For three weeks in the month of September, Pangasinan held its annual Galila Arts Festival, a multi-arts celebration of creativity in the local community. With the theme “Locally Led, Community Crafted”, this year’s festival was co-created and co-produced by the residents of Pangasinan’s Fourth District. Through the collaborative efforts of community members across different generations and professional backgrounds, this year’s festival was an avenue for community interconnectedness through creativity. The festivities were part of Philippine Creative Industries Month, annually commemorating Filipino artists and creative workers while highlighting the creative industry’s part in nation-building. With its inclusion, Galila served as proof of PD4’s flourishing creative ecosystem and growth as a bustling creative hub for a range of artistic disciplines.
The festival’s reach has spread farther and wider in the time since its debut last year. In its sophomore outing, this year’s Galila attracted twice the number of participants and activated twice as many spaces and venues all over PD4. With the volume and diversity of programs available, Pangasinan’s vibrant and dynamic culture was put on full display. Visual arts exhibits such as A Salty Project’s Hiraya Art Exhibit showcased works by Pangasinan-based artists in a variety of mediums and styles. The multifaceted exhibit also held talks on topics such as art therapy and intellectual property rights. The Dagupan-based arts space DCTY Micro Gallery collaborated with Art of Yarn PH to facilitate Weaving Resilience, a celebration of Mindanaoan textiles and women empowerment through the craft of weaving. Attendees were able to engage with rich Mindanaoan weaving traditions through the Paghahabi Exhibit as well as through the Weaving Workshop held at Haven for Women in Dagupan City.
Other workshop topics ranged from visual media to the culinary arts to the practices of creative professionals. Aspiring photographers flocked to the Cyanotype Workshop held by Tessa Martinez about the historical cyanotype printing technique. Seasoned artists as well as beginners were given the chance to refine their oil pastel skills at the Fundamentals of Oil Pastels Workshop under the guidance of renowned artists Gino L. Tioseco, Fritz Isiah Caoile, and Renz Dela Cruz. Resident chefs flexed their skills in the kitchen through a number of workshops in the culinary arts. Using coffee as the primary medium of expression, the workshop Brewed Expressions: A Fusion of Art, Aroma, and Craft showed attendees how the caffeinated staple could work as an artistic medium. From coffee brewing basics to coffee painting, this workshop woke participants up to the wide world of coffee culture. Similarly, the artists behind SANGKAP SARAP SINING sought to encourage the creativity and resourcefulness that comes with the act of cooking. Here, facilitators taught aspiring cooks how to use locally-sourced ingredients to make delicious and nourishing meals in the midst of the harsh typhoon season. In sharing the stories behind the dishes, the workshop was an exercise in raising disaster awareness and partaking in the province’s deep culinary heritage.
Other workshops catered to the creative professional, a key player in the emerging contemporary creative sector. At a workshop on Social Media Strategy for Food and Beverage Businesses, aspiring business owners and social media savants learned new ways to grow their businesses online. Hosted by the brand marketing experts at VARSITY CO-OP, this workshop taught attendees tips and tricks on growing a unique brand identity for their restaurant, cafe, or food service enterprise. Film enthusiasts came together at Meshroom Cafe for Let’s Play: Conversations with Dagupan’s Own, an encounter with directors Prime Cruz and Avid Liongoren on their experiences in the film and animation industries. Arts professionals looking to break into the creative industries attended digital marketing specialist Charlmagne Christian Ramoso’s Building Your Own Portfolio. Using techniques for website development and social media, the workshop was designed to empower artists with the necessary tools to put together their very own online portfolios.
Crossing into the local festivities were touring artists from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, who brought their indigenous lullabye project HIMIG HIMBING: Mga Heleng Atin to the Pangasinense audience. In addition to conducting workshops that cultivated the creativity of local teachers and filmmakers, the CCP held a special short film presentation featuring 16 lullabies. The compelling presentation was based on research of ethnomusicologist Sol Maris Trinidad and was accompanied by musical director Krina Cayabyab’s arrangements.
Galila Arts Festival also served as an opportunity for artists and artist collectives to activate the district’s institutional spaces. Street art collective !AGINI activated Dagupan City National High School with three major art events. The installations at the interactive Ulopan exhibit encouraged visitors to engage with the surroundings to inspire the senses and spark curiosity. Also at the high school was the POR BY POR Mini Mural Battle, an on-the-spot mini mural competition where local artists created new works on 4×4 plywood panels. Local artist and teacher Ariel Cancino ran away with the grand prize with an abstract geometric work inspired by local fisherfolk. !AGINI’s other exhibit at the academic institution was Pinsew ed Dayat, a weekend-long presentation honoring the visual and emotional significance of the beach to local artists, businesses, and the community-at-large. Through the exhibition of beach-inspired works, attendees were given the opportunity to appreciate one of the most prominent natural features of Dagupan City.
Through Galila’s locally-led, community-created approach, the district sought to ignite the artistic spark among the next generation of creative leaders. The folks at Hey x Youth’s Do It Labat electrified the cultural scene of Dagupan City for a weekend filled with live performances, art activities, and pop-up enterprises. As it attracted new members to their budding community of young artists and business-owners, it was emblematic of the festival’s function in empowering the local creative community.
“For this year’s Galila, we leaned into rootedness and hyperlocalism,” said Rep. Christopher “Toff” de Venecia, who spearheaded the initial iteration of the festival last year. On the evolution of the festival he helped envision he said, “The creatives themselves stepped into their own autonomy to activate their community. The future of global creativity is truly hyperlocal.”
The Galila Arts Festival is powered by PD4 and made possible through the generous support of Cong. Christopher de Venecia, DTI Philippines, SM Center Dagupan, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the Department of Education. For more updates and information, visit https://www.facebook.com/galilaartsfest/ on Facebook or follow @galilaartsfest on Instagram.
ADVT.
This article is brought to you by Galila Arts Festival.
