History
When the Matignon agreements were signed between the representatives of France and New Caledonia, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, the Kanak leader of the independent movement, had mooted a proposal to set up an Agency for the development of Kanak Culture with the objective of promoting Kanak linguistic and archaeological heritage, promote Kanak handicrafts and the arts, encourage cross-regional interactions and evolve design and conduct research activities. This plan was implemented after Jean-Marie Tjibaou was assassinated, to assuage local feelings. The French President ordered that a cultural centre on the lines suggested by Tjibaou be set up in Nouméa. The "Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre", which identifies Kanak culture and identity, was formally established in May 1998. However, based on a competition for designing the centre dated to 1991, the work was assigned to Renzo Piano and it was constructed between 1993 and 1998. The inaugural cultural director was Emmanual Kaserhou and the museum curator Susan Cochrane. The project was quite controversial because of its luxurious and monumental nature.
Read more about this topic: Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Indeed, the Englishman’s history of New England commences only when it ceases to be New France.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made of millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”
—Ellen Battelle Dietrick, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)