November 1, 2021
Every November, the National Library of the Philippines and the National Committee on Library and Information Services of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts commemorate Library and Information Services (LIS) Month in accordance with Proclamation No. 837 series of 1991, which declares the entire month of November as LIS Month.
The month-long activities, under the direction and auspices of the NLP and the NCCA-National Committee on Libraries and Information Services (NCLIS), were designed to improve the level of awareness and attitudes of the library community towards their significant roles in the UN 2030 Agenda and the SDGs;
maximize the ability of the library and information sector in advocating equitable access to information and resilient, sustainable library communities; link libraries and librarians worldwide to take action towards a sustainable, worth living world through sharing/demonstration of international and local initiatives and/or practices.
For year 2021, the theme for the 31th commemoration is “Libraries Building ROADS: Readers. Opportunities. Advocacies. Development. Sustainability.” ROADS emphasizes:
R-eaders: Libraries foster lifelong readers and learners. That is the foundation of who we are now and where we came from professionally. It does, however, have a different meaning now than it did in the 1900s, 1950s, and early 2000s.
O-pportunities: Libraries is the place for opportunities by providing access to information and skills. It also contributes to the creation of opportunities for people to improve their own lives, as well as to the informed decision-making of governments, and increase the prosperity of people everywhere.
A-dvocacies: Libraries are at the heart of schools, universities, colleges and communities in every country around the world. It also promotes literacy programs, provides a safe learning environment, and assists researchers in reusing research and data to generate new knowledge.
D-evelopment: Libraries are important development partners because of their unique role in providing access to information in all formats as well as delivering services and programs that meet the information needs of a changing and increasingly complex society.
S-ustainability: Libraries are sustainable institutions; they share resources in the community and internationally and ensure everyone has access to information. All libraries play a significant role in providing access to data, research and knowledge that supports informed research and public access to information about climate change, and a key role in the preservation of indigenous knowledge – which includes local decision-making about fundamental aspects of life including hunting, fishing, land use, and water management.
CONTESTS AND ACTIVITIES
Digital Poster Making Contest
The digital poster making contest will serve as an avenue for amateur artists, senior high school or college students, to showcase their artistic prowess to a wider audience by getting a chance to have their work chosen as the official poster of the upcoming 31st LIS Month celebration in November 2021.
Best Online Activities by LIS Associations
The Best Online Activities Contest aims to showcase the Library and Information ScienceAssociations/Organizations’ activities as part of the LIS Month Celebration and to emphasizethe diversity of different types of libraries.
Share-A-Book: Book-Based Interactive Storytelling
The Share-A-Book Contest aims to provide an opportunity for children to develop a love for books and reading thereby enhancing their presentation and communication skills through storytelling.
MakiVlog na, may Papremyo pa!
The Vlog Contest aims to create a powerful story around the theme of the 31st LIS Month celebration and will serve as the promotional video for libraries.
Book Spine Poetry Contest
The contest aims to showcase the Filipinos’ creativity by arranging book titles to make a poem; foster the love for reading and promote print collections.
Mini Contest (Social Media)
Book Face
The Contest aims to showcase the Filipinos’ creativity through the use of books as artistic objects; foster the love for reading and promote Philippines print collections.
Cutest Photo
The Contest aims to showcase memorable moments at the library through photos and
promote libraries in the Philippines.
Webinars
A series of online discussions that aim to expand the knowledge of library personnel.
Impact Stories
As part of the celebration of the 31st Library and Information Services Month, the
National Library of the Philippines (NLP) will be publishing the “IMPACT STORIES OF
LIBRARIES IN THE PHILIPPINES BOOK III.” This publication will be made possible through
the assistance of different libraries in our country. Hence, our objective for this third volume is to capture activities and services of libraries in the Philippines, be it a school, academic, special, or public library, that adhere to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Mechanics and further details of each contests and activities will be made available thru the official website of the 31st LIS Month (http://web.nlp.gov.ph/lis/) and
October 11, 2021
NCCA encourages public to celebrate Museum and Galleries Month celebration this October
The Museums and Galleries Month (MGM) is observed every month of October by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 798, s. 1991. It underscores the importance of arousing national consciousness and pride in our rich Filipino culture and heritage embodying the aspirations of the nation, expressed in all media of art as well as historical and religious artifacts. This rich Filipino cultural heritage embodies the aspiration of the nation. The observance recognizes that these cultural and art forms are necessary for nation-building and shaping national destiny.
This 2021, MGM is celebrated with the theme “Showcasing the Nation, Shaping the Filipino ImagiNation” to highlight the complex and challenging role of museums and galleries in presenting the national narrative and in shaping the minds of those who shape this ongoing narrative.
As spaces that recount stories and rekindle imagination freely, museums and galleries are major influences on how our nation perceives itself. They are institutions that narrate our country’s history from our perspective; how our culture and identity evolved through struggles and victories reflecting our core values born from those circumstances.
This year, we encourage every institution to bring out new stories or reinvent presenting old ones of figures and events accentuating humanity, heroism, and progress that represent these as inherent Filipino traits.
FLAGSHIP EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
Juan is Feeling Yellow
Juan is Feeling Yellow is an online webinar about art as a form of therapy led by Dr. Dinah Nadera, along with participating artists, Angelica Jacoba and Asaliah Reiiel Reyes, who will be talking about mental health during the pandemic and using art-making and the creative process for self-expression. The webinar will be premiered on October 10, 2021, 10:00AM over National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Facebook page.
This is an activity in line with the NCCA Gallery exhibit titled BORDERLINE: Conscious & Sub-conscious by the Block Y, Group Exhibition which happened last July 06 – 31, 2021.
ILONGGO REPUBLIC: A Guided Virtual Exhibit Tour
The activity shall give the public an interactive learning experience through a guided 360-virtual tour of the NCCA Gallery exhibit led by its curator Mr. Delan Lopez Robillos and artist Mr. Kristoffer George Brasileño. It aims to spark innovativeness by providing new means of viewing art exhibitions virtually and spreading awareness of the importance of art institutions, educational programs, and other initiatives of museums and galleries in preserving our culture, especially during this time of a pandemic. The virtual exhibit tour will be streamed over NCCA Facebook page on October 12, 2021, 10:00AM.
MGM KNB?: A Museum and Galleries Month Webinar Series
MGM K N B? is the Museums and Galleries Month’s flagship webinar series which started in 2020.
In reference to the popular television game show “game ka na ba?” the phrase “MGM K N B?” was coined to fit the celebration as a form of rhetorical question to the nation if they are ready to celebrate MGM and to encourage them to do so by participating in the webinar series.
For this year, MGM K N B? will be a two-part webinar series: A Webinar on the Basics of Virtual Exhibits which will be streamed on October 19, 2021, 10:00AM via NCCA Facebook page and A Webinar on Digital Curation which will be streamed on October 26, 2021, 10:00AM.
MGM 2021 ART TARP BANNER EXHIBITION
One of the annual activities for the celebration is the MGM Art Banner Exhibition, wherein tarpaulins are displayed in public areas for the whole month of October as an outdoor exhibition to strengthen people’s awareness of the MGM celebration. This year, we established partnerships with various transportation agencies and public sites including MRT-3, Philippine Ports Authority, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and the Intramuros Administration to feature the winning artworks from the Quincentennial Art Competition initiated by the National Quincentennial Committee from March 2020 to June 2021.
Pharmasika 633@ Calle Heneral Luna by Alwin Reamillo
Reamillo seeks to parody the musicality around people and things and history. Parody! Thus, in Pharmasika 633@ Calle Heneral Luna, exhibited at the NCCA Gallery, the treatment of Luna both as a pharmacist (pharma) and artist (musika) presents the positive note of Luna’s real presence as a counterpoint to the negative note of the dissonant as well as silent products of noisy mythmaking and lies and quiet history-less-ness (memory-less-ness).
Reamillo’s artmaking around our national heroes (who also happen to be artists) also becomes a paean/salute to their choice of a treatment for the Philippine social cancer of their time: not merely science or ilustrado knowledge, of which they were stalwart holders, but cultural art as well, whether through the novel, the poem, or music, or through the musicality of dark satire as tonal medicines to forgetfulness.
The exhibit is available for viewing at the NCCA Gallery from September 12 to October 31, 2021.
IRAYA: Beyond Limits By RAHMAG Visual Arts Group, Group Exhibition
This October, in celebration of Museums and Galleries Month and National Indigenous Peoples Month, Antique-based RAHMAG group of artists mounts “IRAYA: Beyond Limits.”
The exhibition is the group’s attempt to present what the province has been and what it is now — the union of the traditional and contemporary Antique, and finding its cultural relevance amid the province’s urbanization and modernization programs.
Participating artists are Rey Aurelio, Ramon “Monet” De Los Santos, Jr., Christine Marie Delgado, Raz Laude, Morris Alfred Lavega, Bryan Lao, Kwesi Pearl Faith Magdato, Cezar Gregorio “Saru” Ramales, Jr., Ramuel Vego, Evan “Tibong” Veñegas, and Marienell Veñegas.
The exhibit is available for viewing at the NCCA Gallery from October 05 to 31, 2021
Mindanao Art Fair
On their 3rd art fair since 2019, Mindanao Art Fair and Exhibit with the theme Art In Between: Mindanao Art in Iliminal space will be an on-site event throughout the month of October. In accordance with the current social distancing measures, Mindanao Art requires visitors to register online and make a reservation on their website: http://mindanaoart.org/ prior to attending the event.
MANILA ART FAIR
The first and longest-running art fair in the Philippines is back! A project brought by the Bonafide Art Galleries Organization, Inc. and co-presented by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, ManilART’s vision is to make the Philippines a premier art hub in Asia. The art fair will take place at the SMX Convention Center, SM Aura Premier in Taguig City from October 20 to 24, 2021.
11th Tam-awan International Arts Festival
From October 6 to 10, 2021, TIAF 11: The Grand Canao… A Thanksgiving for the Gift of Culture and the Arts brought by the Chanum Foundation, Inc. with the support of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts will happen. Visit their Facebook page for more information!
The NCCA also encourages the public to join in the MGM online campaign thread by using the hashtags: #MGM2021PH and #MuseumsAndGalleriesMonth in sharing museum and gallery information, and to promote the celebration by using the 2021 MGM digital collaterals including profile picture frames, virtual backgrounds, digital banners, and alike to further raise awareness of the MGM celebration.
