The Council of Pacific Arts, responsible for the Festival of Pacific Arts that is held alternatively between Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia every four years, intends to change its name to Pacific Cultural Council.
Among other changes is the review of its objectives and the development of a regional cultural strategy which is one of the provisions of the Forum Secretariat’s Pacific Plan.
Elise Huffer, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Human Development Program Cultural advisor, said after the meeting that the council would attempt membership of the Forum’s regional cultural strategic working group to ensure participation in the development of the regional plan.
“There is an objective in the Pacific Plan that requires the development of a strategy to strengthen a Pacific island cultural identity,” Huffer said.
The name change will be the second since the first festival in Suva in 1972 when it was titled the South Pacific Arts Festival Council; it changed to Pacific Arts Council to move away from a focus on the festival.
Huffer said the name change would have to be endorsed formerly.
“It is an attempt to reflect the wide range of issues that the Pacific Cultural Council is going to deal with so that the Council has more of a policy then it’s had in the past,” Huffer said. “This will allow it to inform, advise and monitor policy in a range if areas in culture throughout the region.”
