15 Dec 2005

New arts training campus to be established in Fiji's Studio City

1:31 pm on 15 December 2005

The developer of Studio City in Fiji says an arts school will be integral to the city and will facilitate the development of an audio-visual industry in the region.

The University of the South Pacific has signed an agreement with Yaqara Group to lease 10 acres of land at Studio City for a campus focussed on the development of Pacific arts.

Yaqara Group's Philip Gerlach says Studio City, on the north west coast of Viti Levu, is intended to be a self-contained city centred around the arts and sport.

"And obviously within that structure of a new city, we need to be able to provide every kind of facility you would expect in a city. Tertiary, secondary, primary, pre-school education is part of the master-planning - a key part of it."

Philip Gerlach says the school, to be known as the "Pacific Institute of Creative and Dramatic Art", should be open in 2007.

It will offer degree courses in drama, music and audio-visual production.