DLSU-CSB launches Benilde Open

In celebration of its 35th year, the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde launches the Benilde Open Design and Art 2024 (Benilde Open), an initiative that welcomes artists, architects, technologists, engineers, industrial designers, craftsmen, illustrators, textile designers, animators, playwrights, composers, poets, filmmakers, cinematographers, lighting designers, fashion designers, chefs and all creative practitioners — to heed the call to submit proposals on projects that thematically explores the curious mindset.

Proposals should revolve around curiosities on movement and its relationship to sustainability; the shuttling of thinking across craft and technology; and the culturing of the virtual with the real. The call further seeks design and art projects marked by an appetite for investigation and experimentation, for tinkering that fuels renovation and innovation. 

Submissions of proposals begin 1 December and end on 31 January 2024. All selected proposals will be announced by March 2024.

Entries will be reviewed and selected by a jury composed of local and international advocates representing the creative industries. Ten projects will each be awarded a grant of up to P300,000 net of taxes, to assist in bringing the projects to fruition.

The Benilde Open Design and Art 2024 also features the Best of Benilde, a juried degree exhibition of student works. An open call for proposals is extended to all students of De La Salle College of Saint Benilde: School of Environment and Design, School of Arts, Culture and Performance, School of New Media, School of Diplomacy and Governance, School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management, School of Management and Information Technology, School of Multidisciplinary Studies, and the School of Deaf Education and Applied Deaf Studies.

Students are encouraged to submit proposals of school projects resonating with the idea of curiosities — spanning sustainability and movement, the intersection of craft and technology, and the exploration of digital or virtual domains.

Benilde Open is facilitated by a working team of convenors who are faculty, associates, or consultants in service of the school: Ayi Magpayo, Rita Nazareno, Gabby Lichauco, Joselina Cruz, and Dindin Araneta, together with Benilde president, Br. Dodo Fernandez, a visual artist.