Art stalwart, theater impressario and well-loved culturati Cecille Guidote Alvarez is spearheading a huge cultural and heritage adventure come December, billed as the ResiliART Earth Saving Event in Manila.
With an official endorsement under the Unesco Patronage Programme, this event will finally see the light after so many postponements, largely due to the still ongoing global pandemic. The event will coincide with the celebration of the United Nations Human Rights Week and will be strengthened by the combined forces of the Earthsavers, the Unesco Artist for Peace, and the Philippine Center for the International Theatre Institute Social Change Network.
“This coming together of organizations, groups and individuals that have a deep love and concern for the arts in all its scope, splendor and spectrum will be a culmination of so many meetings and plans to put Manila at the center of the universal arts community, and will harness the power of theater arts to bring about change, healing and reform, especially during these very trying times,” Alvarez intoned.
Acclaimed dance groups, musicians, singers, poets, painters and other artists from all over the globe will come together and grace the festival of performances, which is one of the main highlights of this arts festival in Manila, and it is where a harvest of artistic expressions and manifestations on the sustainable development goals will be set to stage.
Discussions to forge a platform of action for actualizing these goals that are focused on people, the planet, peace, and prosperity through partnerships are part of the forum, discussions and idea exchange program components of the festival.
“There is a regional Art Camp that will be held at the Philippine Normal University. Filipino and foreign visual artists will collaborate in the creation of murals and the exchange of best visual arts practices will also be an integral part of the agenda,” Alvarez shared. There is also an outreach program component wherein cultural immersion and interaction of delegates and performing groups in the Visayas and Mindanao hubs will be made possible.
Viktor Sebek, chairman of the South-South Cooperation Council and the copresident of the International Theater Institute Colombian Centre, is already in the country and looks forward to many activities planned for the big arts event in December.
“This is huge and I am happy to be in Manila to be part of the event. The workshops will serve as a medium of transformation and healing, and the activities lined up will also strengthen the ties of art representatives from all over the world. Reformative theater has now taken a completely different meaning because of what is happening everywhere at this time.”
Alvarez, who is tougher than ever after surviving Covid-19 last year, also shared: “ResiliART will incorporate the best practices from the participating continents and these documents will contain examples of how the arts, with main emphasis on the reformative power of the theater, will be able to build bridges between countries and areas of conflict and encourage similar exercises across the globe in the future. This is a strong implementation of the sustainable development goals through the powerful medium of art, camaraderie, communications and media.”
Supporting this reformative artistic and theater undertaking are the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines, with a grant from the Office of the Senate President Vicente Sotto III with the participation of relevant Congressional Committees, an endorsement by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin and affirmed by the Office of the President; a city ordinance proclamation from the City Government of Manila, Office of Mayor Francisco Domagoso, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Philippine Normal University, and former senator Joey Lina who is now the president of The Manila Hotel.