Managing the Unmanageable

It may sound like a contradiction in terms, but there is now an institute for arts management.

The Institute for Cultural and Arts Management (icam) is set to begin its first non-degree course tomorrow (Sept. 3) at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Building in Intramuros, Manila, with its first module, "Management of Cultural Arts Organizations."

The course runs for a week.

"It’s a first of its kind in the country," says Nes Jardin, icam director. "Of course, there are other, similar institutes of learning abroad."

Jardin, who is also president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, is one of the core faculty of the ncca project that was conceptualized by ncca’s chairman Jaime Laya and executive director Virgilio Almario in February this year.

icam itself was six months on the drawing board, Jardin says, who helped design and put together eight modules.

"We noticed that many of our art managers were former artists themselves," Jardin says, noting that the course design is not really an oxymoron.

Aside from the icam director, the other faculty that will handle the first introductory module are cultural scholar Felipe "Jun" de Leon, visual artist and critic Jeannie Javelosa, cineaste Digna Santiago, and cultural educator Niko Zapata. The introductory course will focus on basic management principles and the aspects of arts and cultural management in the Philippine context.

Each module runs for five days with classes from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon. There is a maximum of 25 students for each team-taught course.

The next module, entitled "Building an Audience for the Arts," is scheduled Sept. 24 to 28. It will tackle basic arts marketing principles, effective strategies, sales tools and sales promotion schemes and touch on issues currently affecting audience development.

The target enrollees for this course, as well as most icam modules, are arts administrators, cultural officers, post-graduate students, writers and critics, designers, curators and artists who want to learn the more practical side of their craft.

After a slow initial response, interest has picked up and the first course has filled up its target quota of 25 participants. Scholarships are provided to deserving applicants.

"The response from the regions has been overwhelming," Jardin reveals. "We hope that other practitioners will send in their applications soon because the succeeding courses are filling up fast."

Jardin says that the ncca’s nationwide network helps in the dissemination of information that there’s an icam, which he hopes will reach local government units.

"We would like to reorient, for example, organizers of cultural programs in town fiestas," he says, adding there’s more to the fiesta than the mandatory marching band, games and beauty pageant. A whole tome of cultural artifacts is waiting to be unearthed in simple grassroots rituals, the icam director feels.

Other courses on line are "Publicity and Advertising for Arts and Culture" (October 8 to 12), "Financial Management in Arts Organizations" (October 22 to 26), "Project Management in Arts Organizations" (November 5 to 9) and "Cultural Policies and Governance" (November 19 to 23).

"We also plan to introduce courses in Cultural Heritage Management and the Use of Infotech in the Arts," says Jardin.

After the modules run through, the entire cycle starts again early next year. "Eventually, after maybe a year, the courses we offer can be accredited as added units to one’s degree course," he says.

Other faculty members include Cultural Center chairman Baltazar Endriga, Starweek editor Doreen Yu, art worker Cora Alvina, actress Joy Virata, museum consultant John Silva, arts managers Tess Rances, Dennis Marasigan, Emilie Tiongco, Eva Marie Salvador and Atty. Trixie Angeles.

The icam is one of a myriad ncca projects introduced by the Laya-Almario tandem, the others being documentaries-in-progress on national artists and arts and literary journals. The Commission seems bent on working hand in glove with the ccp, with or without pressure from outside forces trying to take over Intramuros operations.

Jardin sees the institution as not that much of a contradiction, even if he admits that artists, by nature, don’t want to be managed.

It is really meant to present more options for practitioners, he says, the key word being reorientation or, as the case may be, a reinvention of one’s cultural and artistic self.

For inquiries regarding icam, please contact the icam secretariat (Prunes Santos or Michael Dizon) at tel. 527-2192 loc. 728 or 527-2193.