If you have covered the performing arts for 37 years, you have the advantage of  re-learning and re-absorbing the essence of the arts -- not from the  arts and humanities books --  but in actually living and breathing music, dance, theater, film as they unraveled before your eyes.

As you develop good taste through the years, you also uncover the real authentic talents and the fake ones. Those in a hurry to get famous do it by PR and from my experience,  no amount of massive  PR can promote a minor talent.

Artists with phenomenal talents attract the audiences they deserve and the merely good but determined ones get their share of  loyal audience following and actually help keep the arts alive.

After 37 years of keenly following the country’s arts scene, I can tell who are the major and minor talents  -- not through their well-prepared biodatas – but from  what I can figure out  from  their chosen art forms and discipline.

Thus I know who are the  real national treasures --   as well as the national  embarrassments.

I write this as  I read accounts of artists who should have been national artists or those who now deserve it.

Painter Anita Magsaysaty-Ho  -- who passed away  last week --  is more than deserving of the National Artist citation. But her marrying a foreigner and taking her husband’s citizenship was a big no-no for  would-be National Artists nominees according to the CCP and NCCA guidelines.

I consider writer Bienvenido N. Santos a first-rate writer and his body of works depicting the  loneliness of Filipinos here and abroad makes him  worthy of the National Artist citation. But his living in a foreign land  and taking an American citizenship is a again a big no-no for would-be nominees of  National Artists Award.

Some quarters  opine Nora Aunor, Vilma Santos and Dolphy now deserve to be National Artists. Not all their output are worthy of critical acclaim but they have certainly appeared in  exceptional movies made more memorable by their exceptional performances.

The previous administration made a mockery of the award by declaring a filmmaker (known for his “massacre” movies)  as National Artist for Film.

If  that happened during the time of the late Lino Brocka, I could see  him gearing for war and returning his trophy posthaste if he found himself alongside another filmmaker who is the exact opposite of what he worked for in the movies.

The foremost objectives of the national artist award is  -- to quote an NCCA and CCP awards guideline –  to recognize Filipino artistic accomplishment AT ITS HIGHEST LEVEL (emphasis mine)  and to promote creative expression as significant to the development of a national cultural identity.

The same guidelines say that the National Artist Award is a symbol of honor of the nation’s highest ideals in humanism and aesthetic expression.

Based on this guideline, pianist Cecile Licad, soprano Evelyn Mandac, singing actress Lea Salonga and Lisa Macuja are more than qualified. Their accomplishments -- confirmed by both national and international critics --  represent Filipino artistic accomplishment at their highest level. Their recent performances at the CCP was a showcase of the Filipino artists at their best.



Even with these lofty objectives, the potential authentic awardees get sidetracked by unreasonable criteria.

There is also a pattern in the awards selections that only those who are dead or dying  deserve the awards.

A few of our national treasures in the arts remain in the waiting list for the National Artists award.

They have dedicated all their lives to their  art and got honors not just here but mostly abroad.

As the selection for the next National Artists finally unravel, we hope we don’t get candidates who meet all the technical criteria but fall short of the main objective and that is to honor Filipino artistic accomplishment at their highest level!

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine