Philippines

A general election year in the Philippines, 2010 saw thousands of government posts filled across the country, from the president to provincial and municipal representatives. The election generated controversy for the art community. Board of trustee members for both the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the National Museum of the Philippines were replaced weeks before the end of the Macapagal-Arroyo presidential term in a series of midnight appointments.With the entry of the new Aquino administration in July, there were further resignations and appointments.

Despite the bureaucratic reshuffling, the Filipino art scene continued to flourish, primarily in the capital of Manila, but also abroad. The country’s main art- supporting public institution is the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), which also oversees the National Endowment Fund for Culture and the Arts, the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the National Museum of the Philippines. In celebration of national artist Vicente Manansala’s birth centenary, the NCCA paid tribute to the cubist painter with a series of exhibitions held at various museums in Manila, including “Si Mang Enteng . . . Encountering Manansala” (5/20–7/31) at the Tall Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, “Images of a Nation: Vicente Manansala as a Social Realist” (5/26–7/4) at the Ayala Museum and “Mga Gawa ni Mang Enteng” (5/18–10/30) at the GSIS Museum.

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