PSU’s Museo de Isarog host art exhibit

By Sonny Malate

GOA, Camarines Sur --- The Partido State University’s Museo de Isarog along with the Remontados, a group of PSU students involve in volunteer works, and the Salingoy Art Group, is hosting an art exhibit that will end on March 6, this year. The event started to reel off last February 6, 2023.

The month-long event that comes as one of the highlights of the school’s National Arts Month celebration this year, is open to the public free of charge. The exhibit is receiving an all-out support from the office of the university president, Dr. Raul G. Bradecina, PhD, along with the management of the University Press, an office tasked to handle concerns on communication.

Dubbed “Pagsalingoy sa Panahon kan mga Ulyas (In the Time of the Wild),” the exhibit showcases 26 artworks of the Salingoy Art Group with renowned Lagonoy-born artist Pancho Piano as its founder and chairperson. The artworks are up for sale.

Piano, together with other Salingoy artists, graced the event last February 16, this year, during the event’s meet and greet gathering organized by the Museo de Isarog and was attended by the PSU academic community, local art connoisseurs and enthusiasts.

The popular Bicolano painter shared valuable insights on arts during the gathering. His mystical art piece “Goddess of Isarog” is being showcased as the exhibit’s centerpiece.

The event, as everyone sees it, is a celebration of Mt. Isarog’s spirituality and biodiversity as it features the visual meditations of the artists belonging to the Salingoy Art Group. Mt. Isarog is the most iconic summit in Camarines Sur.

An elevation of 2,011 meters above sea level, the highland is the geographical confluence of six towns and a city. Aside from its prominent place in the historical and cultural narratives of the Bikol Peninsula, the mountain also serves as a major component in preserving the balance of the ecology in the region.

THE Museo de Isarog, a landmark at the PSU Campus, is home to community and campus-based arts and culture engagements in Partido area.

Museo de Isarog Director Karen Eyre Moshie Ortua-Artiaga said that the museum began to operate in 2005, out of a simple class project – the collection of artifacts or objects made by human beings – by the school’s faculty members and students. The project was initiated by Dr. Delcy G. Millares, now a retired faculty member of the university.

Originally housed inside the university library, the museum, which is frequented by visitors and PSU students and personnel who wish to have an idea of various artifacts, now finds a more appropriate place in a two-storey building inside the PSU.

Aside from old artifacts, the facility also showcases antiquated implements, outdated books and valuable documents including priced collections and different pieces of memorabilia.

Working along with the museum’s staff are the Remontados who conduct volunteer works and always ready to assist. The group is under the supervision and guidance of Director Anne Margarett D. Moll.

With grants from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Institutional Development Innovation Grant (IDIG), the museum has acquired high-end equipment, enhancing its in-campus and community engagements.

Instructor I and MDI Staff Christine B. Bongay said the library is equipped with LiDAR technology for research, herbarium equipment for ethno botanical photo laboratory, advanced computers and gadget to digitize archival documents and exhibition for cultural heritage and history galleries which greatly bolstered the operational concerns of MDI.

Meanwhile, Artiaga said that MDI for the past years has done initiatives, established partnerships and collaborations with other institutions to accelerate its advocacy on cultural awareness, arts appreciation, promotion and preservation, research and socio-economic development.

Major activities done relative to these are art talks and exhibits, lectures, trainings, documentary filming and showing and trade fair done inside the PSU and off campus.

With these engagements, Artiaga expressed optimism that their advocacies will steadily impact on the lives of residents of Partido Area and other localities with the support of Dr. Bradecina, and the academic community and stakeholders.