The Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG), resident company of the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) fires up the country’s celebration of the Arts Month with a series of events. The Arts Month, promulgated by Executive Order 683, has been renamed the Philippine International Arts Festival (PIAF).
IPAG collaborates with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the MSU-IIT, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), including various cultural organizations.
Only recently enchanting Bicol audiences, IPAG returns with its well-acclaimed “Tales From Mindanao” at the Albay Astrodome in Legaspi City on Feb. 4 (3:00 and 6:00 p.m.) celebrating with the Legaspi Tourism Council for Bicol’s National Arts Month. “Tales,” a string of dance-music vignettes of the tri-people from Mindanao, has been performed in over 100 cities worldwide and in various venues around the country.
In February 13 (Monday), IPAG performs for a memorial cum ritual for the Sendong typhoon victims joining other cultural groups in an on-site production where the devastating December floods hit Iligan.
The following Monday on February 20, IPAG performs for the Taboan satellite production of the Philippine International Literary Arts Festival at the MSU-IIT, Iligan, jamming with indigenous artists, chanters, and poets.
The NCCA’s Tanghal which gathers the best university-based theatre companies in the country features IPAG’s Uwahig on February 23, 8:00 p.m. This postmodern interpretation of Mindanao flood epics headlines the Mindanao leg of NCCA’s flagship theatre festival in General Santos City at the KCC Convention Center.
Parallel efforts to these productions are training programs and consultations that enhance the culture-and-arts capabilities of the region.
IPAG with the CCP Outreach, the MSU-IIT disaster response team, the MSU-IIT Cultural Development Office, and other partners – among these, established artists based in Manila — will develop a pool of trainors who will address the Art-for-Therapy needs of the Sendong flood survivors. A training program commences in February 12 (Sunday) and climaxes in a showcase on February 14 (Tuesday) at the MSU-IIT gym.
Meanwhile, a group of cultural studies experts convenes on February 13 to complete the template for the proposed Culture and Arts Studies Program of the MSU-IIT.
Among other advocacies, IPAG Artistic Director Steven Patrick C. Fernandez lectures on the “Humanities” and the “Transcreation of Poetry” to over 500 students visiting the MSU-IIT campus on February 2, and in another lecture at the Holy Name University in Tagbilaran City, Bohol under the Philippine PEN (Poets, Essayists, and Novelists).
(Photo credits: Potpot Pinili)
Topics : ipag