Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design has a new process for releasing tickets to its oceanside center in Kāhala. Previously, the museum had released tickets quarterly through a partnership with the Honolulu Museum of Art. Now, tour tickets will be released monthly, with any money raised from ticket sales going to HoMA and Bishop Museum.
Shangri La does not keep the profits of its ticket sales. Instead, after costs are met, the proceeds of tours have directly supported the arts at HoMA for more than 20 years. Now, ticket sales will also support Bishop Museum.
The new program launched in September. Going forward, tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. on the first Thursday of each month. The next set of tickets will release this Thursday, Oct. 2.
“We've always loved our HoMA relationship, of course,” Ben Weitz, the executive director of Shangri La, told Aloha State Daily. “They've been with us from the very beginning. We've learned so much becoming a museum with them as our collaborator in crime. And I think the important thing that we were looking to do is just really increase accessibility to the entire Hawaiʻi community. ... In the sense of partnering with Bishop, we wanted to get outside of Downtown and also, at the same time, really uplift another cultural institution, so we thought: ʻWell, why not have both? We could still support HoMA. And why not bring [in] Bishop as the Native Hawaiian, kānaka maoli-focused museum, which is the culture we steward here.’”
So far, tickets for some dates have sold out in as few as 10 minutes, Weitz said.
As part of visits to Shangri La, guests arrive at the site of the hosting museum and are shuttled to Kāhala for a few hours of exploration. After, they are returned to the hosting museum, where they also have admission for the day.
Another change with the new ticketing program? Gone are the First Saturday deals, where kamaʻāina could reserve tours for $5, if booked a few months ahead. Under the new system, kamaʻāina pay $20 if they book Thursday or Friday tours, hosted by HoMA. Admission is $25 for Saturday tours, hosted by the Bishop Museum. Non-residents pay $45.
Under the new ticket system, tickets are now released via Shangri La’s new website, shangrilahawaii.org, which gives Shangri La, instead of HoMa, data about who is booking tours, Weitz explained.
“Now we're able to know who the guests are and be able to communicate with them to tell them all the great work we're doing for Hawaiʻi,” he said.
Shangri La is a center of the Doris Duke Foundation and one of the former homes of tobacco heiress Doris Duke. She is the only child of James Buchanan, who was a benefactor of Duke University, named after his father, Washington Duke.
Today, Shangri La is a center for residencies, exhibitions and community programs and includes nearly 4,500 artworks, cultural resources and architectural designs.
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
