Philippines and UAE forge artistic cooperation

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines and the United Arab Emirates formalized academic and cultural cooperation between the two countries last Feb. 9 at the Pecson Room of the Senate, during the inaugural of Monodrama Manila, which is part of the celebration of the Philippine International Arts Festival (PIAF) spearheaded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Signing the agreement were the United Arab Emirates International Theatre Institute Center, headed by Mohammed Saif Al Afkham, who is also chairman of ITI Monodrama Fujairah, with Mohammed Saheed Al Dhanhani, vice chairman of Fujairah Media and Cultural Authority and Emiri Court director of Fujairah, and the Philippine Center of ITI/Earthsavers UNESCO DREAM Centre, headed by Cecile Guidote Alvarez, establishing their academic and artistic cooperation.

Both institutions agree to cooperate toward developing cultural exchanges and connectivity programs in the areas of education, performance, broadcast and other artistic programs geared towards promoting social cohesion and transformation towards a culture of peace and sustainable development using arts as an educational force to fight poverty and climate change. As such, there would be an equitable undertaking of collaborative programs with other international cultural organizations such as La MaMa, a renowned theater company in New York; the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC); the NCCA; and other government and non-government organizations.

Among the programs which the institutions will support include an exchange of students in a formal and non-formal set-up, an exchange of faculty and staff members, student internships, joint productions in the various arts and other research projects, performances and workshops, youth arts camp, festival participation and joint cultural programs.

The agreement signing was witnessed by Sen. Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Culture, Science and Technology; Tobias Biancone, secretary general of the International Theater Institute in Paris; Ali Mahdi, vice president of ITI International and president of ITI Sudan; Dr. Isagani Cruz, secretary of ITI Philippine Center; and Fray Paolo Casurao, chairman of Philippine ITI Monodrama Committee. Also standing as witnesses were Jose Laderas Santos, NCCA OIC chair and CJ Andaluz of the ITI Communications Committee.

This international partnership is aimed at bridging a cultural hub in the Arab World based at Fujairah with a cultural gateway to the ASEAN region since the Philippines serves as the first ASEAN Culture Capital for the years 2010 and 2011, and the Asia-Pacific Bureau of the UNESCO-ITI Chair of the Theatre for All Trainors Training with the Earthsavers selected as a UNESCO Dream Center, the sixth in the world acknowledged by UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, who is scheduled to visit Manila this March.

For more details, contact NCCA Public Affairs and Information Office (PAIO) head Rene Sanchez Napeñas at (632) 5272192 loc. 612 to 615 or 0928-5081057, or e-mail ncca.paio@g,ail.com