The Pacific Arts Alliance

Objectives

• Establish some of the key attributions at policy level that could enhance the empowerment of Business Management and Marketing strategies for Pacific Island and Melanesian Art practitioners in New Caledonia.

• Create an entity that advocates at community level with the approval of the state to develop policies that empower professional artists and keep on going follow up with projects as they take place and when they are completed.
• Strengthen regional networks to keep up with the progression of other groups that have gone through the same problems of not enough initiative from local government, their fore we have to seek outside assistance for sustainable development. As New Caledonia is faced with real needs for indigenous Pacific Island and Melanesian people who work in the Arts and Heritage sector, under resourced and seeking development opportunities.
• Explore and investigate Marketing strategies and request assistance from a regional level, to learn from regional enterprise and cooperation development practices that structure from a community base.
• Find solutions for the growing needs of Siapo Artists which are in management and support services.
• Activate an awareness of New Caledonia's special situation and work towards weaving in exchanges of development strategies from a regional perspective. That also links into policy concerns of indigenous art here and future development practices of empowering sustainability.

Purpose

• Aide art practitioners with marketing initiatives through projects the lead to sustainable development.
• Keep networking with art practitioners and managers by updates of current concerns and events.
• Bridge the gap in the region by strengthening networks to cross over French and English speaking countries, and form opportunities to advocate for Pacific and Melanesian Artists, and create an awareness and understanding, of Art practitioners here in NC.
• Continue and strengthen networks and links for Artists to fall back on when in need of advice for specific artistic endeavors.
• Support an educational development structured resource that sustains an artistic management working carrier.
• Open opportunities to dialogue with Artists, managers and policy makers, in order to Understand everyone's role and function, to better sustainable development here in New Caledonia.
• Encourage educational development that involves regional government bodies and non government organizations, to work with the arts sector to produce valid initiatives that strengthen the growing needs of our diverse society for development policies.

Visual Arts

Siapo Arts Collective participates in the Closing Ceremony for the New Caledonia and New Zealand 07 Season, held at the South Pacific Commission 22 May, 2008. Performance piece includes a Contemporary Visual Art installation, Contemporary Dance and Traditional Music.

Music

'The Dreaming Festival', Woodford Folk Festival, 6 -9 June 2008
Kalaga'la and Jimmy Wedin to participate at 'The Dreaming Festival', Woodford Folk Festival , Queensland, Australia.

Literature

Work in progress
Laga Vaka - is from the Uvean language which translated means Making Canoe it is a small collective of writers of Uvea and Futuna origin of writers based here and in France. It is a Heritage book project that will be the first collaborative project from Pacific writers of Uvea and Futuna. The writers include Vaimu'a Muliava currently studying Archeology, Restoration and Conservation, Paris Uni [Pantheon-Sorbonne], Rapheal Kaikilekofe Visual Artist - Painter and writer. And Maria Tamole a long time support assistant to Siapo, who will share some short story writings and poetry.

Sei Moana - Ela To'omaga-Kaikilekofe takes on a personal Craft book project, which reaches out to makers of hand craft objects influenced by traditional and contemporary techniques. A wide variety which covers both a French Pacific and English Pacific text, and also drops in and out of conversation with Pacific Island mama, cris-crossing the diversity of hand craft made objects in the Pacific Region and beyond.