The MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology celebrated National Arts Month giving attention to the Arts as our vehicles for empowerment.
Dubbed Alampat, the Cebuano term for ‘arts’ and the ‘intelligence or brilliance of the mind’, with the theme “Panulong: Asserting Identities, Reclaiming Space”, the events realized partly the Master Plan of the Culture and Arts Studies Center coordinating with the Cultural Development Office and the Institute’s cultural groups and its constituents.
Alampat was another opportunity that paralleled the Institute’s thrusts of giving the Arts its mandate in a university. The various activities aimed at empowering local communities, revealing and strengthening cultural identity and cultivating local artistic expressions.
The celebrations opened February 4 with Pasi-una, an impressive collaborative performance by the resident cultural groups at the Institute lawn.
Art Talks provided the avenue to discourse on art production. It featured two of the country’s eminent scholars: UP Prof. Emeritus Basilio Esteban “Steve” Villaruz and Mr. mêLe Yamomo. Prof. Villaruz, also Artistic Director Emeritus of the 25-year-old UP Dance Company, spoke on “Shaping Moves and Sculpting Minds: Ethnicity in Choreography”. Mr. Yamomo, Assistant Professor of Theatre, Performance, and Sound Studies at the University of Amsterdam presented his work on “Sonic Entanglements, Auditory Migrations: Listening to the Colonial Archives through Translocal Ears”.
Tatlong Araw ng Tugtugan, a regular in past years’ arts celebrations and organized by the Echoes Band, provided the venue for local bands to perform.
Film enthusiasts were treated to Film Screening and Forum organized by the Kalilas Film Guild which screened award-winning short films composed by students. The event also showcased the works of three home-grown directors: Mr. Bagane Fiola, Ms. Kiri Dalena, and Mr. Gutierrez “Teng” Mangansakan II who also shared their creative process after the screening of their obras.
Highlight of the 2019 Alampat was the collaborative finale Pagpadayon featuring individual talents and the resident and performing groups Octava Choral Society, Kalimulan Cultural Dance Troupe, Echoes, Kalilang Cultural Ensemble, Ringkaran, Dance Society, and the Integrated Performing Arts Guild. Engaging the Iligan community in its art advocacy, MSU-IIT took to performing out of its base at the Robinsons Place Iligan, an auspicious occasion to wrap up the arts month events last February 24.
Keynoting Pagpadayon was Mr. Christian G. Aguado, Iligan City Cultural Director who offered to open venues for support from local government.
Directing the productions was John Michael Lagura, Alampat Festival Director and Former Associate Artistic Director of the IPAG.
Dr. Anthony “Tony” Tan, three-time Palanca awardee and former faculty member of MSU-IIT, will launch another book on February 18, 2019 from 8 am to 12 noon, at CASSALIDA Theater of the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS).
The book “Crossing the River (Poems Old and New)” features poems that came from the author’s ruminations of people and events in his life, particularly his childhood in the island of “Muddas”.
The author has reminded readers that once they get to know who is speaking in the poem, or where the narrative is taking place, it is very easy for them to get engaged in what the poem is trying to say. “The initial pleasure,” according to Dr. Tan, “comes from knowing the speaker and the narrative. The deeper pleasure is in seeing the “insight,” that is the meaning of the poem. The highest pleasure is in the appreciation of the manner/the verbal facility/felicity with which this meaning is conveyed.”
Former colleagues in the English Department, Dr. Lerry Valdez and Dr. Rhodora Englis; Dr. Rosario B. Dizon and Asst. Prof. Airen Sajulga, faculty members from the Filipino Department; and Lureva Razuman, a 4th year AB English student, will be reading sample poems from this collection during the day of the launch.
Sir Tony has retired from MSU-IIT after 43 productive years in teaching, but his love and passion for literature lives on. Proof of this is his persistent publication of his anthology of essays, short stories, and poems, as well as the different accolades he has received from local and international giving bodies.
This event is hosted by the Departments of English and Departamento ng Filipino at Ibang Mga Wika (DFIW) of CASS through its lecture series dubbed as DisCASSion, in celebration of the college’s 35th Foundation Anniversary, in partnership with Xavier University Press, the publisher of the book.
Copies of the book are available for sale during the event, and book signing will follow after the program.
The MSU-IIT Culture and Arts Studies Center (CulArtS-C) completed a comprehensive 3-year cycle (2018-2020) direction-and-implementation plan pursuing the establishment of a national center for Culture and the Arts.
The planning attended by volunteers last June 24-26 at the Institute campus focused on the production and management of creative resources.
The Center (approved by BOR Res# 19, s.2016, March 16, 2016) provides the resource bin of knowledge and practice producing pedagogy and creative productions. These are complemented by research, training, and the conduct of courses in the trans-disciplines within local culture theoretical frames.
The CulArtS-C is pioneering initiative drawing from the Cultural Studies paradigms of the Stuart Hall-led Birmingham U Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies and similar other programs of leading universities worldwide.
To enhance its position as a hub of cultural resources, the Center links with as wide as possible an international and national network of similar institutions. (It is a member of elite networks like the Asian League of Art Institute, the Asia-Pacific Bond of Theatre Schools, besides initiating collaborations with the Lasalle College of the Arts Singapore, Intercultural Theatre Institute of Singapore, the Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta, and the Taipei National University of the Arts, among others.)
Besides production, the Center will host the Iligan National Writers Workshop to reinforce its Literature and Creative Writing tracks.
Projects fulfill outcomes in the Academy, the Repertory-creative production arms, Research, Publication, Archives, and various dissemination arms, and in the hub of of international and national exchanges.
A published White Paper will soon be available outlining the 3-year Action Plan.
MSU-IIT’s contribution to Culture, Art, and Performance Studies has taken off with three successive events in four days. Participating were over 300 teachers, practitioners, and students conversing on “evolving a Philippine School-of-Thought”.
Three colloquiums that marked the auspicious progress of our Culture and Arts Studies, the only one in the country today, gauge the state of disciplines envisioned by the Program.
First was the seminar on “Arts Administration in the Philippine Context” opening the series last March 8. Arts Manager Carmencita Jasareno-Bernardo of the Cultural Exchange Department, Cultural Center of the Philippines, lectured and facilitated a workshop on strategies on how art and cultural resources may be managed.
In the second day on March 9, seven graduate students presented papers using their innovative methodologies that described the form and directions the pedagogy and their productions will take. Performance specialist Dr. Jazmin Llana, Ph.D, Associate Professor of De La Salle University and alumna of the Aberystwyth University keynoted the forum discussing the possibility of a Philippine school-of-thought.
Both Bernardo and Llana are with the faculty of the Studies.
U.P. Diliman through its Office for Initiatives for Culture and the Arts (OICA) co-hosted the third event on March 10 and 11. Titled “Theatre and Cultural Performances in the Philippines (Focus on Mindanao), the UP team also presented its large-scale project “Digital Humanities” to involve the MSU-IIT in gathering all possible information through digital media in these disciplines.
The third forum had theatre specialist Dr. S. Anril P. Tiatco, Ph.D (“Performance in the Philippines”), UP Dean Amihan B. Ramolete, Ph.D (“Puppetry in the Philippines”), Dr. Christine Godinez-Ortega, DFA (“Mindanao Epics”), Prof. Hobart P. Savior, MA (“Dramaturgy in Contemporary Mindanao Theatre”), and the Studies Founder Dr. Steven P.C. Fernandez, DFA (“Performing Arts in Mindanao”).
Distinguished panel members who critiqued the proposals were Dr. Nelia Balgoa, DHS, and Dr. Victor Sugbo, Ph.D.
Since its launch in August 2015 (with endowment from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts), the program has taken the first steps in establishing an inter-discipline taking off from paradigms of European and American academic and performance studies centers. It sets directions for Philippine scholarship, production, and the management of cultural-performance resources.
Last year, the MSU-IIT Board of Regents approved the establishment of the Culture and Arts Studies Center with Fernandez as Founding Director. The Center’s goal is to establish a hub for Culture, Performance, and Arts Studies situating such initiatives in locations where intersecting cultures make these studies dynamic.
Contributing resources for the establishment of this program are the Integrated Performing Arts Guild – Artists Resource Management, Inc., Dept. of English, School of Graduate Studies, Cultural Development Office, and the NCCA. – Contributed news
The pioneering Culture and Arts Studies Center (CulArtS-C), proudly announcing the Southern Philippines’ leadership in Cultural Studies, has been established at the MSU-IIT.
The Center shall be a repository of studies, pedagogy, and creative productions. Adapted from the trans-disciplines of cultural studies notably that established by Richard Hoggart and Stuart Hall in the University of Birmingham, the principles developed in the 1960s are translated into new paradigms of study in the Philippine context.
Culture and the Arts shape experience and perception, and determine social order.
The Center’s position in North-Central Mindanao highlights its crucial role in the intersections of cultures.
The Center is mandated to also generate knowledge and a practice as it currently offers a graduate course with tracks in Performance Studies, Literature and Creative Writing, and Arts Administration.
Founder is Professor Steven P.C. Fernandez, DFA, also Founder of the Studies Program and Artistic Director of the Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG).
The program approved by the University’s Board of Regents was established with support from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
