Philippine International Arts Festival 2011 Grand Launching on January 30-Manila

In February 2011 the Philippines will be marking 20 years of celebrating National Arts Month through a month-long fete, the Philippine International Arts Festival (PIAF). The festival’s impressive lineup of activities is designed to further Philippine art and the Filipino’s regard for local arts and culture. The celebration is organized by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) Subcommission for the Arts, headed by Commissioner Ricardo de Ungria. The subcommission comprises the seven arts, architecture, cinema, dance, literature, music, theater, and visual arts. PIAF’s tagline is “ani ng sining,” and the celebration will indeed prove to be a harvest for the arts. Thousands of local artists and cultural workers will gather all over the Philippines for the biggest artistic celebration to date. Joining in the festivities are artists from Japan, Lithuania, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates. Celebrations will be all over the archipelago, with four foci, National Capital Region, Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon. PIAF will be launched in a Grand Opening salvo on January 30, 2011 at the Rizal Park. Activities have been lined up from 1:00 to 7:00 p.m.  These mini-events are designed to provide those who will troop to Rizal Park a satisfying sampling of the harvest of the arts that PIAF is providing in February. From 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. workshops, mini-performances, and screenings will be held in seven tents erected on the park grounds. Each tent is dedicated to one of the seven arts comprising the NCCA Subcommission on the Arts. Accomplished artists will be present to conduct the workshops and hold mini-performances and screenings. From 5:00 to 5:45 the Rizal Park lagoon will be enlivened by a fabulous parade of higantes, marching bands, street dance groups, some of the artists and cultural workers participating in PIAF 2011, NCCA officials and committee members, and the NCCA’s two celebrity endorsers, Boy Abunda and Dingdong Dantes. The participating marching bands include AFP Band, Army-Navy Band, Joseon Band, Manila City Band, RTU Drum and Bugle Corps, MMDA Band, Quezon City Band, Letran Drum and Bugle Corps, and Lyceum of the Philippines Drum and Bugle Corps. Street dance groups in the parade will be coming from Mandaluyong, Tondo, Laguna, Malabon, San Juan, and Makati. They will be joined by dancers participating in Sayaw Pinoy, the NCCA Dance Committee’s celebration for PIAF 2011. From 6:00 to 7:15 will be the Grand Opening Program featuring a dance extravaganza highlighting the activities of the seven arts for PIAF 2011.  Aside from the parade participants, the program will also feature many surprise guests. The program will end with the singing of the PIAF official song, Ani ng Sining, an original composition by NCCA Committee on Music Head Joey Ayala, and the sounding of a thousand bamboo clappers to proclaim to the world that PIAF 2011 has begun. The Grand Opening Program will be held at the fountain area of Rizal Park. The annual celebration of National Arts Month was signed into law by then President Corazon C. Aquino. For twenty years now, every February has been witness to this grand celebration of Filipino ingenuity, creativity, and flair. The exciting line-up of activities marking the opening of PIAF 2011 reveals much of what is in store for all of us in February when the whole nation, joined by foreign artistic contingents, will celebrate a harvest of the arts through the Philippine International Arts Festival 2011.   For more details on the activities and schedules, contact PIAF Media Director and NCCA-Public Affairs and Information Office (PAIO) Head, Rene Sanchez Napenas at (632)527-2192 loc. 612-615 or 0928-508-1057, or PIAF Deputy Festival Manager, Vanessa Nicolas at 0918-6380412.  Email us at ncca.paio@gmail.com.

For details, please contact RENE NAPEÑAS, Head of the NCCA-Public Affairs and Information Office (PAIO) at cellphone number 0927-5582656 / 09285081057 or at tel. nos. 527-5529. You can also call us at 527-2192 (loc. 612-615) or email us at ncca.paio@gmail.com.     SOURCE: http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-ncca/press-releases/press-release.php?i=93