Baguio eyes institutionalizing Tam-awan int’l art festival

BAGUIO CITY — A city councilor is pushing to make the Tam-awan International Arts Festival (TIAF) a permanent event, saying it would boost the city’s United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) heritage tag as a creative city for crafts and folk arts.

Councilor Mylen Yaranon on Monday said that she would look at including the TIAF as an institutionalized event for the city, in partnership with the Chanum Foundation, the operator of the Tam-awan artists village and gallery. “As an institutionalized festival, the organizer will get funding from the city, free venues and others, allowing them to organize an unrestrictive event due to lack of finances,” Yaranon said.

She said that for 10 years now, Chanum Foundation has been hosting and organizing the international arts festival where foreign and local artists, artisans and art enthusiasts converge. The councilor said the city had institutionalized two other festivals — “Panagbenga Flower Festival” and the “Entacool Arts Festival”.

“We will have this every May, the Entacool in November and the Panagbenga in February which needs to be more localized,” she said. Yaranon added that the TIAF will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2020, which makes it more appropriate to cover the event with a city ordinance.

 From May 22-26, the 9th TIAF was celebrated with foreign artists from South Korea, Middle East, Equatorial Guinea, Japan, Germany, among others, visited the city.

Also joining the event were Slow Food International program director for Asia Pacific Elena Aniere and Slow Food vice president and agronomist Edwin Mokiibi.

 The 9th TIAF focused on Cordillera and Fil ipino cuisines, one of the world’s best tasting, as its central theme. Cordillera cuisines include “pinikpikan” and “etag” as well as the “pinuneg” (blood sausage) and “inanger” (boiled meat).

 Representatives from the various regions also featured their respective cuisine like the coconut based food of Bicol. Other activities of the five-day fest include the art exhibit at SM City, workshops on basic sketching, photography, mono-printing, watercolor and acrylic painting. — Pigeon M. Lobien/PNA