The 2016 National Arts and Crafts Fair, a trade fair that features both indigenous crafts and contemporary art, will be held on October 26 to 30, 2016 at the Megatrade Halls 1-3 in SM Megamall, Senator Loren Legarda said.
“A fair that brings together fine examples of craft and design and contemporary art, this National Arts and Crafts Fair aims to dissolve the divide between art and craft,” said Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance.
The fair, spearheaded by the Department of Trade and Industry, will exhibit the cultural expressions of local artists from different regions across the country, mainly highlighting both contemporary art and crafts that exemplify indigenous living traditions through hand-made products, ornaments, jewelry, fabric and accessories, among others.
“This fair is a powerful platform to promote micro, small and medium enterprises as viable rural livelihoods and to showcase Filipino home-made products as well as individual and indigenous talents,” Legarda said.
Legarda said an important feature of the trade fair is that it brings together fine examples of craft and design and contemporary art that involve virtues and principles of craft.
“The experience of the fair is contemporary and cosmopolitan but is sensitive to the living traditions of Philippine culture,” she said.
Around 120 groups and individuals from different regions in the country will be displaying their crafts and art inside Megatrade Halls 1, 2 and 3.
The exhibition was designed by Patrick Flores, curator of the University of the Philippines’ Vargas Museum, together with Dannie Alvarez and Ann Pamintuan.
“I invite everyone to visit the 2016 National Arts and Crafts Fair to see both indigenous crafts and contemporary art that we can all be proud of. This trade fair, which could turn small opportunities into great achievements, is a demonstration that art is an enabler of development and that culture is wealth. Thus, we have to utilize our country’s available resources, maximize our local and indigenous talents, and vigorously implement our laws,” Legarda said.