NCCA’S SAMBAYANAN 2000 (People’s Culture as Fashion and Deception)
Abstract
ExcerptOn paper, SAMBAYANAN 2000, a project of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), promised to be a realization of the various proposals and resolutions made by the country’s artists and cultural and development workers gathered for the conference on Culture and the Arts for Philippines 2000 (CAP 2000). The conference was spearheaded by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in 1994 under the leadership of then CCP Artistic Director, Ms. Deanna Ongpin Recto, now First Secretary at UNESCO in Paris, France.
The slogan “SAMBAYANAN 2000” is catchy. It suggests the idea of culture and the arts of the people, for the people, by the people. It makes us believe that government, through its cultural agencies like the NCCA, is now serious in creating a people’s culture and arts, as these are important components of any genuine social development program. Thus, through glossy posters and brochures, the NCCA presented a festival of culture and the arts for the whole country: a package of art exhibits, theater performances, and even regional conferences on cultural policies reportedly prepared and facilitated by artists and cultural and development workers in collaboration with different local government units in the regions.
