We are ASEAN citizens

Last week I participated in the 2nd ASEAN-ROK Arts Management Training Workshop held in Manila, sponsored by the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information and the Korean National Commission for UNESCO. The exchange between the Republic of Korea and the ASEAN stems from the ASEAN+3, which involves the ten member-nations of the ASEAN–Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam (I am very proud to say that I have memorized the ten countries, in alphabetical order!)–plus China, Japan and Korea.

I participated as one of three delegates from the Philippines, and I was tasked to present the country paper. This workshop focused on building an audience for the arts in Asia through arts education and through marketing and communications; the latter was, obviously, where I belonged. My paper dealt with marketing the arts through media, and included a situationer on the relationship between media and the arts in our country–which, by the way, is a pretty healthy relationship, I am happy to say; but of course, it could always be better, at least from the point of view of the arts.

We had two experts on the subject with us: Grace Lang, program director of the hugely successful Hong Kong Arts Festival, and Michael Quine, a professor at the City University of London who lectures not just on the arts per se but on the economics of the arts as well. The exchange of information and ideas, as well as the discussions–sometimes quite animated–were extremely stimulating and thought provoking, challenging even, for those of us who work in the arts, particularly in marketing the arts to an increasingly indifferent and distracted public.

Even more valuable though than learning the "tricks" of successful arts marketing was the establishment of friendships among fellow arts managers in the region and beyond; networking would be the term for it, but that somehow sounds a bit mercenary. In off-session events like dinners and museum visits–and even a shopping trip to the tiangge in Greenhills!–we shared jokes and gossipped, compared notes on food and movies and, occasionally, talked about our work in the arts.

As typhoon Caloy dumped the year’s first rain on the city we had our farewell party, al fresco by the poolside but mercifully under a generous awning. With the ethno-rock sounds of the talented Makiling Ensemble we danced the night away–oh how we danced! Disco and reggae and hiphop mixed with the traditional dances of Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and the Philippines–with a bit of Irish River Dance and Scottish rounds added in for good measure. In such circumstances did we rediscover our commonalities, and strengthen the bonds of being ASEAN citizens. With, of course, our friends from Korea.