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PH to Host Global Launch of Int’l. Art Festival
The Philippines will be hosting the global launch of the International Peace Movement: Not by Force but by Art under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) patronage on May 20-23, 2018.
The global launch will consist of two events, the Art Speaks Festival, involving artists from claimant countries of the conflicted West Philippine Sea and the divided Korean Peninsula and will be held on May 20 at the Tanghalan Yaman Lahi, Emilio Aguinaldo College in Manila and forum on May 21-22.
Director Cecile Guidote-Alvarez of the Earthsavers UNESCO Artist for Peace said the event aims to showcase the dynamic possibilities of art mediation and cultural understanding for mitigating armed conflict and promoting reconciliation, unification and rehabilitation.
“Arts serve as the catalyst for interaction and people to people strategy. The universal language of the arts can bond and link people together,” Guidote-Alvarez said during the event’s media launch held in April 20 at the Kalayaan Hall in Malacañang.
“Arts has an inherent therapeutic character to help heal trauma of war victims and refugees of ecological disasters,” Guidote-Alvarez added.
The Festival will be complemented with an Interdisciplinary, Interfaith, and Inclusive Leaders Forum that will be hosted by the Senate Spouses Foundation on May 21-22.
A collective, collaborative interfaith, intercultural, theatrical liturgy for peace linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a special focus on the protection of the oceans will be undertaken on the evening on May 22nd.
On May 23, the Manila Declaration for peace and the SDGs will be presented to officials of the Philippine government and representatives of UNESCO, ASEAN and other cooperating UN agencies.
A radio Soap Opera on Peace and the SDGs will start its world premiere broadcast and webcast at DZRH as a prelude to the event.
This early, President Rodrigo has expressed firm support for the initiative that uses art as a powerful medium to promote harmony, goodwill and cooperation among citizens.
“Your peaceful manner of fighting against the social ills that plague our communities is indeed worthy of praise and admiration,” President Duterte said in his message to the participants of the Global Launch of the International Peace Movement: Not by Force but by Art.
“May the Art Speaks for Peace Festival be a venue, too, to unite and engage peoples of the world in pursuits that will establish solidarity and development in our respective countries,” the President message added. (SDL/PIA-NCR)
