Paintings of 47 visual artists from the Art Association of Bacolod-Negros (AAB-N) are being showcased through an exhibit called “Inday: A Tribute to Women” to celebrate Women’s Month this March.
Featuring 53 artworks unveiled on Tuesday at the main lobby of the Provincial Capitol here, the exhibit will run until March 31.
“We acknowledge women through art and the many ways she has inspired it,” said Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, who graced the opening rites with AAB-N president Ihvonnie “Tey” Sevilleno, designer and activist Trude Lizares, artist Patty Jane Ong, Fifth District Board Member Rita Gatuslao, Provincial Gender and Development Action Officer Marie June Castro.
He thanked the association for sharing their excellent work to honor women and for partnering with the province.
“The provincial government of Negros Occidental will always be a staunch advocate of women and the arts. We shall continue to encourage the furtherance of art in the province,” Lacson said.
Sevilleno said the AAB-N is thankful for the opportunity to rekindle its partnership with the provincial government.
“We hope to enliven our provincial-wide reach of our art program as what our founding father Budot Lizares and founding AAB-N members did in the 1970s,” she added.
Through the exhibit, she said, the Negrense artists “celebrate the ‘Indays’ in our lives as we take on the woman as a subject, the way we see them in our homes and society”.
“‘Inday’ is a Hiligaynon term used to call females of any age, but of certain stature in the society or loved by the family. In each family, we have an Inday. A Mama Inday, Lola Inday, Tita Inday, Inday Daku, Inday Gamay. All of them are loved dearly,” Sevilleno said.
She noted that in society, there are also women being looked up to and revered who may be businesswomen, women who run their sugarcane farms and those who are politicians and athletes.
“These Negrense women have contributed greatly to the community. These women are the people we look up to because they have given back to the society,” she said.
Sevilleno mentioned Dr. Cecilia Nava, who is considered pride in the literature and the academe, who compiled and translated into Hiligaynon the tales of Negros in her book “Mga Sugilanon sang Negros”; the female designers of the Association of Negros Producers and the Negros Trade Fair, among them Ina Gaston of Hacienda Crafts, Arlene Infante of Azatri, and Mary Ann Feria-Colmenares of Artisana Island Crafts; and Millie Kilayko of the Negrense Volunteers for Change.
Sevilleno said that “Inday” is “nothing like a derogatory term used by others who do not understand what is ‘Inday’ to us Visayans”.
“As the longest-running art group in Negros, we would like to use our art to start conversations like these. We want to build understanding of regionalistic norms to straighten up misconceptions and perceived stereotypes. Who is best to talk about us but ourselves? And as artists, we are chroniclers of our times and we want to put forward the importance of women in our art and in our lives,” she added. (PNA)
