If someone asked you to give the location of the largest art gallery in Hawai'i, chances are your answer wouldn't be Punahou School.

It's a trick question, though: The Punahou Carnival Art Gallery is a bit like the ethereal Scottish town of Brigadoon, only instead of appearing for just one day every 100 years, this place appears for less than 30 hours once a year.

The gallery is in the school's Gates Science Center. If you know the carnival layout, the building sits midway between the malassada booths, mauka of the Tilt-a-Whirl. With the labor of dozens of volunteers, the space morphs from the art of experiments to the art of the Islands in a matter of hours.

This year, the art-buying public will get a preview night Tuesday, before the carnival begins. More than 1,000 pieces of art, created by 300 Hawai'i artists, will be on display.

As during the two days of the carnival, the preview is a buy-and-take opportunity, with volunteers ready to wrap the art and deliver it to your car. Fifty percent of proceeds go to the artist. The balance benefits the school's scholarship fund. For preview night only, parking will be available on campus.

For many years, artist John Koga has been in charge of designing the show. A Punahou graduate himself, his children are now students. His day job is as a preparator at The Contemporary Museum, where he sculpts plaster, bronze, stone and wood. "My goal at the Punahou Gallery is always to engage the volunteers and the students in creating a gallery space that best shows the work — and that is no easy task with a thousand pieces of art," he said.

Sculpture, glass, wood carving, paintings, prints and jewelry are continually shifted from place to place, giving each original its moment in the spotlight. Artist John Tuttle is Koga's right-hand man. Many of the artists volunteer for a work shift. They meet potential collectors, encourage questions about art, and have the opportunity to hang out with other artists. Painter and Punahou grad Russell Lowrey grabs a drill to hang new work as often as he stops to talk story about his own work.

Internationally collected artist Deborah Nehmad, whose son is a Punahou senior, began her gallery volunteer career when he was in kindergarten. What excites her most about the gallery, she said, is that it offers a chance to wander and look at art without the potential intimidation that sometimes comes with visiting a commercial gallery.

"This is a place to see a broad spectrum of art, from emerging artists to Hawai'i's most celebrated artists," Nehmad said. "It is a nonjuried show, with something for every budget."

Nehmad served as the 2009 chair, initiating docent tours for the school art classes.

This year's chair is Pamela Pleus, who said, "We are one of the most productive booths at the carnival." The selling price for pieces on display ranges from $20 to several thousand dollars.

"For many years, a highlight of our gallery was the Peggy Chun corner, with Peggy holding court for the entire two days," Pleus said. "We are so pleased that this year we will be able to feature some of the 'new' Chun originals, found by her family after her passing, as they moved her art to the new Peggy Chun Gallery in Chinatown."

Another Punahou parent, painter Jodi Endicott, who exhibits all over the United States, first brought her well-known animal paintings to the carnival gallery in the '90s. This year, viewers will see her large acrylic series of water paintings. Created with a wet-on-wet technique, the works reflect her theory that "what the stock market does reflects the motion of waves in the ocean."

Watercolor artist Cindy Conklin, a partner in the Gallery at Ward Centre, described her first carnival gallery experience, 10 years ago, as a failure. "I didn't know what or how to enter," she said. Happily, her continued efforts have resulted in yearly sales of her work, and she now makes a point of encouraging every artist to enter.

Each chairperson brings something new to the job.

Pleus has added an art station right outside the gallery door for sketch artist Wayne Takazono, ready to catch the essence of carnival enthusiasm.

"Everyone is invited to browse," she said. "The hard and fast rule is that malassadas need to be eaten outside the doors. Rubber slippers and shorts are fine.

"If the weekend is blessed with carnival rain and mud," she added, "shoppers can avail their feet of the hose outside the door."