DEC13_SUPERDUPERFINAL

and some intense lobbying. I warned however that based on my
own experience in dealing with NCCA one has to be prepared to
fork out one’s own money because NCCA funding always comes
late. Commissioner Teddy Co tried to belie this shifting the blame
to COA and contending this was only true of individual grants like
mine since they are based on reimbursements but not of groups
or organizations like VIVA. Older hands at the game however like
Rock Drilon and Charlie Co however supported my contention
when they shared their own experiences on how they had to hastily
raise funds prior to the opening of the exhibit/conference because
the money from NCCA came late. Rock said, in a way this was good
because it taught the Iloilo group to raise their own funds which
they called VIVA ExCon Beyond because their fundraising was so
successful it did not just fund VIVA ExCon 2014, it underwrote the
cost of participation of 50 participants to the Capiz VIVA ExCon to
which Iloilo contributed P100,000. Furthermore, with their leftover
money they have since then sponsored fora, workshops and talks
and have extended grants not only to visual artists but to musicians
and writers. Because of Iloilo’s success the moderator, Angel Shaw
urged Rock to share their experience with participants from other
provinces who might want to host VIVA.
were the artists, they even favored creating a party list called Partylist
Pintor with Charlie Co as representative. Throwing cold water to
these suggestions was Melanio Olano, a development planner who
had experience working with government people. Olano revealed
that one cannot compel local government officials to work on one’s
project because if it is not in their plans, it will not happen.
Getting the subject back on track was Pewee Roldan who called the
body’s attention to the fact that VIVA ExCon is “not just about end
products like putting up an exhibition or running a conference, it is
also a process.” Thus, despite VIVA ExCon Capiz’s success because
of a well-spent P10,000,000 from donors, it also had the support of
both the provincial and the local government. So, he advised artists
to learn how to engage local government because in the final analysis
it boils down to “whom you know.” Danni Sollesta of Dumaguete
reinforced this point by sharing his own heartbreaking attempts to
elicit local government support for arts and culture which he finally
did after two decades of trying when a governor of their province
who admitted knowing nothing about art and culture nevertheless
donated out of his own pocket five thousand pesos out of sympathy
for his cause.
There was no doubt that in Iloilo’s case success bred further success
because the construction boom in the city which had fueled the
local economy brought more projects for local artists (50 shows for
2017!) who in turn proved their mettle by winning national awards.
These included John Paul Cabanalan, Alex Ordoyo, Ronald Llanera,
Jeanroll Ejar and John Orland Espinosa and Philippine Art awards
finalist James Salarda.
However, participants were undecided on whether they needed more
legislation to help artists or more opportunities to work with local
government. There were those who threatened to force their public
officials to give in to their demands while some others wanted to
aggressively push for the creation of local art councils. So embattled
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Meanwhile because of the climate of fear extrajudicial killings bred
a delegate from Bohol asked whether in other provinces’ artists have
responded to this development as they did by mirroring it in their
art. Those from Cebu and Dumaguete answered in the affirmative.
The subject of the artist’s responsibility to his public came up
especially when a participant from Sagay reported how, following
the recent Sagay 9 killings, she and her fellow artists put up a show
about the event in Café Albarako owned by activist visual artist
Nunelucio Alvarado (who was the most militant among the original
Black Artists).
Considering how recent events have conspired to create an
atmosphere reminiscent of the Marcos years thirty years ago, I asked