ILOILO HAS ALWAYS competed with other key Visayan capitals, such as Cebu, Bacolod and even Dumaguete, as center of commerce, education and tourism. Now, with the just-ended First Iloilo Arts Festival, it has served notice that it would also establish itself a center of arts and culture as well. What we are seeing is a cultural giant waking up.

And the waking-up seems the message of the First Iloilo Arts Festival. Organized recently by the Iloilo City Convention Bureau and its president, Ma. Teresa S. Sarabia, the festival signaled a shift in the tourism promotion of the province. From here on, for Iloilo to put its best foot forward means exposing its cultural soul to tourists, the better for them to appreciate what animates the best and the brightest of the Ilonggo.

But as a culture center, Iloilo hasn't exactly been lethargic all these years. Without fanfare, it has achieved relative success in raising heritage awareness.

Through private sector initiatives for instance, the Museo Iloilo was established by the Iloilo Cultural and Research Foundation (ICRF), making its home in a modest modern building standing on the provincial government grounds.
Work for the museum is purely voluntary, and a visitor appreciates the cooperation and professionalism that have gone into the setting up of the museum showcases and the running of museum operations.

The showcases allow the visitor to survey Panay island's rich prehistory and recorded history through archeological artifacts and dioramas of colonial lifestyle and historical developments up to the Second World War.

The presentation is succinct and efficient. It has no airs, no pretensions. It puts the visitor right where the cultural and historic heart of Panay Island is.

Solidarity

The visitor will likewise marvel at the solidarity and sense of cooperation among community leaders. As gleaned from the Museo, there appears a strong sense of urgency among Ilonggos to conserve their cultural heritage as well as mine the legacy to look for cultural guideposts for the present.

It is surprising, for example, to find that the ICRF has its own quarterly publication, Museo Iloilo, which publishes news updates as well as learned papers on Panay culture.

The city is near the airport (the media were brought to the city by Air Philippines) and is home to a number of well-furnished hotels such as the Sarabia Manor Hotel.

Since Iloilo is a commercial center, it hosts leading business establishments as well as shopping malls.

Educational center

As an educational center, Iloilo hosts several colleges and universities as well as established medical centers such as the Iloilo Doctors Hospital, St. Paul Hospital, West Visayas University Hospital, and University of San Agustin Hospital.
The rest-and-recreation regime mainly consists of first-rate food places and bars such as Breakthrough Restaurant, which serves seafood, and Flow Resto Lounge, a top watering hole.

Iloilo's built heritage, particularly from the Spanish colonial era, is the most evident cultural resource of the island. An arts festival, or a tourism campaign for that matter, could not just ignore the churches of Iloilo, particularly the magnificent Miag-ao church, which is inscribed in the Unesco World Heritage List.

The arts component of the festival consisted of an interactive art session and art exhibit at SM Iloilo, an arts workshop for beginners and advance fine arts students by the Young Thomasian Artists Circle (YTAC) at the Museo Iloilo, and a festival of dances at Robinsons Place opened by Tourism Usec. Salvador Sarabia Jr.

The latter featured top local dance groups such as the Pag-asa Dinagyang Tribe, Hugyaw Arts Company of the St. Therese-MTC Colleges, Irong-irong Dance Company of the West Visayas State University, Binanog Tribe of Lambunao, and Kawilihan Dance Troupe of the University of San Agustin.

Highlight

The highlight of the festival was obviously the exhibit by the YTAC at the Museo Iloilo. Opened by Rosalie Trenas, wife of Iloilo Mayor Jerry Trenas, the exhibit, "dog/god," is familiar to Metro Manilans since it had previously been exhibited at the University of Santo Tomas Museum of Arts and Sciences and Cultural Center of the Philippines.
YTAC is an informal organization of young artists-alumni from the UST College of Fine Arts and Design (and its earlier version, College of Architecture and Fine Arts).

The participating YTAC artists in the Iloilo exhibit were Lindslee, Lawrence Borsoto, Ivan Roxas, Mark Magistrado, Buen Calubayan, Jaime Pacena II, Wesley Valenzuela, Andres Barrioquinto, and CJ Tanedo. Curator was Jocelyn Tullao of the UST Museum.

By hosting the touring exhibit, Iloilo got a first crack at the unique show, which is an instructive showcase of the plurality of mediums and expressions in contemporary art as well as the generous pool of young talents that has emerged lately to explore new materials and genres.

The exhibit, which will be brought to Singapore and South Korea, might have been too arriere-garde for Iloilo taste (it explores the binary between the sacred and the profane, a calculatedly ticklish theme for artists who came from the Pontifical University), but the consensus from the art scene in Iloilo was that the exhibit was bold, daring, and inspired.

Not that the Iloilo arts scene is not familiar with art trends. The Independent Artists Studio of Iloilo, for example, is an informal group of Iloilo artists experimenting with new styles and expressions. Its members -- Faith Anastacio, Nil Capinianes, Joseph Firmeza, Carlo Juntado, Liby Norman Limoso, Norman Posecion, and J. Scott Saria -- have exhibited at the Museo Iloilo, Space Between and Days Hotel Iloilo Art Gallery.

The fact that there are artist groups in Iloilo and a growing number of galleries should bode well for a more thriving arts scene on the island in the future.

But Iloilo cultural leaders aren't relaxing. Next year, according to Teresa Sarabia, the Iloilo Arts Festival will be bigger and brighter. We have no doubt it will be.

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