Long awaited Creative Centre makes visible progress
Publish Date: Thursday, 2 July 2020
Long awaited Creative Centre makes visible progress
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After years in the planning SIT’s Centre for the Creative Industries has started to make visible progress, with the commencement of the demolition of the old St John’s Church Hall which has been closed for several years. The new $16m Centre for the Creative Industries will include the revitalised church, a new 3-storey building on the site of the old hall, an atrium joining the two buildings and a café extension to the north of the historic church.

The centre represents SIT’s response to the significant growth in employment in the screen industries. For example, New Zealand’s interactive game developers earned $203.4 million dollars during the 2019 financial year - double the $99.9m earned only two years earlier in 2017. SIT’s programmes in Digital Fashion Technology also respond to the digital transformation occurring in the industry that will see future graduates employed to model costumes and clothing for digital characters.

SIT Programme Manager for Creative Industries Kathryn McCully said that the centre would be the ideal home for film, animation, game design, fashion and music programmes, whilst also opening up the campus to the public.

SIT is aware that the centre offers facilities not typically accessible to the wider community. The centre will therefore, provide more opportunities  for the community to engage in digital learning, now considered an essential skill particularly in our rapidly changing employment environment.