MEDIA RELEASE

This team of creative, heartfelt, passionate folks are the soul of the Donkey Mill Art Center.

These people are at every event, attend many of our classes, open their homes to our visiting artists, stay up late to close up shop and show up early to offer their guidance and support.

They cheer on their staff and walk beside us through challenge and adventure alike, pouring their time, energy, ideas, spirit, and resources into helping the Donkey Mill thrive.

Beyond their contributions to the Mill, they are astounding members of our local community. In other words, they are some o f the most generous and dedicated people you will ever meet.

Thalia Davis
President

Moved to Kona in 1997 to open the Kona Brewing Company Brew Pub. She works primarily as a chauffeur for her two sons and in her spare time she serves on the Executive Planning Committee for the Kona Brewers Festival and formerly as Board Chair for Innovations Public Charter School.

Prior to life in Hawaii Thalia worked at Nike, Inc. for seven years – her last position was International Training and Development Manager for Merchandising.

Thalia also fundraises for the Obama campaign or cruises around in “Big Red,” with her custom graffiti mobile spruced up by renowned graff artist Crayone, from San Francisco. She is a strong woman who will be the first to speak up for a good cause.

Eric Edwards
Vice-President, Media Chair

Retired from Sony and moved to Hawaii in 2005. At Sony Eric was responsible for developing and marketing digital imaging products, technology and intellectual property. Representing the US he led development of international standards in digital photography, JPEG, MPEG and worked with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). To date Eric has authored/co-authored 39 US Patents. Currently he is a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), a member of the Miloli’i Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and a member of the Miloli’i Volunteer Fire Company.

Eric has a great sense of humor, a wealth of knowledge and is heading up our Photography Series beginning in the Spring, as a photographer himself. He created the Donkey Mill you tube channel and artistically documents our events through photo and video.

Cristina Lindborg
Secretary, Membership Chair, Retail Coordinator

Graduate of Indiana University with a major in Education, Cris was the Founder and Director of the Marshallese Cultural Center in the Marshal Islands (10 years). She was also Secretary General and Coach for the Marshall Islands Swimming Federation for seven years. Currently she works as an after-school migrant teacher, volunteers for Outdoor Circle, Friends of the Library and other NGO’s. She enjoys exploring different art mediums and travelling.

Cris is the creative mastermind who brought a fresh perspective to our Gallery Shop. She has two beautiful and immensely talented children whom we also consider as part of our extended Donkey Mill family.

Linda Meyer,
Treasurer

Linda serves on the Board of Directors for the Holualoa Foundation for Art & Culture as the Treasurer. She is currently on sabbatical from a long and successful career as an IT executive, exploring her artistic skills with great accomplishment. Her creative work at the Donkey Mill has focused primarily on ceramics. She has a keen sense of balance between form and surface. Oftentimes, students mimic the art of their teachers, but Linda has the confidence, talent, and sensibility to create bold and original art. Linda also has a line of designer jewelry featured in the Donkey Mill’s gallery shop. She can be reached at www.LindaMeyerWebDesign.com

Motter Snell

Motter is a professional harpist, performing independently, as well as with orchestras and ensembles. She is also the President of the Musician’s Association of Seattle and is on the mediator panel for Hawaii State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and Services for the Blind. She served in 2010 as panel member of the
Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Biennium Grants Program. She has also established two endowments for the Holualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture. We always miss Motter when we have to share her with Seattle, where she lives part of the time.

Motter is vastly intelligent, graceful, gifted with numbers and the ability to ask important questions.

John Holliday

Started out in journalism working on a variety of newspapers and finally ending up in New York making books. He later moved to Vashon, Washington and received a Masters in Education, specializing in teaching those with severe/profound disabilities. He taught for years. His greatest achievement was founding and directing a summer camp for adults with disabilities. Camp Parkview will be celebrating its 30th anniversary soon. In Hawaii, John volunteers at ARC of Kona and Full Life and plays ukulele and sings with friends on a regular basis. He is also a huge fan of the Aloha Performing Arts Company and can be found on stage at least once a year.

John co-chairs leads the Film Club and lead our staff and volunteers in the Kona Coffee Parade as Donkey Mill Art Center’s first Kazoo marching band. His enthusiasm is ever uplifting.

Tomoe Nimori

Tomoe is a former classroom teacher and administrator in California. She served as a school district administrator of resource development, helped establish a non-profit for the school district and served as its executive director. After returning to Kona, she helped establish the Holualoa Foundation for Arts and Culture, served as its volunteer executive secretary until this Foundation was able to hire an executive director. She currently serves on the board of the Kona Historical Society, Pulama ia Kona Heritage Preservation Council, West Hawaii Veteran’s Cemetery and Central Kona Union Church.

Tomoe is an astounding, proactive member of the community. She stays abreast of funding opportunities and has written numerous grants to support projects and initiatives for the Mill.

Maggie Foley

Maggie works as a licensed massage therapist with a practice in Kailua-Kona. Originally from Seattle, Wash., she trained in Hawaii Island School of Massage and specializes in integrated massage therapy.

Maggie is an intuitive, deeply caring adventure girl whose creativity is manifested in her style.

Setsuko Watanabe-Morinoue
Director Emeritus

Setusko and Hiroki are founding members of the Donkey Mill Art Center. A ceramics artist, Setusuko also runs Studio 7 Gallery in Holualoa Village. For 18 years, she has advocated for Donkey Mill’s Programs and the importance of art in education. “The Foundation gave me valuable lifetime experiences which help me to become a better individual and artist-to-be,” she said.

— Find out more:
www.donkeymillartcenter.org