Tagum's Art Scene

Motorcycles pass by these street art in Rotary Park along Pioneer Avenue as two artists brave intermittent rainshowers  just to finish this work of art.

TAGUM CITY, DAVAO DEL NORTE—One could not easily ignore the larger-than-life street art that mushroomed this week in this city’s Rotary Park. Indigenous in nature, the mural paintings painted here resonate the city’s rich indigenous culture.

This is, of course, something worthy to blog since this goes to show that Tagum City has slowly bloomed into a melting pot of artists of different disciplines. But last Holy Week, I remembered how a noted artist here laments how lame the art scene in this bustling capital town of Davao del Norte—a thing they wanted to change. People’s appreciation in the arts is not evident, he said, except for the very few who bleeds art.


Sim Tolentino from Manila together with Tagum City Tourism Office’s resident artist extraordinaire Jie Embodo joined forces to mount this refreshing street art, at their own expense. For me, their skillful strokes and perfect mixing of colors make this art extraordinary, surpassing sophomoric quality.

May this act create waves of inspiration among budding Tagumeño artists, especially the youth.

This city is the second city after Davao in Region XI to have a school that offers a curriculum focused on arts. Tagum City National Comprehensive High School, my alma mater, is now its 5th year in implementing the Special Program for the Arts that focuses on visual arts, including creative writing, media arts, rondalla and dance, among others.

Add to that is the annual Kalinawa Indigenous Art Festival every November where artists in the different parts of the rgion converge to exhibit works of art dedicated to showcase the richness and vibrancy of our indigenous arts and culture.

But there’s a long way to go.

For more than four years, Tagum City’s Rotary Park along Pioneer Avenue has become this city’s sports and recreational center. This houses the country’s first beach volleydrome, a modern basketball arena and is home to four government agencies: sports, civil security, tourism and public information. This is also where lovers bunk at night or in broad daylight and a favored meeting place for friends or kennel of dogs.

In a few years perhaps—or even in my lifetime—I wish that this park will also become a venue for artists of all genres to exchange ideas, celebrate the arts and put Tagum City on the art scene that will surely add weight to this city’s ambitious claim to become Mindanao’s cultural center.

Thanks to Sim and Jie, the journey has begun.

Louie.

Sim Tolentino collaborates with Jie Embodo in this street art. He is in Tagum as one of the instructors of the Visual Arts Component of the eARTh Festival here in Tagum.

Who wouldn't recognize Tagum Tourism Office's resident visual artist Jie Embodo?

The two in action.

This is my favorite. I was informed this was Datu Suknaan and was painted from the submitted photograph of Miss Tess Doce Halili during the Tagum Photo Contest last year. The detail of the face is just awesome.