What could be a better way to spend the incoming Independence Day weekend than nourishing your mind and soul with art and science?
Dubbed as the “Ultimate Indie Weekend,” the Bonifacio Art Foundation Inc., is presenting the Philippines first ever Manila Mini Maker Faire and the second BGC Arts Center Festival in Bonifacio Global City on June 10 to 11 (Saturday and Sunday).
According to Maribel Garcia, curator of Mind Museum and head of content of the BGC Arts Program, the local feast is a gathering of Filipino artists, scientists, makers, and more ” to show that we can bridge the arts and sciences to serve our lives.”
“With the Mind Museum on its fifth year and with the newly created BGC Arts Center, we are even more inspired to rally these science-and-arts bridge to help in nation-building and culture-making,” Garcia shared during a press conference held in Taguig City.
First held in San Francisco, then New York and Chicago, and now in the country, the Maker Faire aims to take the Philippines to the global maker map. This free-for-all event is a gathering over 50 innovators, hobbyists, and technologists from different parts of the country including Mindanao, Laguna, Ilocos, Cavite and Palawan to showcase their innovative projects.
“We will have drones, robots, eco-friendly technologies, and 3D printers. They will all be solutions; like everyday you always encounter problems, if you want to have just a weekend of looking at solutions, this is the place to go,” Garcia added.
Mind Museum’s Rizza De Claro added, “They will come to bring and showcase their exciting projects from addressing social issues to addressing personal issues.”
Apart from interacting with the makers, fair-goers can enjoy various activities like science shows; micro and mini drone races; and free workshops on Arduino programming, 3D design, robotics and more.
On the other hand, the BGC Arts Center Festival, which is now on its second year, has the theme “BGC Loves Local” and will feature homegrown artists and performers.
“You will experience exhilarating performances lined up for the BGC Arts Center festival. From the minds of our geniuses, witness original play, riveting dance performances, children’s theater adaptations, improv theaters, and so much more. You will see the beauty and the richness of the local Filipino talent, and you will look at Independence Day through cultural lenses. There will be indoor and outdoor performances from musicals as the sun goes up to indie music sessions, and street dance until almost midnight,” Garcia shared.
Participating artists and performers include Kids Act; Philippine Opera Company; Theatre 2108; Dulaang Elyu; SPIT;Third World Improv; Venus Mar; Christine Faith Lopez; Hayme Vincent; Philippine Street Dance Community; Entablado; Dance Artists in Flight; winners of the National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA); Bullet Dumas, Coeli San Luis, Curtismith, Keiko Necesario, and Gio Levy of Stages Sessions; Yugto Theater; and Hulma Collab.
Through this festival, the artists and performers hope to bring closer their craft to the community, and for some, for the audience to also participate in the process.
Dingdong Rosales of Third World Improv one of the artists present at the press conference shared, “We would like to bring it to more people. We want people to see what we do, and hopefully they will be interested.”
Mar said, “We wanted to introduce a platform for people to enjoy art not just by looking at it but also taking part at what’s going to happen, where people can be artists, and also a performer, and just enjoy art.”
Some of the performances of these artists are free for the public, while some are ticketed events. Also, happening simultaneously with the art festival is the BGC Art Mart, where you can shop for crafts and art works.
The mounting of two festivals in one weekend was intentional according to Garcia, since “BGC was found on the two great traditions of science and the art.”
“We would like to think that festivals like this (BGC Arts Center Festival) and Manila Mini Maker Faire are crossers of boundaries in terms of disciplines. It’s going to be about creativity, and that’s what creativity means: you’re crossing borders that were there before. You could probably discover things that you did not even planned of,” Garcia said.
“This fantastic weekend is for everyone–families, friends, everyone curious as to how the arts and sciences are connected, and how these fields talk to each other to serve our lives together,” she also said.
For more information, visit manila.makerfaire.com and www.bgcartscenter.org.