As the Philippine International Arts Festival teemed with events after events nationwide, so did IPAG Artistic Director and Professor Steven Patrick C. Fernandez who went the rounds of the country’s culture and arts circuits performing, lecturing, conducting workshops, collating results of a program, and acting as jury.
Fernandez balanced time among his many activities including teaching, writing, research, and the management of the Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG) which recently completed well-received performances nationwide. (see separate story)
Fernandez sat as jury of the Cinemagis Film Festival of Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro last Jan. 19. He later flew to Iloilo City to judge the Dinagyang dance festival, an international event with a Hall-of-Fame distinction (after the Dinagyang won the Best Tourism Event in the country plum three times). He has judged the Dinagyang in the last 4 years joining some of the country’s most respected choreographers and performers.
At the recent Taboan International Writers Festival (Feb. 10-12) in Cebu, Fernandez joined the panel on “Writing for a Living” with Butch Dalisay and Lino Arquiza III. Colleagues in the IIT, Christine Godinez-Ortega and Anthony Tan, were also invited to read papers to the festival that drew the best writers from the country and abroad.
Fernandez has been invited to lecture in the First Mindanao Tourism Culture and Arts Congress in Dakak Resort, Dapitan City in mid-March and in two lecture-workshops in Bacolod and Iloilo Cities thereafter.
These workshop and lecture events come at the heels of a hectic lecture schedule last year that brought Fernandez to various parts of the islands to share his expertise on his principles of Transcreation, performance, and his experiences in Arts Management.
He has recently come out with the book The Human Image (in collaboration with the Dept. of English) which is used as textbook in the Humanities classes of the College of Arts and Social Sciences. Earlier, Fernandez published a test edition of Making Theatre: The Craft of the Stage for stagecraft courses. This book’s first edition is in the final layout stages of its publication. Making Theatre is distinguished for its focus on Philippine Theatre practice, a concentration that is not discussed in the small output of theatre publications in the country.
Besides all these creative and educating activities, Fernandez and his team completed a comprehensive culture and arts needs survey that may soon realize Southern Philippines’ first Institute of Cultural Management and Development (I-CRMD). Over 260 respondents from the Visayas and Mindanao participated in the survey which produced results for the blueprint of future programs the Institute intends to address.
The survey, supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the MSU-IIT, is implemented by the IPAG-Artist Resource Management (IPAG-ARM), the training resource center of the Guild.
Topics : ipag