Director, Earthsavers DREAM Center- UNESCO Artist for Peace
President, International Theater Institute- Social Change Network
Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) founder,
Magsaysay Outstanding Asian Laureate, 1972
The Philippines is now hosting the SDGs Resiliart Earth Saving Manila Event from December 2-10, 2021 on the occasion of the UN Human Rights Week organized by the Earthsavers UNESCO Artist for Peace and the Philippine Center of the International Theater Institute (ITI) Social Change Network. It actualizes the roadmap identified in the May 2018 Manila Declaration for the Launch of the International Peace and Climate Justice Movement: Not by Force but by Art, under UNESCO Patronage.
This agreement was endorsed by the November 2018 Cartagena de Indias SSCC Conference and at the December 2018 Katowice COP 24 through an international citizen art exhibition at the ART’s PLANET. It will showcase the Philippines communications agenda in support of South-South cooperation and United Nations Programmes on Cultural and Biological Diversity Dialogue on Sustainable Development.
Theater icon and seasoned arts and culture maven SDGs Manila event, Ms. Cecille Guidote Alvarez is most passionate about the SDGs Resiliart Earth Saving Manila Event. As its director, Mrs. Alavrez proclaims: “This pioneering effort harnesses the power of theater arts to bring about change, healing, reform, and the experiencing and realizing of results in the lives of people who have been given the opportunity to be guided and honed by masters as participants of this festival gets as they encounter the power and wonder that the theater arts bring in the lives of people.”
The theater arts endeavor and festival, which is under the patronage of UNESCO patronage, has been rescheduled three (3) times due to COVID19. Now, it has a go signal and Mrs. Alvarez declares: “The Philippines is is the host of this significant event on the occasion of the UN Human Rights Week organized by the Earthsavers UNESCO Artist for Peace and the Philippine Center of the International Theater Institute (ITI) Social Change Network.”
She carries on in her opening remarks during the press conference held at the Café Ylang Ylang of the Manila Hotel: “This week-long festival actualizes the roadmap identified in the May 2018 Manila Declaration for the Launch of the International Peace and Climate Justice Movement: Not by Force but by Art, under UNESCO Patronage.” What to expect then from the festival? Mrs. Alvarez answers: “There is an Art Camp that will be held in the Philippine Normal University. Here, Filipino and ASEAN visual artists will collaborate in the creation of murals and the exchange of best visual arts practices will also be realized.”
Foreign and local dance groups, musicians, singers, poets and other artists will come together and grace the festival of performances, which is one of the main highlights of the Manila festival , and it is where a harvest artistic expressions and manifestations on the SDGs will be set to stage.
Discussions to forge a platform of action for actualizing the SDGs focused on people, planet, peace and prosperity through partnerships are part of the Forum component of the festival.
Mrs. Alvarez and Sir Viktor Sebek, Chair of the South-South Cooperation Council and the Co-President of the ITI Colombian Centre look forward to the Workshops.
Explains the festival director: “The workshops serve as a medium of transformation and healing the trauma of popularizing science and income-generating creative industries among the vulnerable communities namely, Prisoners, PWDs, Health Workers, Refugees and Indigenous Dislocated Families. The main objective of these workshops is for the participants to experience how the discipline and principles of theater, when put into action and heart, becomes a catalyst of positive change and reform.”
There is also an outreach program component wherein cultural immersion and interaction of delegates and performing groups in the Visayas and Mindanao hubs are made possible.
Supporting this reformative artistic and theater undertaking are the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines, with a grant from the Office of the Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III with the participation of relevant Congressional Committees, an endorsement by the DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. and affirmed by the Office of the President ; a city ordinance proclamation from the City Government of Manila, Office of Mayor Francisco “Isko” Domagoso, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Nick Lizaso, Chairman ; Philippine Normal University (PNU), Dr. Bert J. Tuga, President and Manila Hotel, Former Senator Jose D. Lina, President.
The expected outcome of this festival says Mrs. Alvarez: “The Manila Platform of Action that will incorporate the best practices from varied continents and these documents contain examples of how the arts, especially that of the dramatic arts, with main emphasis on the reformative power of the theater to build bridges between countries and areas of conflict and encourage similar exercises across the globe in the future. The strong implementation of SDGs through the powerful medium of art and media. The importance of the arts as part of the public education system at all levels and environmental protection and climate justice through art.”
Mrs. Cecille Guidote Alvarez concludes: “There is more to the theater than just a song that makes you smile or cry, or a dance that makes you want to groove and move to the beat. Theater is a powerful medium and tool to shake the status quo and bring about the changes and reform that we deserve, and for the betterment of the lives of our generation and those that will come.”
For more information: https//:manilasdgevent.info Secretariat, Manila Hotel (02) 8527-00-11/ (02) 8301-55-00 Extension 1247 Molave