US Cultural Ambassador visits PHL to promote social issues through art

The United States is sending an American visual artist to the country to collaborate with Filipino artists and youth groups on community projects tackling social concerns like climate change, health, and education.

 

US Cultural Ambassador Mary Mattingly, recognized for creating photographs and sculpture depicting and representing futuristic and obscure landscapes, is visiting the Philippines from Sept. 15 to Oct. 31.

 

She is among the several American artists being sent to developing states to promote global issues through art. 

  

Administered by the Bronx Museum of Arts, the program focuses on direct community engagement that encourages dialogue, experimentation and creativity.

 

It is also designed to stimulate discourse around local or global social issues including the environment, education, health, girls and women’s issues, and freedom of expression.  

 

The Philippines is one of 14 countries selected as a program participant. Other countries include China, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, India, Kosovo, Lebanon, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Venezuela.   

While in the Philippines, Mattingly will visit contemporary art spaces and institutions in Metro Manila.

 

She will conduct tours and research in selected areas in the cities of Manila, Makati, and Quezon City to determine the public art project related to environment and urban planning issues, its construction site, design, and availability and transport of project materials and tools. 

 

She will also hold a series of workshops on the construction, documentation, exhibition and evaluation of the project.  

 

Mattingly will also work directly with Green Papaya Art Gallery in Quezon City as program partner in the Philippines, and conduct a workshop with artists from The Negros Museum and Orange Bacolod in Negros Oriental. –KG, GMA News