Honolulu’s flagship art museum is bringing one of its own back home. The Honolulu Museum of Art has tapped David Odo as its next director and CEO, putting a Kailua-raised museum leader in charge just in time for HoMA’s centennial in 2027.
Odo will assume the role on Sept. 1, 2026, returning to Hawaiʻi with nearly two decades of combined museum and university experience. He grew up in Kailua and has built a career that spans curatorial work, academic partnerships, and public programming.
HoMA announced the hire in a press release via Honolulu Museum of Art, noting that Odo arrives from the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia, where he served as director and chief curator. During his tenure there, the museum reported record attendance, a 67% jump in paid membership, an 8% increase in donors, and a 141% rise in overall revenue. The release also points out that HoMA’s own collection now tops more than 55,000 works.
"David brings the experience, vision and leadership that HoMA needs as we prepare to enter our second century," Amber Strong Makaiau, chair of HoMA’s board of trustees, said in the museum release, according to the Honolulu Museum of Art. Odo said he was honored to return to Hawaiʻi and described the appointment as a rare chance to help position the museum for its next hundred years. Penni Hall, who has been steering HoMA through the transition, will shift into the deputy director role as part of the leadership handoff.
Academic museum track record
Before heading to Georgia, Odo held leadership roles at the Harvard Art Museums and the Yale University Art Gallery. He is a scholar of 19th-century Japanese photography, and colleagues credit that background with helping him deepen academic partnerships while expanding public programming.
As detailed by the Georgia Museum of Art, his directorship there emphasized cross-disciplinary learning, campus engagement, and broad public access, blending scholarly rigor with an effort to make the galleries feel more open to everyday visitors.
Local roots and leadership shuffle
Raised in Kailua, Odo is the son of the late Dr. Franklin Odo, a pioneering Asian Studies scholar at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, according to coverage by Aloha State Daily. Inside the art world, that family connection to Hawaiʻi’s academic community has long been seen as part of his local bona fides.
He steps into the job following Halona Norton-Westbrook, who led HoMA from 2020 to 2025 before departing to become director of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Hall, who has served as interim director for about a year, will stay on as deputy director, giving Odo a seasoned internal partner as he takes the reins.
What’s next for HoMA
Odo officially begins Sept. 1 and will oversee fundraising, collections stewardship, and centennial programming as HoMA prepares a slate of exhibitions and community initiatives for 2027. Museum leaders say his mix of university-museum experience and deep local roots puts him in a strong position to expand access, build new partnerships, and deepen community engagement as the institution enters its second century.
