Kauai artists draw crowds with Memorial Day craft pop-up in Lihue
Kukui Grove shoppers found upcycled clothes, block printing and hand-sewn goods as Kauai artists used Memorial Day weekend to test local demand.
Browsers passing through Kukui Grove Center found more than holiday shopping at the Kauai Society of Artists gallery, where the third annual Boroboro Boutique Pop-up Shop and Craft-a-Thon turned a busy Līhue retail hub into a live test of whether local craft still pulls buyers. The Memorial Day weekend event drew steady activity on Saturday, May 23, and was set to run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday and Monday.
Inside the gallery, MachineMachine’s hand-powered sewing machine setup sat alongside block printing, community loom work and other hands-on projects that invited shoppers to watch, linger and buy. “We’re open!” Shannon Hiramoto of MachineMachine said as the event got underway. Laurie Ho of the Kauai County Farm Bureau and the Kauai Association of Family and Community Education said she had two blouses on order that she planned to pick up, with Amy Chun of the Kauai County Farm Bureau partnering with her. For an event built around direct-to-shopper sales, those kinds of pre-orders mattered: they showed that some visitors were not just browsing, but already committing to locally made work.
The Garden Island Arts Council launched BoroBoro Boutique in 2021 as a volunteer sewing committee that makes upcycled clothing and products to fund community art projects. GIAC says the annual Memorial Day weekend pop-up reflects its commitment to creative expression and environmental stewardship through waste reduction, and the setting at Kukui Grove gave that idea a practical edge by putting the work in front of people already out shopping in one of Līhue’s busiest retail centers. That matters on Kauai, where artists and small makers often depend on brief windows like holiday weekends to reach customers beyond their usual circle.
The pop-up also fit into a larger island arts picture. Kat Ho has been working with volunteers on the final grouting phase of the Ka Pae Āina o Hawaii Nei ceramic mural project at Kīlauea Lighthouse, where the 85-foot mural is slated for installation on a 100-foot wall and is expected to open to the public on World Oceans Day, June 6. A related community-created mosaic mural project has also been developed through workshops. Together, the mural work and the Boroboro Boutique sale point to the same reality: Kauai’s creative economy depends not just on celebration, but on steady places where local work can be seen, purchased and turned into the next project.
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