Genodepa: The role of writers on art and culture becomes crucial, therefore, if we are to dream of not only a thriving community but also of succeeding to build a strong local artworld.

Any contribution to knowledge that adds to our collective grasp of our world is welcome.

This journal is much welcome because it is step towards recognizing that there are creatives who live among us whose works need to be written about. Or that there are artistic initiatives that shape or are beginning to shape our cultural landscape.

A thriving community only becomes a strong community if everyone plays his or her role towards a shared goal. But this also means everyone is well represented.

We can say that we have thriving art community because our artists are winning prizes and selling their works like hotcakes. We can say that we have a vibrant community because we now have local art patrons who buy from our homegrown, local artists. But I daresay that while our community is all that, we need to make it even stronger. We should not only cultivate our patronage among those who have the money to buy works of art. A large chunk of our population who cannot afford to buy art also needs to be nurtured so that our art exhibitions, and galleries and museums will be filled even on regular days or beyond artist receptions – so that they will not feel like cemeteries packed with people only during all Souls Day!

The role of writers on art and culture becomes crucial, therefore, if we are to dream of not only a thriving community but also of succeeding to build a strong local artworld.

It can no longer be denied that, aside from our political leaders, our artists, creatives and cultural workers have been contributing much to making the Hiligaynon – collectively, the people of Panay, Guimaras and Negros Occidental – a force to reckon with in the national scheme of things.

If politics and the work of politicians in the field of administration and governance are being written about, it is time that the work of the artists must also be recorded. Without these records, specifically without critical writing or studies to support the creative output of our local artists, no Hiligaynon will ever be recognized through a major honor like the National Artist award. We have Ramon Muzones, alright, and we have to thank Negrense writer and critic Dr. Ma. Cecilia Locsin Nava for that!

Read the pre-launch news: Iloilo Critics Circle to launch art journal

That the people must write about themselves is not a matter of hubris. It is simply a matter of survival. It is arming against future distortions or even outright disregard. It is about protecting legacies that are often seen from some blurred and even myopic lenses of outsiders.

If art is about capturing experiences and the imagination, the artist or creator of art is no longer the only force that exists in the artworld. The audience – as patron, promoter or critic – is just as powerful because he or she is also armed with experiences and imagination. The artist cannot ignore or subvert the audience although he or she does not work for the latter. The audience cannot and should never think it can be more powerful than the creators just because they hold the purse or the pen. A good balance, albeit precarious, must be established and acknowledged because one cannot become in the absence of the other.

Most importantly, however, both must not forget that they are subjects and under the service of truth. Truth, like beauty is a value. It is something that bestows worth upon the work of a painter or sculptor or writer its weight in gold. Truth guards the patron or ordinary art viewer or critic against the array of mediocre or bad art posing as valuables. Truth sieves and separates the true artist and the true lovers of art, including the critics, from the poseurs.

Congratulations to the Iloilo Critics Circle for its big dreams and hopes for the local Hiligaynon artworld!

(This is a message of Prof. Martin Genodepa on the launching of the Iloilo Art Review 2022 on March 18, 2023 at the Mamusa Gallery, Iloilo City. Genodepa is an artist, director of the UP Visayas Office of Initiatives in Cultre and the Arts, and curator of the UP Visayas Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage)