BAGUIO CITY – Residents and visitors will witness the city’s unique crafts and folk arts with the put up of the Baguio Creative hub at the Peoples Park from February 11-24, 2018.
The hub, with the adopted theme “Creative Baguio,’ will be one of the major highlights of the 23rd edition of Panagbenga or the Baguio flower festival showcasing the city’s new identity as one of the 64 cities included in the elite list of Creative Cities of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The city’s creative hub will also serve as a venue for the local officials and the concerned stakeholders for the unveiling of the official logo of the Baguio Creative City, Inc. with the UNESCO standard done by national artist Benjamin Cabrera.
Dr. Raymond Rovillos, chancellor of the University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB), said the creative hub will serve as a temporary exhibition showcase of the best artworks in crafts and folk arts and various creativity of the city and the Cordillera.
All exhibition pieces and merchandise will be housed in some 20 pavilion-like structures with artistically executed designs and professionally curated.
Further, the hub will include merchandising of vetted art, artisanal and creative products, including animations and cultural dances that will be performed by various performing artists from different institutions to be done in a schedule to be arranged with the organizers.
Expected to attend the creative hub will be the ambassadors from different embassies in the country, representatives from national government agencies, members of the Baguio Creative Council, national and local artists among other interested stakeholders wanting to contribute in efforts of the city to sustain the new creative tag.
Rovillos said the opening of the creative hub will just be the initial wave of activities lined up for the year to help the city maintain its new identity as part of the Creative Cities Network to sustain the aggressive promotion of craft and folk arts.
He explained the city’s application to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network was driven by a multi-stakeholders’ desire to sustain the growth of Baguio City, but one that is driven by sustainable and inclusive development engines, such as culture and creative industries, and that the said development goal is most relevant in a city and the Cordillera that is inhabited by diverse ethnic groups and with a uniquely rich history and tradition, and contributing to nation-building.
By positioning Baguio City as a creative city, the UP official said that stakeholders are sending the message to the present and future leaders of the government and the private sector that sustainable and inclusive development of the city can be realized aside from enlivening the creative sectors and encouraging them to continue innovating and becoming more productive, generating more employment, increasing household income, savings and more investments in the concerned sectors.
He pointed out the inclusion of Baguio in the Creative Cities Network will serve as a platform for life-long learning, cross-cultural sharing, innovation and productive transformation of the crafts and art forms. By Dexter A. See
