The Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts was established by the Hawaii State Legislature in 1965 to "promote, perpetuate, preserve, and encourage culture and the arts, history and the humanities as central to the quality of life of the people of Hawaiʻi".

It allowed Hawaii to receive federal grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

It mandated that 1% of the construction costs of new state buildings be set aside to purchase art.

[citation needed] In the fall of 2002, the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum opened in the No.

1 Capitol District Building, at 250 South Hotel Street in Honolulu, where the Foundation's offices are also located.