Art: the way of life

Art as the way of life

R.G.C

A man borrowed only a single life. Living it only for own self is a life lived in a complete bankruptcy. Nothing is made for nothing, because as everything is created, he or she or it is created for something. In the book of God, a human was created for the life here on earth and right after his creation another human was created to be with him. The world that goes through continuous revolution and evolution carries along with it the unchanging reality of a “life” being lived for another’s “life” and vice versa. The society grows more complicated as the world grows older, and so is the human being who lives herein. As human society becomes more complicated, the role of one another becomes more defined, meaning more specific. And so, the interdependency for social survival increases. People in continuous social interaction within a geographical area formed a community, thus, in building it come the authority of the builders, in the authority come the power, and in the power come the responsibility. We are the builders of the community, we have the authority, we have the power, and we all share the same social responsibility. Social responsibility is the duty that bound every one of us to love the bare society, and that is to know, to understand and to respect it. Moreover, it is to come along with all the help and support we can give. Loving with all the sincerity means no rejection, no judgment, and no abandonment but rather means to inspire, give hopes, strengthen faith, endures failures, hardship and frustration, stands for what is right but never condemn, criticize constructively, seek the light and always aiming to bring out the positive and the best.

As we mentioned here the specific role, of which the people play in the society, I would like to stress now the specific role of which our organization chose to perform in the community, and that is Youth and Community empowerment thru the Arts. Youth are the hopes of the nation. And it is the society that holds responsibility for their future as the next leaders of the community. One consistent among youth today whether in cities or suburb areas is their yearning to have a healthy future and a better life, but it often happen that their aspiration turned bitter and warped due to the unfavorable things that they are experiencing from their surroundings. The absence of positive attitudes toward hard trials, tragedies and unfortunate conditions, results to a worse state of depression on the youngsters’ part. Youth development is apparently crucial, they are compelled to make adjustments as they grow, and during this stage, they develop rapidly as they are exposed to different attitudes and behaviors. They learn many things formally and informally and such experiences contributed to their emotional, intellectual, physical and social development. Thus, the activities our youth are engaging into and the manner our society is raising them contributed greatly to what kind of person they will become in the future. Therefore, it is line that Tanghalang Hulyo Beinte Tres Ink. an independent University-based theater organization composing of students and young professionals from Polytechnic University of the Philippines conducted an annual program that will aim to help and mobilize the people especially the youth through the means of giving a free Community Theater Workshop to the youth of different residential suburbs. The group’s objective is not only to train the youth’s talents but also to hone their attitudes and manners. Making them experience the theater workshop will also help build the patience, hard working, enthusiasm and self-discipline into their character. Theater workshop involves cultural development, external and internal training, and interpretative training, which will help them, becomes analytical individuals. These trainings as experienced by the children and teenager create positive effects on their self-confidence, self-discipline and self-esteem. Moreover, it offers young people good chances to keep active, to learn, to enhance their talents, to interact with others, and to be a forward-looking and positive members of their community. The organization conducted the Community workshops to different communities, staying there for a week, living with the community people and teaching their children the arts of theater and aiming to renew the bond and commitment of the community through the stimulated aesthetic appreciation of cultural arts. The organization had already reached and conducted workshops to communities in Montalban, Rizal (2004), Marinduque (2005), Natividad, Pangasinan (2006), Brgy. Buhatan, Sto. Domingo, Albay (2007) and Brgy. Malabrigo, Lobo, Batangas (2008).

Art is the way of life. It’s a lifestyle. The same is also true with life being the way of art. It’s a masterpiece. In able to expand the wave of social responsibility among the corporate and citizens there should be a single medium that would relate our objectives and goal in one way or another. And that it would unify the people beyond differences of beliefs and opinions. I daresay that the power of arts can do both, unity among the people encourages various means of activities that will empower a community. Art has been with us all along; it helped build the community and contributed to create a history. Enriching and extending the arts to the masses will again tie firmly the people together as it did to the early communities and to some other culturally-inclined communities existing up to these days, mostly are indigenous group from the mountainous area of each nation. Nowadays, aesthetic appreciation of arts is reflected only to the elite and few involved and concern members of the lower class. Art today is a luxury for the common people of which they can’t afford, given that they have basic necessity to prioritize first before anything else. The perception of community to artistic presentation and activities as an encouragement for a more culture –refined society would help promote sense of belongingness among the community people and that would definitely increase their sense of social responsibility. Effective mobilization is necessary to be able to widen the wave of social responsibility among the people and arts could be a very powerful tool to gather them around.