Joycelin Leahy has been contracted by SPC to travel around the Pacific and talk to people involved in organizing the festival.
Leahy in an interview said that the evaluation is to look into how the festival has developed throughout the years since its inception in 1972.“We are looking at all aspects and what are the changes,” Leahy said.The Festival of Pacific Arts, or Pacific Arts Festival, is a traveling festival hosted every four years by a different country in Oceania. It was conceived by the SPC as a means to stem erosion of traditional cultural practices by sharing and exchanging culture at each festival.In 2004, Palau hosted the festival, in 2008 it was in American Samoa while Solomon Islands will be hosting the 2012 festival.She said the evaluation is a tool for collecting information that is why the team travels to host countries to get inputs and feedbacks from artists, community arts group, sponsors and those involved in the festival.She said they are looking at suggestions to make it better.Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Tina Rechucher-Marugg that 27 countries are in the Pacific are involved in the festival.She said that the festival is a venue for cultural exchange, reunites people and reinforces regional identity and mutual appreciation of Pacific-wide culture.
