NCCA‌ ‌leads‌ ‌National‌ ‌Arts‌ ‌Month‌ ‌2021‌ ‌celebration‌ ‌this‌ ‌February‌

Even in this time of new normal, a plethora of arts and cultural events will make the whole month of February exciting, colorful and enriching as the Philippines’ prime government agency for arts and culture, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), headed by its chairman, Arsenio “Nick” Lizaso, executive director Al Ryan Alejandre, deputy executive director Marichu Tellano, and supervising officer for administration Bernan Joseph Corpuz, leads the celebration of 2021 National Arts Month (NAM). 

Spearheaded by NCCA’s Subcommission on the Arts (SCA), led by its commissioner Dr. Rolando Tolentino, this year’s fete takes on the theme “Alab-sining, Alay-sigla” as the celebration continues to provide opportunities for harnessing artists’ creative energies in uplifting the nation’s spirit. NAM aims to conserve, promote and popularize Filipino artistic creations; integrate the arts in the community life; and harness the arts as catalysts for values education.

The celebration is mainly composed of the flagship projects of SCA’s seven national committees—Architecture and Allied Arts (head: LAr. Zenaida DC. Galingan), Cinema (head: Dr. Rolando B. Tolentino), Dance (head: Dr. Shirley Halili-Cruz), Literary Arts (head: Dr. Julieta C. Mallari), Music (head: Dr. Felipe M. De Leon Jr.), Dramatic Arts (head: Felimon B. Blanco), and Visual Arts (head: Geraldine B. Araneta) which will be convened online.

Architecture and Allied Arts

In celebration of the National Arts Month, the National Committee on Architecture and the Allied Arts in cooperation with CulturAid, Inc. and of United Architects of the Philippines, Philippine Institute of Interior Design, Philippine Association of Landscape Architects, and Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners, invites planning and design professionals, academicians, students and the general public, both local and international to engage, in a conversation that will highlight how we have managed and reshaped our spaces, both interior and exterior, public and private to adapt to life in quarantine. SPACE|D: Multi-modal Discourse on Reshaping the Built Environment for the New Normal is a blended event composed of webinars with workshops and roundtables discussions, virtual exhibition, and competition that will take place both in the virtual realm and in the public space from February to April.

Cinema

The National Committee on Cinema (NCC) is expecting the 13th installment of Cinema Rehiyon to be the biggest in scope and reach as it mounts its first-ever online film festival from March 26 to 30, 2021.

Cinema Rehiyon is a platform for shaping and redefining Philippine cinema, featuring narratives from the culture of the regions. It continues to gather regional filmmakers as it celebrates the National Arts Month and the centenary of Philippine Cinema.

This time, however, the festival will also highlight works by and for women and the LGBTQIA+ community.

The festival will also present the best of more recent regional films coming from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and NCR; online talkbacks, filmmaking webinars, and forum dealing with the same concerns.

Two omnibus films, "Eksena 1 and 2" will also be premiered. "Eksena" is a collaborative project between 16 filmmakers from all over the country, detailing exploring big ideas and experience in confined spaces amidst the pandemic.

Dance

Sayaw Pinoy, the flagship program of the National Committee on Dance headed by Dr. Shirley Halili-Cruz, is the longest running dance concert program for NAM. It highlights various dance forms like folk dance, traditional dance, contemporary dance, neoclassical dance, ballet, modern dance, and hiphop. Since its inception in 2009, different local government units, schools, private institutions, and commercial enterprises in different parts of the country, has been part of the decade long journey of Sayaw Pinoy. Annually, for the whole month of February, Sayaw Pinoy generates an audience of about 65,000 collectively in all its performances. This year, Sayaw Pinoy is set to go online as it features various dance groups from all over the country.

Literary Arts

The National Committee on Literary Arts (NCLA) will be celebrating the National Arts Month with its banner program, "Reading the Regions 2: An Anthology and A Literary Conference on Philippine Folk and Oral Traditions" on March 30 to 31 via Zoom and Facebook livestreaming.

Reading the Regions 2 will continue the conversations and discourses generated from the first installment of the Reading the Regions project, which began with an anthology of essays on teaching literature and a literary conference that delved into literature, cinema, and art from the different regions.

Dr. Juliet C. Mallari, NCLA chair, hopes that the insights from the event will help reinforce the value of folk and oral traditions in the country which will inspire the creation of various works that reflect the Filipino experience.

In addition, the second installment of Reading the Regions will explore the ways in which folk and oral lore manifest in varied forms of literary and other artistic productions in the digital age.

The event will also give recognition to acclaimed anthropologist and folklorist E. Arsenio Manuel and Damiana L. Eugenio, known as the "Father of Modern Research on Philippine Folklore" and "Mother of Philippine Folklore," respectively. NCLA will also launch several anthologies, including the pandemic-centered "Agwat-Hilom" and "Ubod," written by new and emerging writers.

Music

In celebration of National Arts Month 2021, NCCA’s National Committee on Music, in partnership with the St. Paul University Manila, spearheads an online concert series that highlight the musical cultures of the country – from the indigenous, to the contemporary, to progressive music – in a program dubbed Musikapuluan Pintigan: Serye ng Konsiyerto para sa Buwan ng Sining.

Inspired by the musical landscape of the Philippines as an archipelagic country, Musikapuluan Pintigan seeks to capture the different beats and musical cultures of the country. For four consecutive Sundays, Musikapuluan Pintigan will be showcasing musical informances of the eight living cultures of the Philippines, based on a study conducted by Professor de Leon himself. Two music subcultures will be featured each Sunday.

The music of eight living subcultures shall be clustered into four online concerts: Kultura ng Padidiwata, Kultura ng Pag-uuma, Kultura ng Pag-uukir, Kultura ng Pamamanata, Kultura ng Pananahan, Kultura ng Paglilining, Kultura ng Pag-aaliw, Kultura ng Pagtutol, and Kultura ng Pagkabansa

Dramatic Arts

The National Committee on Dramatic Arts (NCDA), in partnership with the Youth Advocates Through Theater Arts, Inc. (YATTA), spearheads the 4th year of Tampok, the flagship program of the NCDA for National Arts Month 2021, with TAMPOK 2021: E-Turo Dula and e-Pasundayag.

Tampok 2020 was implemented virtually due to COVID-19 dubbed as TAMPOK SABADULAAN Saturday Conversations on Theater, which featured nine Saturdays of panel discussions in relation to the vision of crafting a blueprint of an academy of Philippine theater. Hence for 2021, the NCDA will make a pilot test of this regional consortium as spin-off of the Tampok 2020 project. This will provide continuity to the ongoing initiatives to find models of theater training in a diverse Philippines.

TAMPOK 4 is composed of e-Turo Dula and e-Pasundayag. e-Turo Dula is a program that shall offer 5 specialized online theater courses of 18-hours each course, that will run for 6 weeks, 3 hours per week combining synchronous (via Zoom) and asynchronous sessions. e-PASUNDAYAG is a celebration of the rich legacy of theater making in the country. It will premiere video documentaries and digital presentations that will be followed by a talkback from each production’s key artistic team leaders.

Visual Arts

The National Committee for Visual Arts (NCVA) presents Bagong Biswal for National Arts Month 2021. Bagong Biswal is all about finding a new visual language brought about by circumstances that Filipino artists find themselves in during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Times have changed, and artists are adapting to the new normal in terms of modes of production and expression while staying true to their individual concerns. The program will feature various video documentation contributed by artists nationwide which the NCVA will screen and select. The gathered video material will be collated into categories that represent the wider visual arts spectrum (i.e., painting, sculpture, illustration, graphic art, fine art photography, performance art, etc.). Bagong Biswal will be staged through the NCVA Facebook Page, with live discussions by resource persons and guests broadcast via Zoom.

The annual celebration of National Arts Month started with the signing of Presidential Proclamation 683, in 1991, declaring February as National Arts Month. Over the years, NCCA, as well as private and government agencies, has been organizing events and activities to highlight the artistic brilliance of the Filipinos.