Fiji Arts Council

Fiji Arts Council (FAC) was established in 1964 as a charity organization focuses on the preservation, development, and promotion of all art forms particularly visual and performing arts. It is one of three heritage agencies under the Ministry of Education National Heritage, Culture and Arts. FAC has a small, artsy, office filled with artworks and crafts from all over Fiji. FAC runs annual artwork competition and keep the winners pieces. So, in an instant I can see the best artwork and crafts of Fiji.

FAC manages several cultural festivals and exhibitions such as the Wasawasa and Hibiscus Festivals. It also works with UNESCO on some long-term projects such as Education for Sustainable Education (ESD) and Living Human Treasures (LHT). In addition to that FAC also supports the only professional traditional Fijian performers from the Fiji Conservatorium of Music (COM). The group has been travelling the globe to perform in several festivals and events. They were all very nice and exciting.

My favorite artwork, apparently, it is as old as me

After two weeks of interning, I have become familiar with the loud music from one of the store on the street (most of the time Indian music) and relax (yet sleepy) atmosphere of the office. Despite the importance of FAC as one of the mains culture preservation institution in Fiji, FAC has a small number of staffs who were loaded with massive projects and multiple roles. I am working with Yi Fan on the FAC website. The website has not officially launched yet so updates were flexible. We were planning to put new pages and load it with important information about FAC such as the staff profile, projects, and news. At first, we wanted to set an online shop with Paypal as the payment system, but apparently Paypal does not accept Fijian Banks and currency.

Views from the office

The other exciting part was choosing where to go for lunch. As I spent the first week of eating curry and roti so I wanted something new, particularly Asian and Fijian delicacies.