‘I am Visible’ online mental wellness project
THE J. AMADO Araneta Foundation (JAAF), the social development arm of the Araneta Group, is conducting a series of online art therapy sessions to select youth participants and medical frontliners in response to the pandemic. The “I am Visible”: Mental Wellness Through Art Therapy sessions will be conducted online on Aug. 21, Sept. 11, and Sept. 18. “I am Visible” aims to acknowledge the mental health crisis in the country which is being exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. Among those affected are students who deal with stress and depression given the current online learning set-up, and doctors and community health workers who deal with burnout and anxiety from longer working hours and various work hazards. The program will end with an online exhibit to be launched on Oct. 10, which is designated as World Mental Health Day. It will be handled by art teacher Jonah Mari Valenzuela, who has 15 years of art teaching experience with Xavier School Manila. The virtual exhibit will be hosted on the website of Araneta City’s art museum, the Gateway Gallery, which spearheads the “I am Visible” project. It will open with a Curator’s Talk to be livestreamed on the JAAF and Gateway Gallery Facebook pages. The exhibit will be on view until Jan. 10, 2022.
Navigating virtual reality #Cinemalaya17
VIEWERS can navigate through their screens and explore CURRENTS: A Virtual Reality Cinemalaya Experience, this year’s online exhibition presented by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Visual Arts and Museum Division in conjunction with the 17th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. Following the poster exhibition presented last year, this year’s Cinemalaya exhibition goes beyond the walls and galleries of the traditional virtual exhibition format. The use of VR technology allows viewers to access and immerse themselves in a completely conceptual digital space. CURRENTS invites viewers to a journey in the Cinemalaya balangay to visit 13 mysterious islands, with only cryptic photographs in a found bottle as a guide. Go to https://bit.ly/currentsvrexperience to visit the exhibit which is best experienced with VR headsets. The creators behind CURRENTS, Da Young Ko, Mariah Reodica, and The Buildings, will have an artist talk on Aug. 28, 4 p.m. The talk will be streamed on the CCP Facebook pages and Kumu.
