The Pacific Arts Alliance

Vision

To empower and give voice to Pacific artists through collaboration and with a focus on the freedom of creative expression.

Mission

We are motivated by a mutual commitment to the Pacific, our land, our culture and our people.  We will build an alliance of Pacific arts leaders that provides a strong support system, in which they will thrive as individuals, be spiritually and financial fulfilled, and therefore collectively be empowered and motivated to build secure and sustainable pathways for our people through the arts.

Background

The concept of the Pacific Arts Alliance (PaCaa) was formed in 2005 by the founding Chair Letila Mitchell and Anton Carter.  In 2006 this concept became a reality with the establishment of a core group of founding members - Daniel Waswas, Ben Fong and Craig Marlow.  With a strong hold of key members many who were principals of their own companies, key people in their organizations or who worked independently as professional artists, the Pacific Arts Alliance was born.

By providing this support network to Pacific artists and producers, we envisaged that the partnerships formed would enhance and develop ways of combining the limited resources dedicated to the arts in the region.

Today this vision has become a reality as the core group of the PaCaa continues to grow and more Pacific artists and producers join because they find inspiration, and motivation through informal discussions, exchange of visions, passions and ideas.  There is a strong realization and recognition that we all work for a common purpose, which is to strengthen and empower Pacific people through their arts and culture.  From this recognition new projects are being born and existing ones strengthened.

There is also a underlying common desire for more collaboration regionally and internationally between Pacific artists and other arts professionals.  However there was no organization that had the mandate to provide these links.  There was also the realization that there was no centralised point for information and sharing of knowledge and opportunities.

Aim

The aim of the organisation is to become a co-operative and support network of Pacific arts practitioners.

The PaCaa focuses on being a vehicle to provide information and creating networks, and through this network provide better access to opportunities.  This will help to stimulate cross-cultural arts activity throughout the Pacific, and to connect and enhance the visibility of Pacific artists worldwide.

The PaCaa also aims then to provide an avenue for arts managers to access information and stimulate activity throughout the region, simply by being knowledgeable about each other's projects.  The PaCaa also provides an avenue to re connect with Pacific artists based internationally and to utilize each other's skills, knowledge and resource base to develop as artists and as professionals.

The PaCaa also aims provides a place where those with little knowledge or little access to the Pacific arts sector can gain knowledge about who we are, what we do and where they can find Pacific arts.