The Foreign Service Officers’ Cadetship Course (FSOCC) Batch XXIV underwent a five-day Arts Management Program organized and conducted by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), administered under the Foreign Service Institute last June 13-19, 2017 at the CCP building.
The training program aims to inculcate participants with a deeper appreciation of Philippine arts and culture. It featured a series of lecture-discussions and activities on heritage and contemporary art forms including music, theater and cinema, folk dance and ballet, and visual art forms such as printmaking, paintings, and installations. The cadets were also given the privilege of watching the live rehearsals of Ballet Philippines and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.
FSOCC Batch XXIV learns to perform folk dance with the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group.
Resource speakers included former NCCA Chair Dr Felipe de Leon Jr., CCP Manager for Arts Education Eva Salvador, filmmaker and film historian Nick Deocampo, director-producer Dennis Marasigan, as well as Benjie Torrado and Mars Bugaoan from the Philippine Association of Printmakers, Erick Zerrudo from the University of Santo Tomas Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics, and Gil de Leon from the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde. The training program was facilitated by Nikko Zapata, chief of CCP’s Cultural Management Division.
As part of the requirements for the Arts Management Training Program, the cadets were tasked to prepare a proposal for cultural activities for Philippine foreign service posts around the world. On the final day of the module, the group proposals were presented to a panel composed of experts from the arts industry and a senior officer from the Cultural Diplomacy Unit of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The panelists evaluated the proposals and gave recommendations to further develop the proposed activities. The training program culminated in a short ceremony where the cadets received their certificates of completion for the five-day module.
