Here are this year’s Filipino grantees of the Asian Cultural Council

Emerging artist and puppeteer Ramolete performs, designs, and directs puppetry and is currently the Associate Artistic Director of Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas. The grant allows her to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Puppet Arts at the University of Connecticut to further her knowledge of puppetry and share what she has learned with local artists and practitioners.

Also see: ‘Prinsipe Bahaghari’ wows audiences for its colourful puppetry adaptation of ‘The Little Prince’

Lead singer and artistic director of SamaSama Project, a Filipino Folk Fusion band based in Chicago, Cabalona often performs on stage to a diverse audience. The two-month research fellowship has her flying to Manila and Cebu to learn more about Philippine art, music, theatre, and historical events to inform the completion of a cabaret work and album based on the lives and works of great Filipino composers.

Martin, a film director, field journalist, and documentary filmmaker, uses her fellowship to explore how centuries of colonisation and patriarchy in the Philippines have ruined the country’s identity. 

Art collection management consultant at the Lopez Memorial Museum and Library, Natividad’s three-month fellowship has him researching the principles and techniques used in the mounting and seismic control systems of display and storage in Japanese museums.

Read also: A Little Night Music: In conversation with Cecile Licad, ‘the pianist’s pianist’

A contemporary street artist, Oclos’s murals can be seen around Metro Manila. For two months, he’ll be researching in Coney Island, where indigenous Filipino tribes were once paraded as savages in 1905. Oclos wishes to rediscover the experience of forced diaspora, generational trauma, and racial injustice brought upon the Filipino people.

A poet and features writer, Perez will be going to India to research and engage with a literary and artistic understanding of trees by visiting sacred grounds where trees grow, thrive, and stand out in unlikely, public, and urban spaces.

Also see: Art Agenda May 2024: Exhibitions at Galerie Francesca Emporium, West Gallery, and more

Yadao, a musician who began playing the piano at the age of four, creates electronic compositions using Game Boys, synths, and vocals. Through her fellowship, she expands her musical prowess by studying rhythmic modes and any associated mythologies of Kulintang music while researching José Maceda’s work, which combines avant-garde and indigenous Philippine music.

An instructor of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines Baguio, Balaguer is an independent curator, critic, and artist who founded the Curare Art Space. During his six-month fellowship programme, he will be exploring museums, galleries, and art spaces in New York to study exhibition writing while engaging with artists, gallerists, and cultural workers to deepen his understanding of art criticism.

Also see: From Pain to Paint: How Kim Cruz uses art for social good

Theatre actor, artist-facilitator, and filmmaker Go is currently an Actors Company Senior Member of Tanghalang Pilipino and has performed in plenty of local productions such as Nekropolis, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Ang Pag-uusig. She’ll be attending classes in New York for six months to learn innovative techniques—hoping to empower local artists, foster narratives rooted in experiences, and contribute to the enrichment of the Philippine cultural landscape.

Read more: The devil hides among men: A review on Tanghalang Pilipino’s ‘Ang Pag-uusig’

Nine-time Palanca Awardee Lim So has written many literary works criticising the status quo. He’ll be researching innovative ways of staging and writing performances, informing a project about Filipino experiences in the United States and the clash of cultures and generations.

With a PhD in Theatre Studies from the National University of Singapore, Sir Anril Tiatco is a professor of theatre and performance studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman and is recognised as a University Artist. For six months, he will undergo training in dramaturgy through an apprenticeship while learning the latest trends in dramaturgical practice through workshops, forums, and one-on-one interviews with renowned dramaturgs based in New York.

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