Art Center

On Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024 we're donating 20% from your full-priced, non-discounted order to The Donkey Mill. Not only that, but two anonymous donors are matching our proceeds this year, so every contribution is tripled!

The Donkey Mill Art Center is a place of convergence for the exploration of arts and culture to inform, inspire, and strengthen individual and collective well-being. The 2.6-acre campus includes studios for youth education, printmaking, ceramics, metals, fiber arts, native plant gardens, an exhibition space, and a retail store. They provide hands-on classes, exhibitions, and events of contemporary visual arts and culture, on-campus in their historic building and in local public schools.

Over Donkey Mill's 29-year history, they have developed a national and international reputation for providing high-quality programs and opportunities for artists from Hawaiʻi and beyond to participate in their Youth, Adult, Exhibition, and Artist Residency Programs. These programs integrate arts and culture and support artists at various stages of their careers. Their audiences include youth, families, adults, kupuna, artists, cultural practitioners, educators, Kanaka ʻŌiwi, Pacific Islanders, and underrepresented communities in West Hawai‘i and beyond, now serving over 5,000 people annually.

The pandemic and other economic and societal challenges significantly impacted the mental health of our youth, adults, and communities. Arts and culture provide a therapeutic outlet for emotional expression that words often fail to convey. As highlighted in the NeuroArts Blueprint: Advancing the Science of Arts, Health, and Wellbeing, “experiencing art is fundamental to being human, a common thread across cultures, racial and ethnic backgrounds, age groups, income levels, and skill sets.” The arts have measurable, evidence-based impacts on both physiological and psychological health, and integrating arts into health-related activities is a key recommendation of this research. 

Donkey Mill's Youth Education Program

The Youth Education program at Donkey Mill Art Center addresses these needs, particularly in rural, economically disadvantaged communities in West Hawai‘i. As the only arts center of its kind on Hawai‘i Island, they provide essential access to arts education for youth who might otherwise be excluded.

The Youth Education Program is soundly based on the understanding that an appreciation of the arts is the hallmark of both a complete person and a healthy society. The mission or opportunity of the program is to enable children to engage in artistic and cultural activities that otherwise would not be available to them. The youth program intertwines visual arts, literature, performing arts, environmental studies, and health through the lens of self, family, community, and world. The program is designed to not just teach particular skills, but to nurture individual creativity, encourage group collaboration, to give participants the chance to explore new and sometimes life-changing experiences in the arts and to become good citizens.

And it's so fun to make art with Donkey Mill! We have several family, friends, and even Kona Coffee & Tea staff members who have gone through the various Donkey Mill programs over the years. 

 

Kona Coffee & Tea is proud to be donating 20% of Tuesday's proceeds. Plus, every contribution triples thanks to two anonymous matches! It's a big day of giving to Donkey Mill Art Center.