Sumad Kwarenta” is ongoing at the Little Gallery of the University of the Philippines Cebu campus in Lahug. This is an art exhibition of works from alumni and teachers of the UP Cebu Fine Arts Program.
Established 40 years ago in 1975, the Fine Arts Program was the first fine arts program of UP outside the national capital. It was founded mainly through the efforts of the late national artist Jose Joya and the program’s first generation of teachers, the late Professors Julian Jumalon, Martino Abellana, the late Msgr. Virgilio Yap, later joined by younger faculty, Carmelo Tamayo and Dulce Cuna Anacion.
In the mid-1980s, with the retirement of Prof. Jumalon and the passing away of Martino Abellana, a younger generation of faculty began teaching here , some of the them the first graduates of the program. Prof. Javy Villacin, graduated from the College of Fine Arts of UP Diliman while Prof. Karl Roque and I graduated from the UP Cebu program, also in the mid-1980s. Since then, they have been joined by younger faculty, Profs. Dennis Montera, Palmy Pe-Tudtud, Yasemin Tueten, Mona Alcudia and Jethro Estimo, who passed away last year.
Since its founding, the Fine Arts program has gone through many challenges. Its first generation of teachers retired by the late 1980s even as Martino Abellana died. Its student population began to drop to such a level that some officials of UP Cebu talked of “freezing” the program in preparation for a possible phase-out. Reacting to this impending closure, faculty of the program together with students, organized as the Fine Arts Students Organization, began a concerted effort to promote the program under the brand statement: “We are important.”
This effort began with a marketing campaign to harness the support of local businesses though sponsorships of print advertising in community papers. The print advertisement announced the annual show of the program. This was followed by other shows in various parts of the Visayas under the traveling exhibit series. “Tabo”. The show was jointly organized by the Fine Arts Program, Merlie Alunan and Joycie Dorado Alegre of UP Visayas in Tacloban.
This effort to keep the program alive by promoting and holding art exhibits and performances became the main force to hold together the community of art teachers and students. This effort led the program to new possibilities of engaging the public and the art community of Cebu. By the end of the 1980s, the program had established what would become yearly activities from then on:
Mindworks, a show of experimental art, installations and performance art; and, the Summer Art Worskshop.
Beside this effort, the program engaged government and nongovernment organizations over the years. Since 1976, with the prodding of Jose Joya, the program was represented at national level art commissions that after the EDSA revolution would become the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
Profs. Palmy Pe-Tudtud, Javy Villacin and Dennis Montera represent the region with the NCCA. Alumni of the program now teach in various universities in the regions that opened their own fine arts offerings, including the University of San Carlos, Silliman University and Foundation University in Dumaguete, among others.
On the suggestion of established Cebuano designers including Kenneth Cobonpue, the Department of Trade and Industy’s, Director Nelia Navarro, the late Reneburt Llanto of the Department of Trade and Industry, and local foundations, the program established the new degree offering Product Design in mid-2000. The proposal for the new program was the collective work of Profs.
Leonardo “Doi” Rosete, Christina Martina Manguerra, Estela Ocampo-Fernandez, this writer, and the faculty of what was then the Humanities Division, now called the Arts and Humanities Cluster. The Fine Arts Program is now identified by the UP System, as Cebu’s “niche” program.
Among its ongoing projects are preparatory work to open at the campus the makers’ space, “UP Cebu FABLab”, a center of advanced technologies for the fabrication of new art and design objects and prototypes. This project seeks to democratize access to new technologies making them available even to those who may not be directly enrolled in UP Cebu. This is scheduled to start operations next year.
“Sumad Kwarenta” is the art celebration to mark “forty years of struggle and pride.” The show will run for two weeks. The Fine Arts Program of UP Cebu invites you to view.
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