International Jazz Day in Samoa.
OPEN CALL FOR MUSICIANS – SAMOANA JAZZ RISING 2026
Musicians, vocalists, bands and instrumentalists in Samoa and American Samoa are invited to take part in Samoana Jazz Rising – International Jazz Day Samoa 2026.
This year’s celebration begins with a Little Gallery Concert at the Tiapapata Art Centre on 30 April, with the possibility of additional performances on 1–2 May depending on participation.
If you are inspired by jazz, blues, soul, improvisation, or Pacific musical traditions, we would love to hear from you.
Solo artists, bands, vocalists and instrumentalists are all welcome.
Register online to perform here.
Registration deadline:
Friday 17 April 2026
Let’s come together to celebrate music, creativity and the spirit of International Jazz Day in Samoa.
Recent heritage craft work
Upu ma Tala - Talanoa Heritage Series
The Upu ma Tala Heritage Talanoa Series supported by UNESCO was successfully implemented and acquitted at the end of 2025. Below is a link (PDF) to the booklet published for this series. Research into the cultural expressions explored in the series is ongoing.
The Upu ma Tala Heritage Talanoa Series (September–December 2025) was implemented by the Tiapapata Art Centre Inc. with support from the UNESCO Office for the Pacific States in Apia. Read more.
Recent and ongoing projects (some of the images are links to related pages).
The Kalikā Dojo, managed by Peniamina Percival, was opened in February 2025 with Judo for Children attended by over twenty students.
Little Gallery Concerts started with two concerts at the Tiapapata Art Gallery in October 2024 with gifted musicians Klare Ku'olga (PNG/Australia), Natalia Mann (Samoa/Australia) and Lila Meleisea (Samoa/Australia).
Rock-Paper-Scissors is supported under the ACP-EU Programme (Pacific) Enhancing capacity for the sustainability of Cultural and Creative Industries in the Pacific Project (CCIP).
In November 2024, Isaiah B Brunt of Samoan heritage, played a selection of blues and jazz at the third Little Gallery Concert.
Samoan fale built in Japan, September - December 2019.
Supported under the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, this project explored the soical issue of violence against women and girls in Samoa.
In December 2024, 'Songs for the Ancestors" featured a selection of jazz and blues performed by Lorraine Havill and Kinglsey Spargo from Aotearoa-New Zealand.
Living Monuments: Exploring Samoa's Heritage Through virtual space
The Tiapapata Art Centre, with support under the ACP-EU Programme Enhancing capacity for the sustainability of the cultural and creative industries in the Pacific, has begun the second phase of a project now titled “Living Monuments: Exploring Samoa's Heritage Through virtual space.” The ACP-EU Programme (Pacific) is funded by the European Union and the Secretariat of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and is implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC) in partnership with the Queensland University of Technology. The first phase, titled Rock-Paper-Scissors, explored the stone tools of Samoa, pottery, and the making of fibre-based paper. With this current round of funding, attention has shifted to megalithic structures that dot Samoa’s heritage landscape. Read more.
Sā-Moana (“jazz of the sacred (blue) ocean”) brings together a group of talented musicians and music fans to celebrate International Jazz Day at the Tiapapata Art Centre in Samoa, a remote Pacific Island in the vast moana (ocean). Musicians will not only play unusual and unique instruments of the pre-European soundscape such as the nose flute, but will also share juxtaposed recordings of nature’s many voices alongside the more recognized jazz classics. With such a theme, the conversation will also turn to the rich ethnomusicology of pre-European contact Samoa which, as early as the mid-1920s, embraced the jazz genre born only a decade or so earlier in New Orleans and the lower Mississippi Delta.
The Green Paper Project established a paper making facility at the Tiapapata Art Centre that processes natural fibres found in the Vaisigano Catchment Area to make textured handmade papers. This initiative was supported under the Green Climate Fund Vaisigano Catchment Project managed by the Civil Society Support Programme.
The Tiapapata Art Centre is equipped with a number of telescopes and events are organised around astronomical events from time too time.
Supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives: Empowering participating Samoan families and selected schools through health literacy, leading to informed and healthier food choices to maintain good health and thereby reduce the prevalence of lifestyle diseases (Non Communicable Diseases).
A children's book titled Seu and the Ruffled Bird Catcher was published as one of the outputs for a human rights education project funded by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva (through the UNDP office in
Samoa.
The Tiapapata Art Centre is a unique place of learning where traditional and contemporary arts and crafts are taught and made. First established in 1989, the art centre is located off the Cross Island Road, also known as Falealili Street. It is 15 – 20 minutes by car from Apia and is on the upper road that also leads to the Bahá’í House of Worship. The property comprises three acres and features three Airbnb units to accommodate visiting guests, artists in residence and WWOOFers (volunteers working in Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. The Tiapapata Art Centre has a multi-purpose art studio and kiln room, an art gallery, a café and a traditional Samoan meeting house known as a faletalimālō or faletele. In 2024-25, two new buildings will be constructed - a dojo for judo and self defence training, and a paper arts studio. The current menu for the cafe can be seen and downloaded here.
Wendy and Galumalemana Steven Percival
A new Art Gallery was opened in 2016 and information about the event can be read here. a special brochure about the art centre over the years was printed. The brochure can be read here.
Little Gallery Concerts
A growing number of musicians are performing in Little Gallery Concerts held at the Tiapapata Art Centre. While these have mainly featured jazz and blues, there have been some talented classical musicians and also traditional song and dance of Samoa and the Pacific Islands region. If you or someone you know would like to share their love for music in a Little Gallery Concert, please contact us or write to creativesamoa@gmail.com.
ART STUDIO
Visiting artists can apply to use our facilities to create art and can also run special workshops.
Pottery is made using a wheel or hand building techniques. While most of the clay we use is imported from New Zealand, research into local clay bodies has been started and is ongoing.
Art classes for children 4-12 years of age are held on Thursdays (3:00-4:30pm) and Fridays (2:30-4:00pm) during school terms. The current fee is $25.00/child.
LOCATION
Opening hours
9:00am - 5:00pm, Tuesday to Sunday or by appointment. Private group bookings may also be made for breakfast, lunch or dinner (BYO). The space is also available for workshops and seminars and has a fixed screen, projector and bluetooth sound system.