Every year, The Wharf Cinema Center’s Shops and Restaurants welcome the holiday season with a friendly Best Decorated Storefront contest. This year, The Wharf changed it up a bit with a Holiday Art Contest. Wharf shops were asked to display their creativity and art skills with holiday-themed drawings. The winners receive Wharf Bucks, and everyone enjoys beautifully drawn displays for the holidays.  Regal Theater won the first annual Holiday Art Contest, followed by Amigo’s in second and Lahaina Lifestyle (pictured) in third.

Grown on Maui Coffee Festival slated in Wailea

WAILEA – The Maui Coffee Association’s Grown on Maui Coffee Festival will be held on Saturday, Jan. 17, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Shops at Wailea.

This year’s theme is “Meet the Coffee Farmers – Life on a Maui Coffee Farm.”

Sample estate brews grown by member coffee farms in Maui County. This is an opportunity to speak with the farmers from participating farms and learn what makes any coffee special.

There will also be a roasting demonstration and music by Ainoa and other Hawaiian entertainers periodically through the day. This event is open to the public and free of charge. Individuals interested in learning how to grow their own coffee are encouraged to visit and network with the farmers.

During the powerful winter storm on Jan. 2-3, the 45-foot sailboat Kanua Kai ran aground atop the reef fronting Cheeseburger in Paradise on Front Street. The state Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation worked with the owner and the boat’s insurer to remove the vessel last week. PHOTO BY SHELLY C. LOBSTIER.

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Tempest to speak

KAHULUI – The Green Room presents renowned writer, conservationist and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams on Monday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m. in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s McCoy Studio Theater.

An award-winning author of books such as “Refuge” and “Finding Beauty in a Broken World,” Williams has testified before Congress about women’s health and free speech issues, camped in remote areas of Alaska, Utah and Africa, and employed her passionate and lyrical prose in service to conservation and wildness.

Currently a scholar at the University of Utah, her writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Orion Magazine and numerous anthologies worldwide as a crucial voice for ecological consciousness and social change.

Ebb & Flow Ensemble’s eighth biennial concert starts at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 18, in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s McCoy Studio Theater, after “Concert Talk” with Director Robert Pollock at 4 p.m. The program includes a classic oboe quartet by prolific British composer Benjamin Britten, world premiere by Pollock, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composition by Mario Davidovsky for piano and electronic sounds (with special video), and an award-winning string quartet by Hawaii’s Neil McKay. The concert concludes with the delightful “Cor Anglais (English Horn) Quartet” by Jean Francaix. Tickets are $25; call 242-SHOW.

A reception will be held after the event with a book signing, live music and pupus. Generously sponsored by FIM Group, all ticket sales benefit The Merwin Conservancy. Tickets are $35; call 242-SHOW.

Featuring highly skilled, rigorously trained and multitalented acrobats, the Shanghai Circus will perform at 4 and 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 19, and 7 p.m. on Jan. 20, in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater. These performers will enthrall you as they bend and twist with graceful movements to form living sculptures. Matched with innovative choreography, radiant lighting, enchanting scenery and powerful music, this beautifully orchestrated presentation of acrobatic skills leaves the audience spellbound! Building on traditional Chinese acts, the artists of today’s New Shanghai Circus add layers of complexity and daring to bring new spectacular stunts and favorite jaw-droppers. Kids of all ages, from preschool to senior citizen, will enjoy these intrepid performers from China! Tickets are $12, $25 or $35; call 242-SHOW.

Come “Meet the Artists” at Lahaina Arts Society. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., local artists will be demonstrating in LAS’ Banyan Tree Gallery in the Old Lahaina Courthouse. Next week, talk story with Mark DeColibus, oil/pen and ink/pastel artist, on Thursday, Jan. 22. Bring your friends and family to see how the magic is created by these talented local artists. For more information, call Lahaina Arts Society at 661-0111 or visit www.lahainaarts.com.