(PIA) — As the nation celebrates National Arts Month this February, let us take a look at an art gallery in Sagada, Mountain Province, that showcases the works of local artists and craftsmen.
Nestled in a beautiful and peaceful spot in Danonoy in Sagada is the the Damayan Tribal Arts Center, a haven for visual arts, handicrafts, metal crafts and sculptures.
From paintings to sculpture and crafts, the center showcases talents of local artists. The structure (including the walls, roof and posts) is an art itself.
Creative haven for artist and aspiring artists
With the COVID-19 pandemic that required lockdowns and social distancing, , people started to find ways to recover and recuperate from the pandemics’ mental and physical effects.
While others opt to grow gardens and run miles to de-stress, a group of local artists in Mountain Province stretched their canvass to paint a home for creative minds.
“We formed the Damayan to showcase the talents, artistry, craftmanship and also music,” shared James Gabriel Wandag, one of the founders.
The group was established during the mushroom season, hence the name ‘Damayan’. And like the diverse and beautiful species of mushrooms, this center is open to any type of art.
Damayan also means helping in Filipino. The group members willingly share the value of arts and mentor interested people who like to develop their artistry or experience arts.
“We have art learning activities like visual arts for children, teens. Usually, we hold these activities during summer time, but we also have regular students during weekends. We want to help enhance the talents of those starting artists to showcase their artistry. This gallery is where they can also display their works,” Wandag said.
Sessions and learning activities are given free by the art teachers.
While their passion for arts lingers, the members are also hoping for a continuing support not only from the government but also from the community.
“Dagitoy province, haan da unay nga mapanpansin ngay,ti mainstream ijay lang Manila, Baguio, isunga dawat mi laeng kuma support. Ditoy ili, adu talaga ti haan nga makita nga talent, at least diyay kuma, kasla ti NCCA tutukan da. Pansinen da met kuma, uray haan nga pinansiyal, ishowcase da met kuma, lalo ket kultura met ti ti kasla nga iproproject da,” Ferdinand Sanchez, one of the active members said.
(The provinces do not get as much recognition as the mainstream areas like Manila and Baguio that is why we hope for support. Here, there are a lot of talents that donot get noticed, so we appeal to agencies like the NCCA to focus on this, not only on financing, but to showcase talents especially that the artists here project culture)
To date, the Damayan Tribal Arts Center have 21 members, 10 of them who are resident visual artists while the rest are musicians.
With their wide range of arts, these Sagada Damayan Tribal Artists also designed the peace marker is made up of decommissioned gun parts from the firearms turned in by Cordillera Bodong Administration and Cordillera People’s Liberation Army to the government. This memorabilia is installed at the Philippine Military Academy. (JDP/CVBT-PIA CAR)
