A visual manifesto is rising on a 200-square-meter lot in Metro Tagaytay. Dubbed as a tiny two-storey with big dreams, the structure is a testament by artists for artists who will finally have their forever home, a yearning that incubated 74 years ago since the inception of the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP).
After collecting a few million pesos, the “Kanlungan Boys” who got their chops through the Kanlungan ng Sining or Art Haven in Rizal Park contracted rent-free with the National Parks Development Committee from 2002 to 2014 in exchange for 12 paintings yearly.
Fidel Sarmiento who has been AAP president from 2002 to 2008, then from 2010 until the present, proudly rattled off artists such as the celebrated Randalf Dilla, Robert Fernandez, Mark Louie Gonzales, Emmanuel Balboa, Averil Paras, Joseph Villamar, and more whose careers gestated at Kanlungan.
Famed Joseph A. Villamar of the Saturday Group, declared: “Ang AAP po ang naging daan ko upang makapasok sa mundo ng sining. Malaki po ang utang na loob ko sa AAP dahil dito ko nakilala ang mga Tao na nagbigay sa akin ng lakad ng loob na ipakita ang aking talento sa pagguhit. Kung ano man narating ng aking sining ay malaking bahagi nito ay mula sa AAP.”
The park house screeched to a halt in 2014 when the NPDC under a new chief refused to renew their contract reasoning office conversion. “And as fate would have it, a few months after their park home was padlocked, a huge tree fell on the roof and blocked its entrance,” related Sarmiento.
With the padlock etched in his mind, Sarmiento vowed to build a permanent AAP house “to avoid being at the mercy of any government official.” Inspired by the two successful fundraisers garnering some P10 million called Artabang 1 for Ondoy victims and Artabang 2 for Ormoc victims, Sarmiento once again asked his good friend, Michael Dino, Secretary for the Visayas, Duterte administration, to host anew Artabang, a third edition benefiting the AAP Home.
AAP Secretary Margaret Lim, a Hall of Famer watercolorist, said, “We asked 80 plus artists to donate their paintings for a one-night auction on Dec. 19, 2019, raising P4.5 million.”
Together with other AAP officers – Roger Santos, Monette Alvarez, Angelito Florendo, and Veronica Olan – Sarmiento and Lim “scoured Metro Manila since COVID started, even up to Tanay where a misstep deeply scarred my right knee.
We ended up with this P1.8 million 200 sqm lot in Barangay Ulat, Silang , Metro Tagaytay,” Lim said. “There are quite a few galleries in Tagaytay, so we decided it was the right location with our small budget.”
She added: “Groundbreaking was done March this year. We have already spent P1 million on the steel bars. The weekly payroll and materials are fast draining our budget. We really need more help. An artist committed to donate 10 cement bags, and another 20 bags. Still, another got a congressman to donate a refrigerator.”
AAP members number 8,000 with 2,000 active. The two-storey structure with roof deck is designed by Sarmiento, who took up architecture at Mapua in 1978. The contractor/engineer is also pro bono from his high school classmate, John Morales.
“The Kanlungan became a school field trip destination, an on-the-job training for nearby schools from Feati, St Paul’s, Technological University of the Philippines…We will continue to have painting workshops for artists of all levels,” said Sarmiento, who transfers knowledge of various painting techniques. One recipient is Jane Ebarle, Faber Castell Phils. Manager. To this day, Ebarle thanks AAP for her success in the art world and the marketing field. In return, she generously supports AAP endeavors, donating materials to Sarmiento’s seminars in prisons, home for the aged, schools in the provinces, and Metro Manila.
Founded in 1948 by Purita Kalaw Ledesma, the AAP boasts international luminaries in its roster – National Artists Vicente Manansalan, Jose Joya, Ang Kiukok, Jerry Navarro, Frederico Aguilar Alcuaz , Botong Francisco, including living legend BenCab.
The current members are painstakingly painting stroke by stroke, color by color, the biggest canvas, their legacy, the AAP Home.
AAP Home accepts donations. For account details: Art Association of the Philippines, Inc.; Account No. 122-124181-2, Chinabank, SM Megamall Branch.
