Bridging the Gap: Views and Voices on an Art Collection

Bridging the Gap: Views and Voices on an Art Collection

The University of the Philippines Department of Art Studies in partnership with the Kalaw-Ledesma Foundation, Inc. is pleased to present Bridging the Gap: Views and Voices on an Art Collection. It is a series of recordings by UP Diliman faculty who discuss a work of art from the collection of art patron and UP alumna Purita Kalaw-Ledesma (1914-2005). Gathering viewers from different sensibilities and expertise, the program hopes to encourage “slow looking”, or a prolonged encounter with the work, as well as to exemplify the broad possibilities of viewing art through interdisciplinal lenses.

Bridging the Gap is titled after a chapter in Purita Kalaw-Ledesma and Amadis Ma. Guerrero’s book The Struggle for Philippine Art (1974). It annotates the art education and public outreach efforts of the Art Association of the Philippines, an organization of artists founded by Kalaw-Ledesma in 1948. The title resounds at present, where remote teaching and learning continue to be observed. Educators have emphasized the importance of “bridging the gap,” or compensating for the challenges posed by distance education in the time of a pandemic. Offering voices and views, the program is an attempt to ease transactional distance by establishing presence and connectivity, in the midst of our virtual encounters with art and others.

Bridging the Gap: Views and Voices from an Art Collection can be accessed through the official YouTube and Facebook accounts of the Department of Art Studies and KLFI. There will be 10 episodes presented from 18 January to 28 February 2021 on the works of artists Nena Saguil, Julie Lluch, Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi, and Napoleon Abueva. The speakers are Patrick Flores, Flaudette May Datuin, Charla Rochella Saamong, Mark Louie Lugue, Ma. Rita Gudino, Maricor Soriano, Eufracio Abaya, Tessa Maria Guazon, Angela Baguilat, and Norma Respicio.

This initiative is made possible through the support of the UP Diliman Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts. For more information, please visit the websites of the UP Department of Art Studies at http://das.kal.upd.edu.ph and Kalaw-Ledesma Foundation, Inc. at klfi.ph.

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