ISM Superintendent Welcome

Dear IASAS Cultural Convention Participants,

On behalf of International School Manila (ISM), I am delighted to welcome all delegates to our community. The global pandemic has had a particularly negative impact on the types of co-curricular programs that our schools offer, such as IASAS. It is so heartening to see that we are back and ready for action, and that we have sustained the energy and passion for the creative arts across our schools.

ISM was a trial school for the first ever iteration of the IB Film syllabus many years ago, and so to see our program flourishing and sharing with our IASAS sister schools is a sign of how well the program has developed and matured. Likewise, at ISM, we have always pushed that creativity and being curious about out-of-the-box solutions are what is needed in an increasingly complex world that faces many sustainability challenges and goals. Even more important are the relationships we develop as we undertake this journey, because together we all achieve more.

Our team here at ISM is so excited to roll out their well-curated plan, involving the work of a number of outstanding Filipino artists. At ISM, we have a schoolwide priority to engage our host community in authentic and meaningful experiences, and I, for one, can not hide my exuberance in witnessing some of the amazing talent that we have prepared for you.

Filipino hospitality is known throughout the world for being upbeat, friendly, and enjoyable! I am sure you are going to have a wonderful time. Enjoy

William Brown

ISM Superintendent

ISM High School Principal Welcome

Dear IASAS Cultural Convention Participants,

Mabuhay! We are delighted to welcome you all to International School Manila for the first in-person Art and Film IASAS Cultural Convention for three years! It is exciting that a new generation of students will have this amazing opportunity to meet their counterparts from other schools and forge friendships that are the hallmark of the IASAS community.

Leonardo Da Vinci famously said that the artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of. If I understand the meaning of this observation correctly, he is referring to that magical ability that some people have to see things as they truly are, to see them as if they are being seen for the very first time. It is a quality that the best artists and filmmakers incorporate in their work and is what helps to give the arts such meaning and beauty.

I hope your experiences over the next three days are full of meaning and beauty. We have so much planned with Art Shows, Film Workshops, Movie Premieres, Q and A sessions with Filipino filmmakers, even a trip to the Pinto Art Museum. I’m sure the time will go quickly and I encourage you to make meaning, share the joy of the arts and, most of all, support your fellow artists and filmmakers with their projects and ideas. This is an opportunity to immerse yourselves in the joy of art and film so get involved and have fun.

Finally, I would like to publicly acknowledge the time, effort and organization of our Fine and Performing Arts team. We are particularly grateful to our inspirational Fine and Performing Arts Director Marsha Hillman for the time, effort and dedication that has gone into organizing this event. Thanks are also due to Eugene Perez, Malou Talens, Denis Lagdameo, Caleb Vendana, Rein Chuachiaco and Christian Ascano for their commitment and amazing support.

David Birchenall

ISM High School Principal

ISM Arts Director Welcome

Dear IASAS Art & Film 2022 Delegates,

As the ISM Arts team imagined returning to an in-person IASAS Art and Film Convention, we wanted to find a theme for the event that would help artists learn a little about Philippine values and culture. After all, the whole reason to travel as an artist is to learn from new environments and consider more diverse viewpoints, which in turn helps us construct more varied and nuanced art. As artists, we grow with every new experience and newfound understanding so it seemed natural to search out what the Philippines has to offer artists in terms of broadening their approach to not only art, but life.

PAMANA was chosen because the word has diverse meanings:

• Heritage (family, community, cultural and/or national)

• Inheritance (biological, objects passed down through generations or even a hand-me-down item)

• Legacy (what people are remembered for, what they achieve in life that endures)

Overall, Pamana is important to Philippine culture because it symbolizes how the older generation will always be connected to and look after the younger generation, even in the afterlife. It also exemplifies the significance that Filipinos place on family connections. We felt this could lead in many different directions and give you a chance to think about how your own identities and lives are informed by connections with the past. We also hope it will provide the space to reflect upon your current impact on society and how you wish to move towards a future where your contributions, however big or small, are focussed on a building sustainable relationships, practices and environments.

As we have reached out to professional artists and filmmakers in the Philippine community to find the amazingly talented and generous workshop leaders you will get to learn from throughout the event, it became clear that PAMANA is a core component of all artists working in any medium. What sets artists apart from others and makes them want do what they do is an insatiable desire to understand the world around them and process these thoughts in concrete, meaningful ways. The natural process of creativity is to look to what has gone in order to influence what we are doing today with the hopes of engaging people meaningfully in the future. To summarize this idea I consulted my insightful colleague, Mr. Reynaldo T. Candido, Jr., to translate the following phrase: learn from the past to grow in the present to preserve the future. Mr. Candido came back with the wonderfully alliterative "Pag-aralan ang kahapon, paunlarin ang ngayon, pangalagaan ang bukas." We very much hope IASAS Art & Film helps you with this learning process.

While IASAS Cultural Convention managed to battle through the pandemic by running online events, we all knew in our hearts that the key ingredient to Cultural Convention was human connection. All our guest artists will share parts of their own creative journeys with you in the hopes this will in turn enrich your own artistic vision and voice. However, you will also learn from each other if you are bold enough to share your thoughts, feelings, skills and ideas over the next 3 days. It's time to learn something old so you can make it new and pass it on so others might do the same!

Marsha Hillman

ISM Arts Director