MANILA, Philippines — The theaters may be closed but the arts are alive and kicking.
In her guesting in Philstar.com's "Slam Book," Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Chair and Miss Universe 1973 Margarita "Margie" Moran said the arts have been busy despite the pandemic.
"Even though the theater is closed, the arts is still ongoing," Moran said.
She said that there are challenges such as the financial costs of mounting virtual events as well as conducting antigen tests, but the arts, artists and their home, the CCP, have been busy.
"When it comes to CCP, it's been quite busy and we're showing a lot of our programs online as you know. We also help artists in their livelihood, continuous training of artists. It's still ongoing, it's still quite busy," Moran said.
In fact, the 17th edition of the Cinemalaya Film Festival just concluded with 13 competing short films streamed online.
There were dozens of concurrent events within the Cinemalaya film fest, including the showing of past winning Cinemalaya entries and award-winning Filipino and foreign films, workshops, talkbacks with featured directors, and online exhibitions.
CCP also launched a searchable microsite that contains the complete list of artists per batch as well as the poster of its triennial CCP Thirteen Artists Award.
All 211 artists are listed in the site (https://thirteenartists.culturalcenter.gov.ph/). The Thirteen Artists Awards is a 50-year endeavor that started as a curatorial project of the CCP Museum under the directorship of its first curator Roberto Chabet. Raymundo Albano, the next director of the CCP Museum and Non-Theater Operations, turned it into an awards program.
The Thirteen Artists Awards names the who's who in Philippine arts and culture. They include BenCab, Impy Pilapil, Elmer Borlongan, Edwin Wilwayco, Ronald Ventura, Geraldine Javier, to name a few.
The latest batch, 2021, was announced last month.
Moran shared her hope for better days ahead for artists and lovers of art.
"Hopefully everybody's vaccinated. We can open the theaters freely and have people come in," she said.