Inside Ed: Bringing humanistic values to art-making
By Tin Gamboa
What is the value of art? Who is it for? How can the arts be funded properly, and should it be when poverty is rampant? These urgent questions — as well as issues like large divides between social classes and extensive bureaucracy — frame the complicated needs of art-making in the Philippines. The Alaya Conference, which took place May 24-26 in Tagaytay, proved to be a rare and utopic pocket of time and space for artists and scholars to practice and discuss their work with resources and community supporting them, their basic needs met.
Michael Lim Tan, the acting director of Guang Ming College — the country’s first Humanistic Buddhist college, where the Alaya Conference was held — opened by situating us within the institution’s core values. These might be summed up with the call to action to “Do good deeds. Think good thoughts. Speak good words.” Bringing these values forward at the beginning of the conference seemed to suggest a community agreement, inviting participants to be mindful and caring within their art practices and at the conference itself.
The word “alaya,” Tan said, refers to “accumulated experiences.” He stressed the importance of reflecting on and “confronting one’s alaya” as a way of exercising imagination, discernment, and courage in being a contributing member of society. These humanistic Buddhist ideas encourage artists to be present, to act with kindness, and to stay observant and curious, so that art can make mindful impacts in society. Tan stressed the value of art and holds artists accountable for practicing their work with integrity.
Topics of authenticity, kinaesthetic response, ethics, curation, and care were threaded through conference presentations, which ranged from speeches and papers, to movement, theatre, and sound workshops, to performances. Regina Bautista addressed the role of embodiment, impermanence, and empathy in works created by Mary Evangeline Recto and Jansen “Chino” T. So, who were finalists in the WifiBody PH 2022 competition. Choreographer Al Bernard Garcia addressed tradition and contemporaneity in the creation of his work BBYLN; Angela Baguilat brought up questions on the reciprocal nature of cultural exchange and cultural survival. Personal rituals and practices of care in creating artistic work were shared through meditation, movement, storytelling, and improvisation at a workshop led by myself and fellow performer and educator Heidi Salih Emelo.
The conference primarily held space for Filipinos. Though we presented within our Filipino perspectives, our research took place not just in the Philippines, but further afield in Asia and the west, including Canada, where I now live. Together we witnessed what is in the alaya or collective consciousness of our histories and Filipino identities. This provided insight into the hard work that Filipinos share within a challenging infrastructure that poses so many barriers to sustainable art-making in the Philippines, let alone the simplest tasks of daily life.
Marjorie Evasco, a writer and scholar, talked in her keynote speech about the “circle of gift-giving,” and the seed of talent that artists labour to nurture and offer to audiences in the “spirit of freedom.” To that, I would add “in the spirit of dignity,” as Filipinos add their perspectives to humanity’s collective and diverse alayas.
