People in Action: Rebuilding Continues

In support of the COVID-19 response in the Philippines, The Japan Foundation, Manila realigned our SUKI magazine to feature current stories from artists and practitioners whom we have worked with throughout the years. Continuing from the first edition, “People in Action: Stories and Responses to COVID-19”, this October issue “People in Action: Rebuilding Continues” features diverse perspectives from the field of arts and culture, education, non-profit, and public sectors across the Philippines.

The challenges discussed in the last May issue have magnified as the imposed quarantine has stretched as we reach the end of 2020, the next year uncertain. Creative industries continue to reel from the prolonged effects of COVID-19, such as travel restrictions and the closures of physical spaces. Hence, many practitioners devise ways to adapt, mostly by reimagining projects to online platforms. Our contributors share the various efforts, campaigns, and projects that they have started or participated in to address the needs of their respective sector–from fundraisers to support artists’ livelihoods, online magazines and performances, to webinars for remote learning. Other contributors work beyond the virtual sphere to directly provide employment and financial support for Filipino workers. Our writers also share the personal toll of this pandemic, highlighting the importance of caring for each other’s mental health and wellbeing.

Though internet access and digital literacy are tenuous in the Philippines, technology is now at the forefront in adjusting to this pandemic. International collaboration and exchange are now made possible through online meetings and events shared in social media, with only time differences to consider. New possibilities are being discovered and explored.

Thus, we hope that this second online edition of SUKI continues to shed light to the experiences of practitioners working in the field during this crisis, and offer insights to how new platforms can continue meaningful collaboration, with the hope that we could interact with the ease and warmth of meeting face to face in the near future.

Click the links below to read featured stories from our contributors:

DOCULEKTIV: Archiving as Curatorial Exercise in (Re)Imagining Gathering and Collectivity in the Time of Physical Distancing

by Roselle Pineda

Founder, Aurora Artist Residency Program and Space (AARPS)

Windows of Possibilities

by James Harvey Estrada

Artistic Director, The Scenius Pro

BaliKaBayanihan: Responding to the Challenges of Repatriated OFWs in the time of COVID-19

by Estrella Mai Dizon-Añonuevo

Executive Director, ATIKHA

Performing Liveness

by Eisa Jocson