Tumba-Tumba: Stories & Spaces

CANVAS tells stories at the UP Vargas Museum.

The Center for Art, New Ventures and Sustainable Development (CANVAS) presents “Tumba-Tumba: Stories and Spaces,” another proof-of-concept project for its planned children’s museum of Philippine art, at the UP Vargas Museum. This pocket museum runs from June 11, 2021 until July 30, 2021.

In this edition, CANVAS presents three main exhibitions that feature collections developed for publications under two of CANVAS’s literacy programs, the One Million Books for One Million Filipino Children Campaign and the Romeo Forbes Children’s Story Writing Competition.

One of these publications is “Safe Space,” presented in this exhibit through especially commissioned interactive art installations. Written by Gigo Alampay, published last year, and awarded as the Privacy Initiative of 2021 by the National Privacy Commission, both the activity book and exhibition guide kids on how to protect themselves and their personal information from online dangers. This UP Vargas exhibition is made possible in part by generous support from Google.

Next is the new picture and story book “A Bridge for Silay.” A special project with Agay Llanera and The Working Animals, the story and the exhibition tell the legend of the “devil’s bridge” of Talim Island in Binangonan, Rizal. Ronson Culibrina, the creator of the artworks for this exhibition and publication, resides on the island.

The third exhibition presents artworks created by Luis Lorenzana for the story “Silim, Prinsesa ng Dilim” by Mark Joseph Bacho. A winner of the Romeo Forbes Children’s Story Writing Competition, this mythological tale touches on contemporary issues of diversity, tolerance, and finding beauty and pride in one’s identity.

“Tumba-tumba: Stories and Spaces” is the third time for CANVAS to turn the Vargas Museum into a children’s museum in order to give visitors a glimpse of its vision for what a children’s museum ought to be: visually engaging, memorable, and fearlessly interactive.

A non-profit that works with the creative community to promote literacy and explore national identity, CANVAS publishes its award-winning children’s stories and donates their books to benefit children in public schools and poor communities throughout the Philippines. Its “One Million Books for One Million Filipino Children Campaign” promotes independent reading and creative thinking in Filipino children, while also exposing them to the best of contemporary Filipino art and literature.

For more information, visit tumbatumba.ph or contact info@canvas.ph.