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Published on: 2/14/2007
Last Visited: 3/2/2007
"Subanon women are hungry for knowledge," commented instructor Don Gurrea, during an Art Workshop initiated by TVI Resource Development (Phils.), Inc. (TVIRD) for the indigenous women in Sitio Canatuan, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, the host community of the Company's gold-copper project.
"They are creative and eager to learn," added Gurrea, the Coordinator for Visual Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCAA) and President of the Zamboanga del Norte Federation of Visual Artists (ZANFEVA).
Fostering creativity, Gurrea said, opens up the individual to enjoyment in the process of working towards goals."Instead of viewing creativity as a product, creativity becomes the power that feeds one's spirit towards making a simple task of drawing a house into a joyous and fulfilling experience of actually designing a simple space into a sanctuary where the children and husband will always be happy to come home to."
Gurrea adds: "Creativity is a process of transformation.Women must find ways to observe, listen and let in all that their senses can bring them."
That transformation began last February 8 when Gurrea conducted a Functional Art Workshop for 45 women from Canatuan and neighboring Sitio Backroad, Sitio Gulangan, Sitio Paduan, Sitio Tanuman, and Barangay Makiang. (A Barangay is the smallest Philippine political unit, while a Sitio is a sub-unit of a Barangay - ed)
Through TVIRD's Community Relations and Development Office (CReDO), Gurrea teamed up with fellow ZANFEVA artists Aldrin Elman and Rudy Pahayahay in teaching the women the basics of sculpture, weaving, and other visual artworks.
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At the end of the session, Gurrea - a Fine Arts graduate of the University of the Philippines (Diliman) and once an Assistant Curator of the Malacanang Museum - described the outputs as "unique and very creative."In fact, they can even be marketable, he said.