| |
Chanapatana International Design Institute or CIDI Chanapatana (pronouncing cee-dee-cha-na-pat ) in short was originally founded as then Chanapatana Institute on Monday 13 November 2000 in cooperation with Accademia Italiana, a leading design school of Florence, Italy, by
Phra Tepjetiyajarn or the venerable Luangphor Viriyang Sirintharo, the Lord Abbot of Dhammamongkol Temple. Through out its existence, the institute's leadership of being a crucial part of developing Thailand design capability in order to compete in international arena has remained unchanged.
After contributing a great deal of meaningful works both socially and religiously, Phra Tepjetiyajarn, then Phra Yannaviriyajarn, realized that Thai citizens possess a wonderful potential in various disciplines and wanted to develop sufficient capabilities to contend and
stand out in international arena. He once said "Thai people have both witty intelligence and handful of natural resource. Why don't we develop ourselves to the point that we can be the leader ?" Phra Tepjetiyajarn took a leap frog approach by bringing practices from the best to grow Thai capabilities. He brought a design school from Italy, the leader country of design,
to establish new approaches of design education in Thailand . He believed that this approach
will open an opportunity for Thai citizens to study design from European professors and Italian curriculum, exactly the same academic components as that is in Italy, for less money without having to fly abroad. This approach of bringing the whole school to Thailand was then very unique evolution of design education administration. Later other schools and institutes has followed suit. (See Phra Tepjetiyajarn's address on the initiatives of this institute during the commencement ceremony in 2004.)
The first orientation of the institute was on Monday 3 September 2001. The institute originally offered three programs in interior & product design, fashion design, and leather goods design using Italian, which students need to learn Italian courses at Chulalongkorn University before talking design classes. Later, programs were offered in English only and had only two main programs: Diploma of Interior & Product Design and Diploma of Fashion Design.
Academically, CIDI Chanapatana has grown tremendously over the last few years. The institute has accomplished the academic cooperation with several public universities e.g. Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts of Chulalongkorn University, Phranakhon Rajabhat University, Thonburi Rajabhat University, Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep, and especially King Mongkut's Institute of Technology North Bangkok where CIDI Chanapatana graduates can transfer credits and enter the undergraduate programs in interior design.
After years of CIDI Chanapatana student achievements in domestic and international competitions, international recognition from world leading media, and management nature
of great team spirit, CIDI Chanapatana has yet to come across the prize of its own. On Sunday
9 July 2006, CIDI Chanapatana was very happy and honored to welcome H.E.Ignazio Di Pace, Italian Ambassador to Thailand, to be represented Italian government to confer the decoration 'Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity (Ordine della Stella della Solidariet? Italiana)' class 'Knight (Cavaliere)' to CIDI Chanapatana founder and chairman Phra Tepjetiyajarn to recognize the achievements of mutual academic and cultural cooperation between Thailand
and Italy. Such decoration is obtained through Italian Presidential decree, on proposal of the Minister of the Foreign policies.
Until now, CIDI Chanapatana continues its nature of small, unique, and international design institute in Thailand to deliver the promise of developing Thai citizen design capabilities.
|
|
