Philippines: Art Makes Economic Sense

The Forum - November-December 2008 - (Vol 9 Issue 6)
Art Makes Economic Sense
Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador
source: www.up.edu.ph/upforum.php?i=44…


If we thought about it, we would probably have a hard time naming one well-known artwork in the Philippines that ordinary people could identify. I did an informal survey of 80 people to find out what sort of art forms are accessible to them and to draw some ideas of its place in our culture.

What I learned is that people are more familiar with popular art found in television, cinema, magazines and cell phones. This was true of those with college degrees. But given the chance, many Filipinos eventually enjoy art in museums, galleries and other dedicated spaces. The crucial aspect of my informal survey is access—not just physical but also social and psychological.

Access

Museums are hardly viewed as fun places but as torture chambers where art is complicated and artists are either gay or in some form of altered state. In contrast, films and soap operas, which may be viewed from the comfort of people’s homes, where viewers are allowed to make their own interpretations without having to feel embarrassed if they are not correct, are an everyday ritual. Catching a soap opera after dinner or watching a favorite DVD is part of daily life.

My random study also revealed that these ordinary people are familiar with art in museums located elsewhere in the world. Though they had not physically traveled, they had done so through the Internet or cable TV. And one of the often mentioned works of art was the Mona Lisa. Its fame has exceeded that of its painter, Leonardo da Vinci. My interviewees knew of the 16th century Italian portrait of a woman with the enigmatic smile though they didn’t know who had painted it. Having been reproduced in a multitude of ways—from Marcel Duchamp’s mustache graffiti to the Hallmark card featuring the lady with—it is now a familiar icon. And the Louvre, which was a palace before it became a museum (In 1793, during the French Revolution part of the Louvre was opened to the public for the first time.) is equally popular.

Artistic Fame

Why should a former French palace and one of its paintings be of any interest to us Filipinos? Besides being featured in The Da Vinci Code, the best-selling and controversial novel and film currently being screened in cinemas to a queuing audience, the Mona Lisa is as much an artist’s legacy as it is an enduring reminder of the accidents of history.

The myths that surround art objects contribute to making them more renowned than even their makers sometimes. Art historians, critics and curators contribute to the mystique surrounding objects like the Mona Lisa. Stories about it abound, including tales of the conditions about its creation in 1503, the attention given to it by Symbolists in the mid-19th century, and its celebrated theft in 1911. Perhaps these were some of the reasons considered when its insurance value was assessed at US $100 million before its 1962 tour to New York, Washington DC, Tokyo and Moscow.

Fame and endurance are partners in creating a legacy. Fame may depend on the ability of an individual or institution to make the art work last. The survival of music sheets from the 17th century has enabled Baroque music to continue being played and has made possible the creating of audiences for it. Costumes worn by women from the upper classes, preserved because they were worn only to a single event, are the stuff of period or costume museums. Patronage and economics are an important aspect of legacies.

In this article, I will talk about the connection of the arts with economics. I shall look at aspects of production, distribution and consumption to examine access to the arts.

Investing in the Arts

Popular wisdom has it that investing in tourism will boost the economy, and it is assumed that places that boast of leisure facilities and historical buildings are the preferred destinations.

In the Philippines, the flagship program WOW Philippines highlights old and new festivals throughout the country. This is part of the rationale for including the Department of Tourism in the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA). But the investments are in spectacle and advertisements, not much in infrastructure, such as better transportation systems or better facilities like public toilets. Although heritage is included in the website of the Department of Tourism, its focus is mostly on structures that have made it to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Not much is done to make these more accessible. Nor is there any attempt to determine how members of the community living in these places will respond to tourists. My recent visit to the Miag-ao Church made this clear.

This explains why there are more tourists who visit other places in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand and Singapore, rather than the Philippines. Tourism in Thailand does not just focus on beach resorts but on royal palaces and Buddhist temples. The buildings and artworks are constantly being cleaned and restored for maximum preservation. Singapore, being a young country, has few tangible examples of a cultural heritage, but it is striving to make itself the cultural hub of Southeast Asia with new museums and theaters, as well as numerous grants for artists.

It is also worth noting that the tourism policies of Thailand and Singapore are similar to those of France, which in 2004 attracted over 75 million tourists, exceeding its population of 63 million. This industry that accounts for 66 per cent of the country’s income. Ironically, France does not invest directly in tourism but in its art, museums and other cultural spaces. Tourists queue to get into museums such as the Louvre to make sure that they get to see the Mona Lisa.

I am probably idealizing the French example. Critics point out that the French government tends to take care of old or dead artists’ work rather than encourage the production of new ones by younger artists. During the recent “French Spring” in Manila, it was the creations of designer Christiane Lacroix that were exhibited rather than those of younger, more experimental designers. It is Lacroix’s popularity among the elite which may have been behind this. It would have been difficult otherwise to justify the cost of producing such an exhibition.

The excuse often given for government’s not fully supporting arts projects is that “culture costs.” One should stop a moment and consider if indeed culture is something which a struggling country cannot “indulge in,” or that it is “a waste of taxpayers’ money.” I would like to examine how culture could create jobs, infrastructure and new form of leisure services. In other words, how the arts can make economic sense.

I will focus on the visual arts— visual artists, art galleries and contemporary art spaces in the Philippines—although I will touch upon some aspects of performing arts. These are interesting areas where art is transacted since they give us a partial view of informal economies that are mainly ignored by industry and revenue services.

Art Production

The Philippines has no lack of talented artists who produce work with hope as a prime motivation. Unlike artists in countries with developed economies, Filipino artists keep producing art despite the lack of support from the state and the system. Materials are expensive; studio spaces are not easily obtainable; sales are heavily taxed under the new e-vat system; the market is small; and pricing of works is capricious; art journalism is miniscule, and is published only in newspapers—few writers bother to learn to write about art, especially new or experimental art. Yet most artists continue to work.

It would be worthwhile for writers to get to know the artists themselves through interviews, studio visits or visits to production studios, and take a closer look at their work. I have come to understand that the production of art—even in its most solitary form such as painting and drawing—actually involves more than one person. In painting, for instance, aside from the artist, there is also the producer of the tubes of oil paints and the carpenter who stretched canvas on a frame. Theater is, of course, a truly collective activity. Art worlds exist. As Howard S. Becker observed: “Most artistic ideas take some physical form: a film, a painting or sculpture, a book, a dance, a something which can be seen, heard, held. Even conceptual art, which purports to consist solely of ideas, takes the form of a typescript, a talk, photographs, or combination of those.” (1982: 3)

The appreciation of what takes place in producing art becomes a way of being aware of how to take better care of it. For instance, the popularity of Fernando Amorsolo’s paintings among art collectors has led us at the Vargas Museum to begin research into the artists’ colors and the materials they use to produce certain effects such as the much written about “Philippine light” in Amorsolo paintings. Figuring out artists’ “recipes” for making art will also inform us about better ways of taking care of the Museum’s collection. Examining artists’ materials will also factor in with our project on intellectual property since legal issues such as forgery and infringement could also use the data gathered.*

Art schools, like the UP College of Fine Arts in Diliman where Amorsolo taught in the early 20th century, have not limited themselves to producing artists engaged in studio arts. Today’s programs include visual communications and industrial design. Studio pottery is part of the new curriculum and kilns have been built for this purpose. Increasingly art and design are merging in curricula. The new fine arts program of Ateneo began with theater courses and now there are plans to include the visual arts. UST has expanded its fine arts program by separating it from the College of Architecture and including design in its curriculum.

Art Distribution

Despite the small market for the arts, the Philippines has an abundance of art distributors. In some areas, there may be a local theater that keeps producing plays for the town’s entertainment. Usually benefactors support the productions or funds are raised among the relatives and friends of theater group members. This form of resource mobilization is possible in the context of the traditional festivals or rituals which are part of community life. The closer the performance is to the community’s experience, the more likely it will be to gain support.

A slightly different situation is to be found at, for instance, the Art Walk in SM Mega Mall. Although some famous galleries (such as the Galleria Duemila) have closed down, replacements come up quickly enough. While some mall-based galleries (such as those in Makati’s Power Plant and Glorietta) have waned, others have come up in less expected places. At the Robinson’s Galeria in Iloilo, artists’ groups have now been given spaces on the 6th floor. And there are now independent spaces that allow artists to show and sell their work. In Baguio, Tam-awan continues to exhibit works by artists based in the Cordilleras, while the Breathing Space Gallery along Session Road is an oasis in what has become a mall-crowded city. In Iligan City, Linya Gallery has been managed by artists for three years now.

But it is still in Metro-Manila where more new art spaces have been springing up, like Barewall in Greenhills, San Juan, and One Workshop Gallery in Makati, whose artist managers show non-traditional art. Sanktuaryo café in Marikina, meanwhile, is run by designers and focuses more on objects and designs.

Being able to take charge of both artistic and business affairs seems to work well with the artists behind Future Prospects at the Marikina Shoe Expo in Cubao, Quezon City, a one-stop gallery for new and conceptual art, and the video and film editing space of Furball.

Artists often survive in a fluctuating economy with a small market by doing commissioned work or by teaching either in academe or informal venues. Fernando Sena, for instance, has admitted that he earns more from his many “Easy Art Lessons,” held once a week in different venues rather than from sales of his art works. Arts faculty members on tenure-track positions in universities have their basic salaries to depend on but can augment their salaries with other activities and commissioned work. This also enables artists whose works are underappreciated—either because they are not yet established or because they do more experimental work-to survive. Very few can actually afford to be full-time artists. The system has no tax benefits for artists, and there is the added burden of the 10 percent VAT for artists and less tariffs on imported materials used for producing art.

Some support for arts is provided by other media. But coffee table books published by collectors or art impresarios resemble picture books rather than serious art books. There are some exhibition catalogues produced for museum shows but these are intermittent. Although publishing is expensive in this country, there must be a solution to help preserve the memory of exhibitions such as the recent Upuan exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. The lack of art magazines and art criticism is partly made up for by e-magazines such as the artsentralmanila.net and blogspots of individual artists.

Art as commodity

Artists are engaged in what is known in academic parlance as the informal economy. This is part of their survival mechanisms. In many cases, barter or exchange is used and artworks are a means of obtaining goods such as art materials, artworks by other artists, sometimes even houses or cars.

Rather than go through dealers or art managers, many artists often negotiate contracts of purchases or commissions on their own. Cutting off the “middle man” lowers the cost to the buyers. Often, however, this deprives the buyer of the safety measures that a “middle man” provides. In more developed economies, purchases are often guaranteed from forgery by this middle man; the dealer vouches for the authenticity of the work and validates the transaction. Because our society favors face-to-face purchasing and the suki system, gallery owners and art managers have a tough time formalizing the art industry. It also makes difficult the task of policing the ranks and creating a code of ethics.

Art is not like other commodities. One can’t think in terms of a “fixed price.” There are added and symbolic values attached to a work of art. Even ticket prices for performances could change depending on the performers and the popularity of the theater. This again has to do with artistic mystique.

One sign of the move toward greater professionalism is the practice of auctioning, where the opening bid is construed as a baseline price. As more art works from the Philippines are auctioned off by the Asian offices of London-based Christie’s and Sotheby’s, the buying and selling of art works in the Philippines will be slowly changed by record prices at auction and the interest of dealers catering to foreign clients.

One indication of the growing interest in Philippine art on the part of foreigners is the recent Bonhams’ auction in London of exploration, travel and topographical pictures. Fernando Amorsolo’s signed 1937 easel-size painting of a young girl collecting water had a starting bid of nearly Php 1 million. Another painting from the Philippines by Cesar Legaspi, titled Blue Nude and dated 1974, had a starting bid of Php 130,000. But the writers of the catalogue failed to mention that both artists are National Artists.They seemed more impressed with the exotic images in the paintings.

National Artist Awards

In any case, the National Artist Award appears to have more value here than abroad. The Awards have again become controversial, with the introduction of a new category: fashion design. After long and expensive deliberations, the final list of nominees for each category was sent to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and she used her prerogative, as she and other Presidents before her have done before, to add a name to the list.

The final list had the following names: Benedicto Cabrera, (visual arts - painting), Bienvenido Lumbera (literature), Fernando Poe (film), Abdulmari Asia Imao, (visual arts - sculpture), Ramon Valera (design and allied arts - fashion design), Ildefonso Santos Jr. (architecture), and Ramon Obusan (dance). Apparently the original list submitted by the Council of Experts included Naty Crame Rogers and George Canseco. Imao was not on that list.

This has again been protested, especially by the Concerned Artists of the Philippines. Nevertheless the luster of being National Artist remains. A work of art appreciates in value if the artist receives the award.

Art Makes Economic Sense

The economic argument for providing for the arts has yet to be made. How does art contribute to the nation’s economy? Unfortunately, we lack studies on employment and business opportunities generated by galleries and other artistic venues; or on how artists price their works or productions in comparison with how dealers and producers value them. These are very important issues. In other words, I am proposing less romantic or emotional arguments for supporting the arts. With the amount of talent and artworks produced by Filipino artists, there are possibilities for us to emulate the French or even the Thai examples mentioned above.

This does not have to be based on the NCCA’s program of poverty alleviation or even sustainable development. Such hackneyed programs often fail because they try to fit artists into boxes when what they need are spaces and opportunities to be able to create new realities. Some recent examples are the projects initiated by artists, such as the thirty-year retrospective by Jose Tence Ruiz called BODEGA – Bago’t Dating Gawa. Moreover, there are interdisciplinary enterprises such as the event honoring Anita Magsaysay-Ho organized by the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writing (ALIWW). Here at the UP, inventiveness in the arts is constantly being showcased. In UP Diliman for instance, one need only go through the monthly colorful brochure aptly titled What’s UP? produced by the Office for Initiatives on Culture and the Arts, to see what’s going on.

Without the heavy hand of politics and with an attitude of allowing critical spaces to argue and negotiate, the arts in this country would flourish in numerous unexpected ways. And they would show us other possibilities of how art could become integral to our lives and even teach us the best way to live our lives.

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* Copyright protection has been enforced more in the case of film, music and the performing arts with organizations and agencies exercising more vigilance over the years. It is weaker in literature and the visual arts. In response the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines is now working with the National Commission on Culture and the Arts on copyright awareness for artists and those involved in the local art world.


REFERENCES
Becker, Howard S. 1982. Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Grampp, William D. 1989. Pricing the Priceless: Art, Artists, Economies. New York: Basic Book Publishers

Hart, Keith. 2006. Bureaucratic Form and Informal Economy. In B. Guha-Khasnobis, R. Kanbur and E. Ostrom (eds) Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Policies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, B. 1998. Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage.

Berkeley: University of California Press.

Pertierra, Raul. 2006. Transforming Technologies: Altered Selves: Mobile Phone and Internet Use in the Philippines. Manila: De La Salle University Press, Inc.

Porter, Gaby. 1998. “Putting Your House in Order: Representations of Women and Domestic Life in Robert Lumley (ed). The Museum Time-Machine. London: Routledge, 1988.