by Pablo A. Tariman
(Excerpts from remarks delivered by the columnist Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020, Carlos P. Romulo Hall in Makati City when he received the Golden Leaf Award for Excellence in the field of Art Advocacy in Media. LEAF stands for Live Entertainment, Arts & Festivals.)
First of all, I would like to thank the members of the LEAF Awards Committee for this special recognition.
Looking back, I realized I have been covering and writing about the performing arts for 45 years in various publications and presently with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Vera Files and in my island paper, The Catanduanes Tribune.
I also did film reviews for various publications starting with the Evening News in 1977 and presently with the Philippine Star.
Those were actually years of passion. You do it because you love the arts.
I humbly accept this award with memories of hundreds of concerts covered, hundreds of artists interviewed, over a hundred outreach concerts organized with the country’s leading artists and young prizewinners. It is a fitting tribute for hundreds of film actors and film directors interviewed and hundreds of films reviewed.
I do hope this award is an eye opener for both the CCP, NCCA and DepEd that there is a need to train and offer incentives for future writers for the performing arts. In my time, there were at least ten or fifteen of us actively covering the arts.
Now we have around ten but the active ones are down to less than five.
Which means that performing arts writers and film critics in this country are endangered species.
So many things are happening in the field of the seven arts. Sadly, we can only turn to a few for intelligent and insightful reporting.
To the LEAF committee, thank you for this award. May you be an inspiration for a new generation of arts writers pursuing arts advocacy. May you continue to be one of the guiding lights in the realm of the living arts.
If at all, this award sums up 45 years of covering the seven arts.
Thank you.
(The other LEAF Award winners:
MUSIC CATEGORIES —
OUTSTANDING NEW ARTIST
ALISAH BONAOBRA
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN A MAJOR CONCERT
GERALD SANTOS
(The Homecoming Concert/ The Theater at Solaire)
and
ANTON DIVA
(Shine/Cuneta Astrodome)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN A CONCERT
DULCE
(Magnificat Concert/Antipolo Church)
BEST CONCERT DIRECTOR
JOHN PRATS
(ExtraordinarY/ Erik Santos/Yeng Constantino)
OUTSTANDING FILIPINO CULTURAL CONCERT
REMINISCENSES
(EPHESUS/TRIBU/RCBC Theater)
and
MAYNILA, Maalaala Mo Kaya
(Plaza Amado Hernandez, Tondo, Manila)
OUTSTANDING MUSICAL/CONCEPT REVIEW SHOW
CLUB MWAH
GOLDEN LEAF AWARD
FOR EXCELLENCE IN THEATER ARTS EDUCATION
RICARDO ABAD
GOLDEN LEAF AWARD
FOR EXCELLENCE IN DANCE EDUCATION
SHIRLEY HALILI – CRUZ
GOLDEN LEAF AWARD
FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE FIELD OF MUSICAL PERFORMANCES
DULCE
GOLDEN LEAF AWARD
FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE FIELD OF ART ADVOCACY IN MEDIA
AMADIS MA. GUERRERO
GOLDEN LEAF AWARD
FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE FIELD OF ARTS MANAGEMENT
CHRIS MILLADO
GOLDEN LEAF AWARD
FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE FIELD
OF CLASSICAL DANCE PERFORMANCE
LISA MACUJA – ELIZALDE
GOLDEN LEAF AWARD
FOR EXCELLENCE IN FESTIVAL MANAGEMENT
FRED ELIZALDE
LEAF PRESIDENTIAL AWARD
FOR ADVOCACY IN THE MERGING OF CULTURE
AND THE ARTS WITH NATION BUILDING
CECILE GUIDOTE ALVAREZ