In Baler, artists’ refuge emerges from a village

INTERIOR of the Long House at the Artists’ Village in Baler town in Aurora province features the works of local artists. WILLIE LOMIBAO/CONTRIBUTOR

Every Sunday, visual artist Vincent Christopher Gonzales and his fellow members of the Aurora Art Council travel for 30 minutes to a wooded area near a cove in Baler town in Aurora province to paint.

They spend the whole day painting on canvas animals, fruits and vegetables endemic to Aurora and enjoy each other’s company and artworks.

Their place of convergence is the Artists’ Village, which is located inside a 250-hectare forest along Dicasalarin Cove in Barangay (village) Zabali.

In the village are three buildings, including the Long House, a three-story structure designed by Dan Silvestre, former dean of the University of the Philippines’ College of Architecture. The other buildings are venues for workshops for dance, music and sculpture.

“The Long House serves as the clubhouse, discussion and exhibit areas,” says Junyee or Luis Yee Jr., UP Los Baños curator and artist in residence and a member of the board of trustees of Juan Angara Foundation, which put up the village.

The idea of putting up an Artists’ Village, Yee says, came from former Sen. Edgardo Angara.

First in country

“In his numerous travels [abroad], he encountered artists’ villages. So, he called me and asked me to conceptualize an artists’ village. Of course, I liked it because it’s going to be the first one in the country,” Yee says.

Angara says the Artists’ Village would serve as an “intellectual refuge for artists,” in the same way that scholars, academics and intellectuals have a lot abroad.

For instance, he says, there is a castle in a village in Italy that invites scholars and intellectuals to stay there for three nights and three days.

At the Artists’ Village, Angara says his group is now designing a residency program, where artists would be invited and stay there as long as they want.

“But there’s an only obligation: To leave behind one of their artworks that would be auctioned off at the end of the year,” he says.

Yee says the Artists’ Village is “one important development in the art world in the Philippines.”

“Usually, artists like me, go abroad for our residency, scholarship, workshops, etc. I myself have conducted a lot of workshops outside the country but this time, we have our own. And in a beautiful site,” he says.

Yee says that once the residency program is in place, this would be opened first to Baler residents and artists.

“The village will patronize and support first all the local artists. After that, it will go national then later on, if we have enough funding, we’ll go international,” he says.

To discover more talents and provide exposure to budding local artists, a music and arts festival called “Tareptepan” was held in Baler on June 28 and 29.

The festival name comes from the local word tareptep, which is an act of tapping the water to create ripples.

The festival, which was participated in by 500 children and budding artists, featured workshops in visual arts, dance and music.

Composer and music professor Ryan Cayabyab, who conducted the workshop in music, says “Tareptepan” was a successful event.

“If this will push through again next year, we’d all be happy to return because everyone who joined us enjoyed [the experience],” he says.