Friends Of Iolani Palace

Programs: Museum operations - operated and maintained the iolani palace; trained staff for tours; planned programs, exhibits and ceremonies. To facilitate school tours of iolani palace, we reserve tuesday and thursday mornings to accommodate students from various public schools with docents specifically trained to give age appropriate tours. High school and college students, as well as those students from private schools, are more flexible in their schedules and usually take the self-guided audio tours in the afternoons. There were 7,418 students who visited the palace in 2016. For those children who do not have the opportunity to come with their schools, we currently offer three special events at no charge. These events draw a combined total of approximately 15,000 people, of which an estimated 30 - 40% are ages 18 and under. These events are "onipaa" in honor of queen liliuokalani's birthday, the prince lot hula festival in collaboration with the moanalua gardens foundation, and "children & youth day" in collaboration with kamaaina kids as event organizer. Given the disproportionately large number of military personnel and their families living on oahu, we have been participating since 2012 in the national blue star museums program by offering free admission to active duty members and their families from memorial day through labor day. As a result, we were able to welcome over 2,800 military personnel and their families through this program, with the majority stationed in hawaii. We also designate one sunday of every month as "kamaaina sunday" where local residents receive a docent-led tour of the palace without having to pay an admission fee. For 2016, there were over 5,000 hawaii residents who came to the palace on one of these sundays. To serve the international community, the museum offers audio tours in mandarin chinese, spanish, french, german, english, japanese, and korean. (we also offer a hawaiian-language audio tour, primarily for immersion school students. ) the museum is also an associate member of the consular corps of hawaii, owing to the considerable number of foreign dignitaries whose complimentary visits to the palace are arranged by their respective consuls general in honolulu. The museum has also welcomed in the past the head of state for the independent nation of samoa, the king of aotearoa (new zealand), the king of tonga, the vice premier of the state council for the people's republic of china, governors of various prefectures in japan, and his holiness the dalai lama.

palace shops - primarily selling products derived from or related to iolani palace history, along with unrelated items for the convenience of visitors.