PIMA’s Governance Workshop
Secretariat of the Pacific Community media release
5 October, 2006
Management of cultural institutions focus of workshop at Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival
Suva, Fiji Islands: The directors of arts and cultural institutions have met in Fiji to discuss how they can marry Pacific values and “western” business models.
The two-day workshop, called Governance for Pacific Cultural Institutions, drew 20 delegates to the Holiday Inn in Suva, where the Third Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival is underway.
The delegates, from Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu, explored how a new model of blending western and Pacific ways of management could improve the performance and accountability of cultural institutions.
“Workshop participants, from Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu, explored how a new model of blending western and Pacific ways of management could improve the performance and accountability of cultural institutions”
Meredith Blake, Secretary General of the Vanuatu-based Pacific Islands Museums Association, said that the under-resourcing of arts and cultural institutions was forcing them to seek funds more frequently from aid and philanthropic organizations.
However, they were often expected to use a “western”-style, profit-focused business model to justify their performance. This did not necessarily translate well to societies which prized more subjective results such as social benefit and community wellbeing.
The developer of the mixed model, Mark Nizette, a fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, told delegates that donors who compelled Pacific cultural institutions to adopt developed-country business models were “forcing square pegs into round holes”.
He added: “When running institutions you know you have to produce certain reports to get budgets through and convince donors that you are doing a good job. But they have to understand your definition of doing a good job.
It’s a two-way thing.”
For delegate Taehu Pais, Bougainville’s Minister for Culture and Tourism, the workshop gave him practical ideas for re-starting the region’s museum, which was destroyed during 16 years of conflict.
Emmanuel Kasarherou, director of New Caledonia’s Agency for the Development of Kanak Culture, said he learned new ideas on ways to measure the agency’s performance.
The workshop was organised by the Pacific Islands Museum Association with the support of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Cultural Development Bureau; the Ministry of Fijian Affairs, Culture and Heritage; UNESCO; and the National Museum of Australia.