by (contributed news)

 Founder-Director of the pioneering Culture and Arts Studies Center (CulArtS-C) Steven Patrick C. Fernandez, D.F.A., presented his keynote lecture in the 3rd International Conference of the Performing Arts (ICPA) held November 9 and 10 in the ancient city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The invitation was extended by host Indonesian Institute of Arts (ISI), Indonesia’s oldest and biggest Institute in Central Java. Yogyakarta the seat of the Sultanate is famous for its rich Javanese art and gamelan music.

The theme of the conference focused on the ASEAN Integration, a subject with direct implications to the development of our own culture and arts. Fernandez widely recognized by peers for his contributions in Cultural and Performance Studies has lectured on the subject in various occasions here and abroad. He is an awarded playwright and scholar.



His speech “The Performing Arts as Key in the ASEAN Integration: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies” to over 300 delegates from various countries impelled strategies to strengthen the integrity of our performing arts threatened by the onslaughts of the ASEAN Integration.

The lecture presented paradigms in the trans-disciplines of Culture and Arts Studies provoking questions which time in the plenary could not accommodate. He has received another invitation to lecture and conduct a course in the performing arts next year for a longer period of time. Thereafter, and in the closing ceremonies, his concepts of transcreation, trans-media, and trans-disciplines have become by-words.

The visit to the ISI has expanded the MSU-IIT’s network with personalities representing important institutions in the ASEAN, among them Thailand’s distinguished ethnomusicologist Dr. Manop Wisuttipat, eminent Malaysian choreographer Dr. Joseph Gonzales (now Academic head of the HK Academy of the Performing Arts), and Dr. Miroto, Indonesia’s pre-eminent choreographer and dance-hologram conceptor who will choreograph the “tiger dance” portion in the opening of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, among others.

Fernandez’s visit preludes the collaborations with the MSU-IIT Center in various undertakings in joint creative productions, knowledge sharing, and in faculty-student exchanges. ISI has proposed the signing of a formal memo of agreement with the MSU-IIT for these future undertakings.

Topics : international  conference  Fernandez  keynote  ICPA  arts