Exhibits and recitals in CASA San Miguel's Pundaquit Festival

MANILA, Philippines - The 16th season of Pundaquit Festival of CASA San Miguel in Zambales comes to a fever pitch this summer. The festival runs until June, featuring concerts of noted Filipino artists, exhibits of artists in residence from 1993 to 2008 as well as the local Zambales community, student recitals of the growing talent within the community, film showings of movies filmed and produced at CASA San Miguel, and other fun activities.

This season is an important milestone event in the history of the arts center. Its founder, president and artistic director Coke Bolipata, said, “This is a time for looking back at the last 16 years and taking stock of all that the center has accomplished. It is also a time for looking forward to all the critical decisions and actions that still have to be made to realize its long-term goals.”

A retrospective exhibit dubbed “The Pundaquit Review” features works of previous resident artists such as Plet Bolipata, Elmer Borlongan, Widmarth Lodriga, Don Salubayba, Marc Cosico, Carlo Gabuco, Leeroy New, with local artists Zaniel Mariano and Brendale Tadeo. Bolipata said, “This is a way for the public to glimpse the development in the artists’ style from the earlier years in the center to current works and to highlight how the center played an important role in this development.” The exhibit is curated by Boots Herrera.

“A Week In The Life Of … The World through the Eyes of Children” is a photo exhibit featuring digital photographs taken by children from the fishing community who were picked to attend workshops under At Maculangan, Bahaghari, Paolo Picones, and Carlo Gabuco. After learning about the history of photography, composition, and basic photography technique, the children then spent a week taking photographs of their environment documenting the people and stories of their families and communities. These pictures will be presented as a multimedia presentation on an LCD screen at the Siemens Gallery of CASA San Miguel.

Alfonso “Coke” Bolipata established CASA San Miguel in his family’s mango orchard in San Antonio, Zambales in 1994 when he returned home from his studies at Julliard School of Music in New York and University of Indiana. He wanted to set up an arts center to provide opportunities to gifted children outside Metro Manila to develop their talent, whether it is in classical music, visual arts or theater. Children as young as three years old from various backgrounds — fisher folk, farmers, tricycle drivers, market vendors as well as teachers, doctors and other professionals — come week-to-week to hone their talents. Bolipata said, “This is truly a unique cultural endeavor. There is nothing like this in the Philippines or anywhere else in the world.”

All events are open to the general public for free, made possible by grants from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Chemrez Technologies’ “Green Chemistry,” Starbucks Coffee, Pag-Ibig Fund, Metrobank Foundation, with additional support from the Province of Zambales, UA&P EM2010 and the Anita Magsaysay-Ho Foundation Inc.  For information, visit http://www.pundaquitfestival.com, or call 903-8557.

Other concerts scheduled for the festival are: Remed Gio Soriano’s violin recital on May 8; Joseph Valdes’ violin recital on May 9; Summer Camp General Recital on May 10; Pocholo Gutierrez’s cello recital on May 15; Nehemiah Boniog’s violin recital on May 16; Summer Camp General Recital on May 17; Miguel Estrada violin recital on May 21; Joy Allan dela Cruz violin recital on May 22; Summer Camp General Recital on May 24; and Summer Camp General Recital on May 31;