NEW SCHOOL YEAR IN ISAC
Students filling the assembly hall on the ISAC campus
The second semester in ISAC started today on the 10th of March at 10:00. The school year here in Africa-Australis (Afica south of the Equator) is from early March to end of November. Different to the other side of the Equator. Summer holiday is December and January, and we have used that period now for networking and planning and including the new teachers that have been appointed here after the long academic wetting process.
Students waiting outside the assembly hall at 10:00 this morning.
The leader of the school, Filimone Meigos started with a great motivational talk in the general assembly hall. The campus is really great for this new school as I have shown in earlier blogs. We enjoyed it much during last semester and now it will really feel like an art school when we have more students.
Filimone spoke about art and creativity and that the sky is the only limit. He demanded excellence in effort from the students and professors. (All teachers in this culture are called professors, so we have different definitions).
The students are really eager to start in a higher education institute, and those that were with us before the Cristmas and summer break told me that they had really been eagerly waiting to start again. What is great with schools is the energy that is always floating in the air during school start after the summer break. I live this every year when school starts again, but of course this time it is even greater because this is a new school prepared to make its mark in Mozambican and African culture. I had a desja-vu feeling thinking back to Iceland, when the Iceland Academy started there just over 10 years ago. It is great to feel birth of such an institut and I am fortunate to live it two times in two very different countries, continents and cultures. But, alas, many things are very much the same. Worries about systems and resources and planning etc.
The students leaving the assembly hall after the formal opening by the director.
After the assembly the two different faculties split to two locations. To explain: one is a Faculty of Culture and Cultural management, while the other is named Faculty of the Arts and it splits into Art, on one hand, and Design on the other. I have many a time said that I am here specifically to support the design education, and now me and Karina have with us great new teachers, Gabriel, Helder, Jorge, Gemuce, and various other teachers that co-support the different specialities.
The Faculty of Art and Design meeting for the first time. Victor Sala (director of the faculty) and José Paiva (the very supportive professor from Porto Academy of the Arts) on the left of the photo.
A little hassle fetching chairs for the first faculty meeting put everyone in good spirit
March 10, 2010
Tags: academy, art, DESIGN, maputo, mozambique Posted in: DESIGN
