As the premier arts and culture institution in the country, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) advocates for an inclusive arts education and participation by providing intensified approaches in upskilling Filipino artists to make them sustainable and competitive in today’s contemporary setting.

This rationale sets in motion a series of workshops, called the Upskilling in Performing Arts Program, aimed at equipping artists with additional skills in art and wellness, festival management and performance curatorship for modern museums.

First launched in 2022, the program was made possible through the congressional initiative of Pangasinan Fourth District Congressman Christopher de Venecia.

It has three major phases. The first phase focused on harnessing the power of the arts, particularly performing arts, in providing psycho-social interventions to individuals affected by natural disasters and other crises. The second phase looked into the artistic and logistic side of festival management. The last merged performing arts and visual arts curation.

From November 2023 to March 2024, selected cultural workers participated in the third phase and attended an intensive workshop facilitated by the CCP Visual Arts and Museum Division, with ideas and practice on curatorship, cultural appreciation tours and artistic explorations.

Selected practitioners from art and cultural institutions, organizations, spaces and communities from different parts of the Philippines learned various aspects of community-based and ethical curatorship in performance and visual arts, exposing them to different contexts, disciplines and strategies pertinent to their duties on cultural education and awareness.

As a culminating activity, the project team curated an exhibition featuring documentations of ideas and conversations, exposure trips, presentations and project plans developed during the workshop. The exhibit opened on 3 May and runs until 3 June at the Bulwagang Roberto Chabet (TIG Gallery), located at third-floor Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez (CCP Black Box Theater).

Aside from the exhibition, the CCP launches the Upskilling Handbook: Workshop Proceedings and Guide to Developing Modes of Care in Curatorship, a product of the intensive workshop intended as a guide for future use. The handbook contains transcripts of the lectures and documentation of the upskilling activities, including discussion prompts, worksheets and workshop instructions.

Documentation and key elements of the workshop experience have been curated as publication content, enabling readers to further their grasp of different processes involved in cultural work. The handbook is particularly aimed at cultural workers, who are invited to use the materials to inform their professional practice, towards more meaningful and empathetic cultural work.

Authors and contributors include Cecilia De La Paz, Roselle Pineda and Mark Louie Lugue of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, performance artist and museum worker Nicolas “Nic” Aca, Alain Zedrick Camiling and Lara Acuin of the De la Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Greys Compuesto and Jay Nathan Jore of UP Cebu, Jason Dy, SJ and Pauline Bianca Ma-alat of the Ateneo de Manila University, Katherine Nuñez and Shara Francisco of 98B COLLABoratory, Siddharta Perez of the National University of Singapore Museum, and Adonis Reuel Enciso and Mercedes Marie Tolentino of the CCP Visual Arts and Museum Division.