IN celebration of the Arts Month in February, the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) launched an exhibit titled “Visayan Verve: A Tribute to Bisaya Artists,” which will run from Feb. 17 to March 15 at the Casa Gorordo Museum.
The exhibit is in partnership with the University of San Carlos-Cebuano Studies Center, Halad Museum, Alternative Contemporary Arts Studio and assisted by Cebuano artist Marvin Natural and the family of the late Martino Abellana.
It pays homage to Bisaya artists in the various fields of art, such as Martino Abellana for painting, Napoleon Abueva for sculpture, Fernando Buyser for poetry, Pio Cabajar for cinema, Estelita Diola for dance and Vicente Rubi for music.
“These artists represent innovation and faithfulness to tradition in the art forms they engaged in. Some of them were selected by virtue of their statuses as masters of their crafts while the rest, for their substantial achievements that remain largely unrecognized. All of them have contributed not only to Bisaya but Filipino arts in general,” Dr. Jocelyn Gerra, executive director of the Culture and Heritage unit of RAFI, said.
The aim of the exhibit is to present the accomplishments of Bisaya artists.
Florencio Moreño, curator of Casa Gorordo Museum, pointed out that it is one way of giving the public an opportunity to reexamine and appreciate the roots of their creativity, thereby, widening their perspectives on the potentials of contemporary Visayan-Filipino arts.
Visayan Verve signals the start of a series of exhibits on Bisaya arts that will be held every February in the next seven years. Each of the following exhibits will focus on one of the seven fields of art—architecture, cinema, dance, music, painting, literature and sculpture.
For more information, contact Florencio Moreño II at 418-7234 local 703 or visit websites www.rafi.org.ph or www.facebook.com/rafi.org.ph.