Deriving inspiration from our own culture
I wish more and more people could understand the beauty of our culture, heritage and arts and that this is the source of so much inspiration and identity. This is one wish shared by everyone connected to the cultural sector that has tried to push cultural education and information out to the general public. The media practitioners writers, broadcasters, journalists are key in the dissemination of information. Media has such powerful tools of word, image, thought that can truly change consciousness and mindsets.
Part of the issue of this longstanding arguments about national identity that our scholars debate over, and the frustration of the seeming lack of values seen in the pop media culture of the masses stems from the fact that substantive information about who we are, what we are about and what is it we are expressing….is lacking. This is what culture is all about. Culture, arts, heritage is something like science and medicine. To write about topics related to this needs some technical knowledge. If everyone were more informed about how to look and appreciate art, museums, design, heritage sites, traditional practices, then everyone would become more intimate with our culture, which is the DNA we carry around as a people. And how would this info help? Well, the audience will develop better aesthetic understanding of beauty as we define it, see the richness of our traditions that are dying because of everyone wanting to just be global at all costs; our local government will preserve our fiestas and disallow any bastardizations of our dances, music, costumes, etc. and strive to keep the authenticity.
Tourism will then embrace culture. Industry will then embrace creativity and the sectors that create products and services that actually do help our GNP. Audiences will support cultural industries to keep them alive. Government will use cultural diplomacy for the softening of trade and development will embrace culture as one of the main pillars for our country’s advancement. It’s a herculean task this thing called cultural information and education and every little step counts. So can you imagine how happy I was when groups of writers came to ask for a partnership. The writers’ issues are as valid: they feel a lack of critical substance and insight from young writers. There is need for skill enhancement as well as discernment, for understanding the levels of writing from creative writing, to insight writing, to publicity work required of them in the various beats such as lifestyle, cuisine, travel and even personality profiling. There is need to show the young that to call one’s self “a writer” means more than just cutting-paste existing information found around.
And so at the Yuchengco Museum, we are launching a new program called Culture and Media, with two partner groups: The Writer’s Block Philippines (WBP) and the Freelance Writers of the Philippines with the clear objectives of addressing a gap today: to share information on writing about arts, culture and heritage and to train writers to present this topic to a larger and popular audience. The Writers Block is composed of professional writers, some of them editors in various publications. They themselves work daily with writers and see the need to enhance writing skills and share their own experiences as editors and independent writers. They even want to draw in more people who are “Sunday writers” with the hope that new writing careers can begin through these workshops. The Yuchengco Museum will bring in experts from the culture and arts sector to share information. Some of these culture and arts experts are writers themselves.
There is a vibrant visual art scene in Manila with an increasing number of Filipino artists receiving international attention and there are so few writers who can really tackle the subject. Galleries need writers to write their brochures and press releases. Travel stories abound, which can be used to highlight something deeper about the local tradition or heritage site in the area. Writing about cuisine is also another avenue where info on culture is needed. Such information helps preserve what we have that is good and unique. Our architecture, interior, fashion and design industry needs help in promotions that can articulate the uniqueness, refinement and sophistication of our designers and not just give reportage.
With the proliferation of magazines, blogs and online social media, the writers truly hold power in this Information Age we are in. I believe there needs to be responsibility to put out more information that is positive, life-giving, good news, as well as being able to educate and entertain. Can you imagine the power and potency of all these writers if they knew more about our culture and the arts?
