HAU to set up Manansala endowment fund for local artists

Holy Angel University will launch an endowment fund named after National Artist Vicente Manansala, who was a Kapampangan from Macabebe, to help struggling visual artists in Pampanga.

The Vicente Manansala Endowment Fund is intended to extend financial assistance to artists in the form of scholarship for artists’ art-related studies, grant for training and workshops, sponsorship of exhibits, subsidy for commissioned works, and donation for the restoration or preservation of well-known art works by local artists.

Potential beneficiaries include young Kapampangan artists in painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, digital design, folk arts and other forms of visual arts. Not included are video and film artists.

“The endowment fund is our way of honoring Vicente Manansala and perpetuating his legacy especially among young artists,” says Robby Tantingco, Vice President for Student Services and Affairs and Director of the Center for Kapampangan Studies.

The University opened the Museum of Kapampangan Arts in 2012 to house its huge collection of Manansala sketches and memorabilia, acquired from the late Emmanuel Manansala, the National Artist’s sole heir.  The museum features some of Manansala’s earliest works when he was still experimenting with Cubism, like the eight nudes on charcoal called Parisian Boudoirs and the studies for his masterpieces, including the 14 Stations of the Cross at the UP Diliman Chapel, which is a declared National Historical Landmark and a Cultural Treasure.

Holy Angel University has always been an advocate for local arts as well as local culture.

Aside from Manansala’s works, local artists’ masterpieces can be found all over the University campus, like Norman Tiotuico’s sculpture “Gampa” and mural “Kamulatan” which was unveiled by another National Artist, Napoleon Abueva; Nikki Reyes’ mural “A Recurring Dream” at the theatre lobby; Willy Layug’s retablo at the University Chapel; Arnel Garcia’s mural “Lumud” at the Pinatubo Museum; several paintings by Rafael Maniago, Bob Razon and Perfecto Mercado; and works by Kapampangan santeros, pukpuk makers, woodcarvers and other folk artists from various towns of Pampanga.

The University has also published books featuring the works of known Kapampangan visual artists like E. Aguilar Cruz and Claude Tayag, and is keeping the Lorenzo Ruiz beatification mural done by National Artist Jose Ma. Zaragoza of Guagua.

“One of the artists we will help with the endowment fund could be another National Artist in the future,” Tantingco says.