Pasinaya sa Panahon ng Pandemya

PWU-SFAD Week Online Celebration

February 22 – 26, 2021

PWU School of Fine Arts and Design (SFAD)
1743 Taft Avenue, 1004 Manila, Philippines

Towards a Creative Panacea

Over the past years, the annual SFAD Week celebration at PWU has always been situated within an aesthetic direction and leitmotif. The previous decade saw a resurgence of diverse themes such as Smash, Lipad, Narratives of Engagement and the like, which effectively launched the yearly trajectories of the School of Fine Arts & Design.

The concept for this year’s event kicked off with a much dreaded, but too real a word… PANDEMYA — a global crisis! Never in recent memory have our sensibilities been confronted with such poignant reality of alienation. The national lockdown at the onset of 2020 left us with a lot of fear and uncertainties, even as we continuously hope for better conditions to transpire after over ten months under quarantine.

In cadence with SFAD’s Mission & Vision; leading us towards the direction of PWU’s Transformative Learning System, this year’s planning committee appropriated Marcus Lemonis’ 3 “Ps” — People, Product and Process. The idea brings forth a fresh mode of artistic engagement — an online PASINAYA or a virtual launch that will showcase the best works limned through the various artistic expressions of our SFAD students, as well as the visual narratives of our esteemed alumni.

PASINAYA SA PANAHON NG PANDEMYA undeniably becomes a fitting nomenclature for SFAD Week 2021, as it defines this year’s theme— an attempt to post an inquiry on the relevance of art and design amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas we cannot offer solutions to all the problems, we can perhaps set directions as to how our best practices can act as catharses for change and self-reflexivity. With this in mind, SFAD aims to establish new instructions for the school’s flexible learning modalities under the premise that creativity can indeed thrive within the healing process.

Now more than ever, we need a firm grip on equanimity — a panacea…albeit simulated; with an eye on facing all the challenges and adversities the “New Normal” has to offer. As we delve deeper into the role ART & DESIGN play in our personal and collective lives, while awaiting the dispersal of some highly effective vaccine — the probing continues… conceivably with a new way of seeing and being.

Noel Soler Cuizon
Arts Manager
SFAD JCB Gallery