Now on its third year, the Ico and Lety Cruz Art Competition has added an important component to the annual tilt aimed at discovering, showcasing, and promoting Bulacan art and its artists — an artist residency.

This year, the close to two-month residency had six participating artists who are either winners or finalists of last year’s competition. These young artists — Kyle Biscayno, Ryan Caslib, Nathaniel Lopez, Lanie Rose Luartez, Mark Christopher Quizon, and Jessie Sajol — were provided an abode where there are spaces for art production and interaction with known art practitioners through fora and other activities.

The practitioners include visual artist Marvin Quizon, this writer, and Museo ng Baliwag curator Jesusa Garcia Villanueva (forum on the challenges and opportunities for local artists), Tomas Daquioag (art restoration workshop), Angelo Magno (printmaking workshop), and Jose Tence Ruiz (lecture on artists as creative and professional).

Organized by the city government of Baliwag through the Museo ng Baliwag; City Arts, Culture, and Tourism Office, and the JCI Baliwag Buntal, the inaugural residency program was done through a grant from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Lunsod Lunsad Program. The program is the brainchild of Garcia, formerly from the Vargas Museum of the University of the Philippines Diliman and the Cruz family. It “aims to provide spaces for local artists for their creative exercises, equip them with additional knowledge and skills through mentorship from senior artists, curators, cultural workers, and other creatives, and immerse them in the community.”

At the end of the residency program, the artists had an open studio and an exhibition of their works at SM City Baliwag, which coincided with the exhibit of works by the participants of the third Ico and Lety Cruz Art Competition and On-the-Spot Painting contest held on 28 May.

Art competition

The exhibit opened on the same day and lasted until 1 June. All of the works, numbering more than 60, featured Bulacan’s history, culture, and heritage.

This year’s judges included painter and printmaker Fil de la Cruz; visual artist Mark Salvatus; Randel Urbano of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila; May Arlene Torres of the Bulacan Provincial History, Arts, Culture and Tourism Office; and Santiago Cruz, grandson of Ico and Lety and a cultural heritage advocate.

Mark Quizon of Baliwag won first place in the painting competition for his work, A Day in the Cotton Neighborhood, while Ryan Francisco Caslib of San Jose del Monte placed second for his work, Unveiling the Colours of Bulacan Artistry. Calumpit’s Argee Dacuyan placed third for his work, Vision.

For the On-the-Spot category, Nathaniel Lopez won first place for his work on motherly love, followed by Mark Quizon for his work on the culinary heritage of Baliwag, and Ann Lorraine Miranda for her piece on the puto bumbong and bibingka stall scene.

This year’s theme for this category is Baliwag’s culinary heritage and traditions.

Additionally, Amil Jay Guiang of Calumpit and Quizon were given the JCI Baliwag Buntal LEEgendary Award for their entries in the painting and on-the-spot contests, respectively.

Awarded

The said art tilt, which started in 2022, was honored in 2023 by the National Library of the Philippines and The Asia Foundation’s Gawad Pampublikong Aklatan as “Best Social Inclusion for Local Cultural and Historical Preservation and Conservation Award.” It was named after couple Renato “Ico” Mateo Cruz (1930-2007) and Leticia “Lety” Mercado-Cruz (1933-2020), owners of the now defunct Baliwag Ice Plant and local electric company, BELAPCO.

Ico was a former town councilor while Lety was a Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Papal awardee for her service to the care of the elderly and sick priests in the Diocese of Malolos where the now city of Baliwag belongs.