Visual Arts School in Marrakesh
A new, state of the art visual arts school opened this week amid the hustle and bustle of the nine day Marrakesh film festival. This new school hopes to provide Morocco with budding young cinematographers that will take Moroccan films into the next decade. Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco, president of the Marrakesh International Film Festival Foundation, performed ribbon cutting ceremonial duties on Sunday. This marked the official opening of the Ecole Superieure des Arts Visuels (ESAV).
Two months prior to this elaborate opening ceremony, ESAV vacated its first home in the old city. Cramped and in desperate need for more space, the school relocated to more lavish surroundings in northern Marrakesh. The school’s new home features soundproof recording auditoriums, photography labs, editing suites and two full film sets. In addition to this, there are indoor and outdoor cinemas and an art gallery that will showcase pieces designed by the students of the school. Yearly tuition is $6,000 and a scholarship fund is being established for low-income students in Morocco and Africa.
When ESAV initially opened in 2006, eighteen students comprised the first official class. The next enrollment year saw 31 students entering for studies in 2007, with more and more Moroccans going to higher education in Morocco. ESAV will welcome 18 students into the first classes in its new angular, modernist desgined building. Of these 18 students, 14 are men and four are women. All but one come from Morocco. The other student arrives from Cameroon. Following in the next class is a more equal balance of men and women. Here there are 16 men and 15 women. Like the first class, all but one are from Morocco. The lone student in this group is from Burkina Faso.
In order to establish a level of cultural diversity to classroom settings, school officials are branching out towards potential students housed in the southern Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, ESAV offers bachelor’s and master’s degree level courses. Studies are centered in four main areas: directing, editing, image and sound. Additional coursework lies in the areas of graphic and multimedia designs. This course of studies is aimed at providing students with the tools needed to succeed in communications, advertising, film and television careers.
Moroccan officials hope the ESAV will establish a re-birth to the Moroccan film industry. Cinematic projections are for approximately 40 feature films a year by the year 2020. ESAV is well on the way to make this dream a reality.
…more on Morocco and film: IMAX Theatre Opening Soon in Morocco
by Sam Mitchell
4 Responses to “Visual Arts School in Marrakesh”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:12 am
[…] village. There is virtually one on every street corner in the bigger cities and towns of Rabat, Marrakech or Casablanca. Wherever there is a group of people heading in one direction with bath buckets in […]
January 8th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
[…] …more on Morocco and Technology […]
January 14th, 2008 at 9:47 am
[…] in Marrakesh Morocco to six. There are two more slated for openings later this year. One will be in Marrakesh and another in […]
January 15th, 2008 at 9:35 am
[…] …more on School Opens in Marrakech […]