Galerie Joaquin presents Marge Organo’s glass works
IN HER LATEST exhibit “Par Excellence,” Marge Organo presents 32 works that play around with the literal and metaphorical meaning of objects, often those that seem to highlight the human body’s connection to those around it. Ms. Organo had studied glass sculpting at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York before she was accepted at the Kamenicky Senov in the Czech Republic, one of the oldest glassmaking schools in the world, to pursue glass casting. In the exhibit, the glass sculptures are the artist’s interpretations of icons and images. “Marge Organo: Par Excellence” runs until May 26 at Galerie Joaquin in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center in Makati.
NCCA accepting proposals for grants program
THE NATIONAL Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) is now accepting proposals for the 2023 Competitive Grants Program until Aug. 31. The Grants Program is competitive in nature, with the proposals passing through a rigorous and confidential evaluation process. The NCCA Charter authorizes the Commission to give grants to artists and cultural groups which contribute significantly to the Filipino’s cultural legacy as means to extend artistic achievement. The same law also mandates the Commission to administer the National Endowment Fund for Culture and the Arts and give grants for the development, protection, preservation, and dissemination of Philippine culture and arts. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/NCCAOfficial.
Free visit to the Ayala Museum
CELEBRATE International Museum Day (IMD) by visiting Ayala Museum and the Filipinas Heritage Library for free on May 27 between 11:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Limited slots are available. The museum will be celebrating IMD this year both onsite and online as a response to the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Onsite, aside from the free day on May 27, two new exhibition experiences will be launched that day. Filipinas Heritage Library’s “Liberation: War & Hope” is a free exhibit that centers on stories of the life of everyday Filipinos before, during, and post-war. Meanwhile, the Dioramas of Philippine History exhibition gets a narrative extension with the launch of “Diorama Dialogue” — a new segment curated by Manuel Quezon III. “Diorama Dialogue” presents a fresh approach to understanding history by connecting selected dioramas with related events. Special activities will also be scheduled throughout the day. In consideration of everyone’s health and safety, slots will be limited and will be released through Ayala Museum’s website on May 26, 4 p.m., on a first-come-first-served basis. For those unable to visit the museum in person, Ayala Museum will be hosting a free interactive virtual tour of the “Dioramas of Philippine History” exhibit through the social platform, Gather.Town. Guests will be able to interact with each other, control an avatar, and explore a 2D render of Ayala Museum and all 60 of its historical dioramas. The virtual space will be open to visiting virtually anytime from May 27 to June 27. The link to the virtual tour will be available on Ayala Museum’s website and social media pages. For more information and instructions, visit www.ayalamuseum.org or contact Ayala Museum through any of their social media platforms.
Botanical art exhibition at the National Museum
THE NATIONAL Museum of the Philippines, in partnership with the Philippine Botanical Art Society and the Philippine Fauna Art Society, will launch a temporary exhibition featuring artworks of Philippine endemic and native species of plants and animals in the National Museum of Natural History starting May 24. This exhibition will be open for public viewing until Sept. 25.
Sansó’s surrealist fabric designs made into ensembles
THE ARTISTIC legacy of Juvenal Sansó as a fabric designer is currently being exhibited at the FDM X SANSÓ show at the Fundacion Sansó in their San Juan City Gallery. The exhibit is a collaboration with the educators, industry experts, and students of the Fashion Design and Merchandising Program of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. Though globally renowned as a painter, the artist was also a fabric designer whose prints were used in the couture pieces of fashion giants including House of Balenciaga and Elsa Schiaparelli. For the exhibit, fashion students transformed the signature surrealist artworks into eye-catching pieces of wearable art. FDM X SANSÓ is on view from Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., until June 18 at the Fundacion Sansó, 32 V. Cruz St., Brgy. Sta. Lucia, San Juan City.
70th Palanca Awards issues last call for entries
THE CARLOS Palanca Foundation, Inc., the sponsor and organizer of the 70th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, is reminding aspiring Palanca awardees to submit entries before the deadline on May 31. This year’s comeback edition of the country’s longest-running and most prestigious literary contest is accepting entries in all of its 22 categories: Novel and Nobela categories; English Division — Short Story, Short Story for Children, Essay, Poetry, Poetry Written for Children, One-act Play, and Full-length Play; Filipino Division — Maikling Kuwento, Maikling Kuwentong Pambata, Sanaysay, Tula, Tula Para sa mga Bata, Dulang May Isang Yugto, Dulang Ganap ang Haba, and Dulang Pampelikula; Regional Languages Division — Short Story-Cebuano, Short Story-Hiligaynon, and Short Story-Ilokano; Kabataan Division — Kabataan Essay (“Life in the Midst of the Pandemic and Coping in the New Normal”) and Kabataan Sanaysay (“Buhay sa Gitna ng Pandemya at Pagharap sa ‘New Normal’”). Participants may submit only one entry per category. Published/produced works which were first published or first produced between June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2022 and/or unpublished/unproduced works may be entered in the contest. For the Novel and Nobela categories, published works which were first published within a period of two years prior to May 31 and unpublished works may be submitted. Only unproduced works may be entered in the Dulang Pampelikula category. A work which has been awarded a prize in another contest before midnight of May 31 is not qualified. Contest rules and official entry forms are available at Palanca Awards’ official website, www.palancaawards.com.ph. Entries must be submitted online. All winners will be honored in a special online ceremony later this year. Contact the CPMA office at info@palancaawards.com.ph or at 8843-8277 or 8478-7996 and ask for Leslie Layoso or Susan Castillo.
Migz Salazar at ARTablado
THERE is something quite romantic about the concept of loving someone to the moon and back that to say these words would equate to the strongest sense of affection one can feel for another. “To The Moon and Back,” Allanrey “Migz” Salazar’s new exhibition at Robinsons Land’s Artablado (3rd floor of Robinsons Galleria), features some 25 of his more recent works. In the late 1990s, Mr. Salazar took up brief formal art studies at Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, took an intensive course in photography in Wurzburg, Germany, and later took up courses in Italian Renaissance art history in Florence and in Venice. Mr. Salazar would spend the majority of his artistic career in Paris before finding himself back in Manila just before the pandemic began. He is the first Filipino contemporary visual artist to win the Bust of Pablo Picasso International Art Prize for 2019 in Lecce, Italy, Bust of Julius Caesar International Art Prize, conferment for highest recognition in Arts for Human Rights, and the Francoise-Marie Arouet Voltaire Prize for Civil Rights and Social Commitments in 2018. He is also an Honorary Member of the Accademia Italia in Arte Nel Mondo Associazione Culturale in Lecce Italy from 2018-2020. In the Philippines, he is a recipient of the Ani ng Dangal Awards (2020 and 2022) by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts as well as being an Ambassador of Goodwill by the Global Artists’ Creative Collaboration of Empowerment in California USA.
CCP’s National Rondalla workshop goes online
THE ARTIST Training Division of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) is holding the 7th National Rondalla Workshop online via Zoom from July 19 to 23 (9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.), with a Virtual Culminating Program streaming on Sept. 24. This is the second year that the workshop will be held online. The workshop trainers will be led by Prof. Elaine Juliet Espejo of the Celso Espejo Rondalla and the UP Rondalla, and faculty member of the UP College of Music. The workshop is open to Filipino rondalla groups nationwide who have been in existence for at least two years and are non-beginners, with members who are in at least high school or above. Rondalla ensembles that have all the instruments may apply for the workshop. In addition, individual participant slots for rondalla instrumentalists and conductors are again opened during this online set-up. Application forms for Rondalla Groups with Conductors are accessible at https://tinyurl.com/Rondalla2022-Apply-Group and for Individual Conductors and/or Instrumentalists at https://tinyurl.com/Rondalla2022-Apply-Individual. Application deadline is on June 17. For inquiries, contact workshop coordinator, Abby Lazo, at ccp.national.rondalla.workshop@gmail.com.