3rd Bagasbas Beach International Eco Arts Festival

The summation of “Art + Environment + Sustainability”, which was the festival’s theme, installed the 3rd Bagasbas Beach International Eco Arts Festival at the Bagasbas Beach, Daet, Camarines Norte last May 30 to June 6, 2010.

Through the initiated efforts of various artists who graced the event, this year’s festival aimed to provide creative learning through four media for the Daet community. The first medium was the installation art, where found items from host communities and bamboo are used to create sculptural installations along the Bagasbas Beach in Daet, Camarines Norte, one of certain actions that might embellish the place’s title as the 60th Surfing and Kite Surfing Destination in the World. Video presentations listed as second. This was where artists showed their video works in spaces in and around the town of Daet. Third on the dossier is the public furniture design for the campus of the Our Lady of Lourdes College. Finally, the final media were economic upliftment seminars where communities will take part in economic enhancement programs from the business community and government technical institutions.

This year’s festival also hoped to provide communities an approach to uplift their lives through a connection with internationally significant artists, and to help them realize that solutions to economic and environmental problems can be met by community cooperation and harnessing simple creativity.

Some of the national and international artists who attended the event were Filipino artist Irma Lacorte who taught her host community Brgy. Mangcamagong in Basud how to make ‘puso’, which she used to create her artwork “Taub-Hubas” that illustrated the changes of the tide, from low to high tide; Artist Chung Ho Chak, from Hongkong-China, who epitomized the simple yet colorful life of the people in his host community, Daet and the Our Lady of Lourdes College, through his “Heart” artwork; and, Norwegian artist Stuart Frost who was amazed with the abundance of natural materials that can be found in Daet, and believed that the people of Daet can generate renewable energy from the wind from simply using bamboo and other indigenous materials - “generate power in places where there is no access”.

The project is supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Our Lady of Lourdes College Foundation.

For more information on the event, contact the Our Lady of Lourdes College Foundation at (6354) 721-1368, (63917) 464-4034, email bbieaf@yahoo.com or visit http://www.bbieaf.org/.

Manila Hosts ASEAN Cultural Festival

The Philippines, declared as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)  as its Cultural Capital for 2010 and 2011, hosted the fourth installment of the ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Culture and Arts and the Sixth Senior Officials Meeting for Culture and Arts (SOMCA) last March 22–26 in Clark, Angeles City, Pampanga.

Along with these meetings, the Philippines also hosted the Fourth ASEAN Festival of Arts (AFA), focused on promoting ASEAN’s common identity and cultural diversity, enhancing cultural heritage and tourism, and strengthening ties among ASEAN members.

Carried by its theme “The Best of the ASRAN: From Ancestral Roots to New Artistic Routes of Expression Mobilizing Cultural Diversity for the UN-MDG,” the Fourth AFA highlighted the creativity and also fostered the exchange of ideas of the best artists from ASEAN countires.

The Philippines, in its part, restaged “Baler sa Puso Ko,” an original zarzuela, with libretto by Isagani Cruz and music by Lutgardo Labad.

Also featured in the festival were film showings, workshops, poetry readings, and book launchings at the Nayong Pilipino sa Clark Expo, plus performances from choral groups, dance troupes, drum and bugle corps, Aeta police scholars, lantern bearers, kite flyers, athletes, Kaddang tumblers, Angono papier-mache giants, and hot balloons.

For more details, contact National Commission for Culture and the Arts Public Affairs and Information Office and PIAF Media Director at 527-5529, 09285081057, 09275582656 or email ncca.paio@gmail.com. You could also visit their websites at www.ncca.gov.ph. and www.piaf-ncca.com.

PaperClay Art Competiton Brought another Milestone to Filipino Arts

Husay ng Batang Pinoy PaperClay Nationwide Art Competition marked another milestone to the imaginative, nature-friendly and uniquely Pinoy-made ARTS.

In cooperation with the Department of Education (DepEd) and in partnership with the Have-a-Heart for the Child Foundation (H2C), the said competition was organized to invite Elementary and High School students to win as much as P50,000.00 in making the most excellent PaperClay Art visualizing the theme “Ako Para Sa Kalikasan”.

Last Novemeber 12, 2009, the event was launched together with Sam Concepcion as its official endorser at the Manila Ocean Park. Sam, one of these days multi-crafted teen stars, and DepEd’s present Youth Ambassador, personally enjoyed this art ever since he was a kid. In an interview, he shared that PaperClay Art is his newest creative outlet. “It’s also a very effective way to channel your creativity into something that can make a difference,” he said.

Owned and prospered by JNBM Amazing Arts Philippines, Inc. (JAAPI), PaperClay is an art formed through elaborately putting moist colored paper into plain drawing or outline patterned on wood, paper, glass, ceramics, or even metal. Through competitions, this kind of art is even more cultivated and exposed as a new art medium nowadays, not only for amusement purposes and time breakers.

The activity is supported by Manila Ocean Park, Zoobic Safari, and the Arts Association of the Philippines with the official media partnership of 702 DZAS “Agapay ng Sambayan”, and the Manila Times.

For more inquiries, please contact JNBM at (02) 502- 7423, 496-8849, 496-9100 for telephone, 838-4301 local 3132 for telefax, 0917-531-1130 for mobile, jnbmartcafe@yahoo.com.ph for e-mail, and/or visit them at jnbmamazingarts.multiply.com.

Neo-Angono’s Public Art Conference set forth to Creative City Development

The Neo-Angono Artists Collective and Japan Foundation-Tokyo held a free three-day art seminar/conference entitled “A Multi-Lateral- Country Conference and Feasibility Workshop on Public Art as a Step Towards Creative City Development” in Angono, Rizal last November 18 to 20, 2009. This served as a preface to Neo-Angono’s 6th Public Art Festival held last November 20 to 22. (sponsor - It is also presented in part by University of Rizal System-Angono and the Office of the Municipal Mayor Hon. Aurora A. Villamayor.

Directed by Mr. Richard R. Gappi, the conference generally aimed to convey to the delegates worldwide how public art evolves as a step in creative city development. Eventually, delegates would then be expected to relay and render this knowledge once they got back to their respective countries.

Various speakers who attended the conference were:

- University of the Philippines Professor Alice Guillermo who addressed the “Role of Angono, Rizal in Contemporary Philippine Art” - National Artist for Literature Professor Bienvenido Lumbera on the “Literature as History, History as Literature” - UP Prof. Carmelo Vim Nadera on the “Tapping the Human Artistry and Creativity” - Palanca Hall of Famer poet and critic Roberto Anonuevo on the “Poetry as Reflection of Communal Psychology” - Poet and musician Jesus Manuel Santiago on the “Community Music as Language of the People” - Indonesian artist Ms. Arahmaiani on the “Methods of Production of Public Art in Yogyakarta” - Art Historian Thanavi Chotpradit of Thailand, “The Relationship and Tension between Public Art and the Public” - South Korean artist, curator, and scholar Jang Un Kim on “Community and Economy: The Case of Mae-in Market” - Mr. Shimoda Nobuhisa of Japan, “Conference on Arts and Art Projects” - Ms. Kaori Okado of Japan on the “Art Projects to Revive a City from Earthquakes and Art as a Safety Network” - U.P. Prof. Patrick Flores on the “Filipinos’ Views on Public Art” - Ms. Urbana Cadiz of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts on the “On Government and Private Bodies Awarding Grants to Artists” - Japanese scholar Dr. Mayasuki Sasaki on the “Creative City and the Quality of Life” - Playwright and lawyer Nicolas Pichay on the “On Censorship, Intellectual Property Rights, and the Artists’ Rights Under the Philippine Constitution”; and, - Angono artist Nemesio Miranda Jr. on the “Balancing Art and the Business of Art, Crafts and Tourism.”

The delegates were media personalities like Nyunt Win of Burma, Liew Kung Yu of Malaysia, and Engr. Emilnor Pasion, writers Mari-An Santos and Enrique Villasis, architect Anna Marie Gonzales and theater artist Michael Ian T. Lomongo of the Philippines.

This conference was also a follow up to the East Asia Leader Program entitled “Urban Community Development Inspired by Culture: The Potential of Creative Cities” from where one member of the Neo-Angono Artists Collective participated in.

Neo-Angono is non-profit, artist-centered, committed to experimentation organization that recognizes the need to contribute to art research and education, and welcomes support and advice from colleagues and critics. It has participated in art festivals and exhibits such the 2nd Tupada international Action Art Event in February 2005, 4th Philippine International Performance Art Festival in September 2005, the Philippine Art Festival by National Commission for Culture and the Arts in February 2008, among others.

The seminar entitled “A Multi-Lateral- Country Conference and Feasibility Workshop on Public Art as a Step Towards Creative City Development” was presented in part by University of Rizal System-Angono and the Office of the Municipal Mayor Hon. Aurora A. Villamayor.

For more information about the event, do visit the website at www.neo-angono.com.