Proudly MaARTe: Matters of the heart
MANILA, Philippines - There are some 80 language groups and over 500 dialects spoken throughout the Philippines. Despite the diversity in our 7,107 islands, nothing is lost in translation when Filipinos speak the language of art. More than a means of expressing oneself, art is a way of life.
Nobody understands this better than the Museum Foundation of the Philippines Inc. (MFPI). That is why the group is back with Proudly MaARTe. Select sellers of museum-quality crafts band together once again under the leadership of MFPI for its annual fundraising project, the MaARTe Artisan Fair. The highly anticipated gathering at the Rockwell Tent, which started last Friday, Aug. 29, will run until today, Aug. 31, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
“Rockwell has provided us with a home, which gives us access to the Rockwell community. They are very strong supporters of MaARTe,” says Cedie Lopez-Vargas (a co-chairperson of the MaARTe 2014 committee along with Armita Rufino and Maritess Pineda). “They are the people who appreciate the artisanal quality that we bring to the fair. That is critical. They give us a lot of support in terms of the collaterals and the logistics. Do you know we were transferring from one place to another until we found Rockwell as our home?”
On the fair’s fifth year, more than 50 exhibitors from entrepreneurs, NGOs, designers to craftsmen and women, are showcasing their wares. There is also the MaARTe Finds, a special section reserved for limited edition items by designer ateliers, museum shops and visual artists. The MFPI also includes local food finds in the MaARTe Eats pavilion. Visitors can also indulge at the MaARTe Lounge by Gree and the MaARTe Cafe.
One stall to look out for is the one owned by Stephen Co of Nipa Foods, a specialty food and beverage company. While Stephen was living in the United Kingdom, he realized that there should be more to pasalubong than dried mangoes only. After receiving his master’s degree in Bioscience Enterprise from Cambridge, he decided to put his young, idealistic mind to work and started sourcing products locally as a means of developing the countryside.
So he hopped from island to island in search of innovative, natural and responsibly-sourced products that met his standards. “I thought there is so much more that the Philippines can offer. The usual complaint is the bad packaging and the bad branding. Rather than keep on complaining, my colleagues and I decided to do something about it and that’s how Nipa Foods was born. Nipa is something Filipino and it’s difficult to mispronounce. It signifies we’re bringing all this under one roof,” he shares.
Nipa Foods’ specialties include mead and melomel (fruit-flavored mead). The honey used to make the mead is from Batangas. The brand also carries chili garlic from Nueva Ecija; cashew butter from Bataan; palapa, which is a traditional Maranao condiment similar to bagoong; and tamarillo jam from Benguet.
Another exhibitor who makes wise use of Mother Nature’s bounty is Mara Sebastian of Sustainably Made by Marsse Tropical Timber. The kitchen and home accessories and custom wooden products are all crafted from sustainably farmed hardwood trees from her family’s farm in Pangasinan. Usually discarded branches, stumps and scrap wood are used so no part of the tree is wasted. Using the wood’s natural cut, color, grain and knots, the products are one-of-a-kind.
“Our design aesthetic is really about working with what Mother Nature has already done for us. It is very rustic at the same time, very environmental friendly. Our main advocacy is really to promote helping the Philippines develop a very sustainable source for our wood,” she explains.
With a lean company of some 50 people, Mara’s family manages 60 hectares with 125,000 planted trees to date. “It’s a matter of getting extra hands to help. We employ a lot of the community from three barangays in Pangasinan. A lot of folks there come to work for us on the months they don’t plant rice. You have to work with the time that they have. These people are farmers. They plant rice, they plant vegetables. And on the off-season they come work for us.”
The fair isn’t just about pretty things. It’s also about finding beauty — even in life’s scars. The scale of devastation unleashed by Super Typhoon Yolanda brought about desperation for its survivors but not for Tacloban-bred Anna Veloso Tuazon. Together with her high school friends Claude Rodrigo Canete and Joy Yu, she founded Abre Linea Inc. after typhoon Yolanda tore through Eastern Visayas in November of last year. Having witnessed the trail of destruction, Abre was their combined response to the tapering relief provisions for Yolanda survivors.
The social enterprise fuses contemporary designs with local artisanal craftsmanship through its livelihood projects. Abre, which translates to “open” in Waray, is an open response to provide a sustainable form of livelihood for the Yolanda-ravaged weaving communities in Leyte and Samar.
Indeed, MaARTe will further open doors to those who want to help. The MFPI will also continue to support projects of the National Museum and support Filipino artisans in improving product designs, increasing their productivity, developing new products and ensuring the transfer of skills within their businesses. MaARTe will show shoppers that heart in art is what they really take home — and that’s valuable. That rather than having something from the Philippines, they will learn that being something for the Philippines is the success it hopes to achieve.
(The MaARTe Artisan Fair will be held at the Rockwell Tent until today, Aug. 31, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. For details, please contact MFPI at (02) 697-9509 and (02) 404-2685 or e-mail inquiry@museumfoundationph.org. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/maartefair or follow
@maarte_artisanfair on Instagram.)
