February is abuzz with activities and events about the arts, creativity and self-expression. It is refreshing to see so many groups, agencies and individual artists and art lovers come together to celebrate the arts—a welcome departure from all the disheartening news in politics and current events.
The annual celebration of National Arts Month started with the signing of Presidential Proclamation 683 in 1991, declaring February as National Arts Month.
The country’s “prime government agency for arts and culture,” the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), led by its chairman National Artist Virgilio S. Almario, has lined up a series of events nationwide in celebration of the seven arts: architecture and allied arts, cinema, dance, dramatic arts, literary arts, music and the visual arts. All of the activities carry the theme, “Ani ng Sining, Alab ng Sining” (Harvest of the Arts, Flame of Art).
The opening ceremonies for the National Arts Month events and activities will be held in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. For Luzon, the celebrations happen in Angono, Rizal, the Art Capital of the country, on February 3. There will also be opening ceremonies in Roxas City, Capiz, and Cagayan de Oro.
Following tradition, the NCCA’s National Arts Month celebrations will end with the Ani ng Dangal (Harvest of Honors) awarding
ceremonies. It “recognizes artists who have earned national awards and accolades during the past year.”
To find out the programs that the NCCA has lined up under each of the seven arts, you could visit the web site at www.ncca.gov.ph or send an e-mail to paio@ncca.gov.ph.
Still in relation to the arts celebrations this month, vloggers are being invited to join NCCA’s #NAMnamin Vlogging Contest. Shoot your video entry, post it on Facebook, and get a chance to win prizes.
Filipinos 16 years old and above are eligible to join the video-making contest. Participants are instructed to shoot a video of themselves, or with their friends, as they talk about Philippine arts. Vloggers must introduce themselves at the start of the video, and then proceed to tackle any of the seven arts. The video could also be about the theme (see above) or about the Filipino artists and the works of art that they (vloggers) love.
Here is the rest of the contest mechanics:
The video must be three to five minutes in length.
- The video must be in English or Filipino (if using other Philippine languages, there must be English or Filipino subtitles).
- Upload the video to any file-sharing sites, such as Google Drive or Dropbox, and e-mail the downloadable link to paio@gmail.com. Use the subject line “#NAMnamin VLOG!” with the name of the vlogger.
- The video will be uploaded on the NCCA Facebook page, immediately after the deadline. Only then could the contributors encourage their friends to like and share the video, using the hashtags #NAM2018 #AniNgSining #AlabNgSining. Judging will be based on the number of likes and shares, as well as the quality of content and form. The videos will be judged according to creativity relevance, and impact.
- Deadline for submission of entries to the NCCA e-mail is on February 12, 2018. Sharing and liking on the NCCA Facebook page will be from February 13 to 20.
- There will be three winners who will receive cash prizes and NCCA publications. This will be announced on February 26, 2018.
1 comment
On the NCCA web site the festivals list is dated April 2015!!! Exasperating. Please check your links for giving relevant and up to date information.