The Honolulu Fungarium will be the worlds first exhibition space of live Fungi.
Fungi represent an entire kingdom of life along side plants and animals. Despite this there has yet to be an institution dedicated to there public exhibition. Fungi receive minimal conservation protection and opportunities for academic research and cultivation.
We believe the first step includes normalization into our understanding of life and inclusion of fungi into education systems from an early age. We believe a public fungarium is the perfect place to start this, and can influence those to look deeply into nature to find answers.
Inspiring the next generation of Mycologists.
From natural bio-active compounds to industrial, environmental and genomic research, fungi will revolutionize the future of the world through safer, more efficient and sustainable methods that address some of our most pressing issues- but only if we can collectively come to get her to overcome our prejudice.
The way to do this is through education and the inspiration of the future generations. How many scientists visited their local aquarium, zoo or botanical garden as a child and returned home with wonder in their hearts of the wide world? Does this not inspire that child in turn to pursue a future in research, conservative or just pure appreciation of the life on their planet? How can we as a culture accept that one of the largest kingdoms of life gets no representation as such?
Museum, Farm and Reasearch Facility
We have partnered with the leading mycology researchers, farmers, environmental advocates and developmental educators to ensure that no questions about the implementation, safety and relevance of this project are not addressed. The fungarium will be space for further research, genomic preservation and social interaction.
The worlds first live fungarium, here in Hawaii
Hawaii offers a unique and valuable location for this organization. The variety of environments, introduced and native species and diverse population of locals and tourists all serve the future fungarium. Visitors from Asia represent TB% of visitors, representing cultures that are far more interested historically in the fungal kingdom that American. TB -( stats about Asian fungi research)
While zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens are notorious for their financial struggles, the economic plans for this fungarium take this into account. Operating not just through ticket sales, we plan to host the sales of edible fungi, a restaurant offering unique one of a kind edible varieties, and a venue for events such as weddings. In turn we hope to offer residencies for mycologists researchers with our laboratory and grow spaces. Hawaii has the opportunity to support this endeavor and it will serve our islands well.