Baguio City: The gift of art is being toured around the country through an art caravan as part of the offerings of the 5th Tam-Awan International Festival (TIAF).
Tam-Awan is an artists’ village located in Baguio City organizes TIAF to inspire the next generation of artists from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
In tandem with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) Heritage celebration, the TIAF Art Caravan started in the Visayas, at Corcuera town in the islands of Romblon last February.
The Tam-Awan Village Artist (TVA) headed by its president Jordan Mang-osan, the only solar drawing artist in the country, led a series of workshops for the local artists and children of Corcuera. He was joined by TVA artists Arthur Lozano, Alfonso Dato and Edwin Macadaeg.
Mang-osan started off with a solar drawing workshop, making the audience use the sun as the medium in creating of art pieces. Lozano then demonstrated Mono Print design on T-shirts, combining artistic design as a livelihood for the young artists, while Dato lectured color combinations and design.
During the five-day caravan at Corcuera, 100 youth from the elementary and high School levels were taught about the importance of art and galleries with the hopes of encouraging them to display and market their works.
The TVA artists then travelled to Mindanao in April to give 50 handpicked youth from Jimenez town a glimpse of how art can become a catalyst for change.
With its rich beaches, TVA artist, Macadaeg, showed how to use sand as an art
material utilizing the area’s rich resources and showing artistic expression need not be expensive.
Mang-osan, Lozano and Dato also demonstrated their signature solar drawing, monoprint design and color combination further piquing the interest of the youth.
The 5th TIAF is being staged in Baguio City this month in a bid to preserve local heritage, art and culture with its theme, “Cordilleran Stories: Rituals and Beliefs.”
Now in its 5th year, the TIAF Art Caravan’s last stop is in Lazi town of Siquijor happening on the last week of May.