SIBLINGS Michael, Glenn and Noel Blanco unveiled a 54-by-288-inch oil-on-canvas mural depicting the history of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets) on Friday, Sept. 25, culminating its commemoration of 60 years since Artlets was formed under its present name and structure.
Installed at the lobby of the St. Raymund de Peñafort Building, the mural traces the faculty’s history to the establishment of the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, or Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, in 1896 and depicts figures, institutions and events that shaped Artlets.
Artlets primarily reckons its founding from 1896, making it the oldest and largest liberal arts college in the country. It marks its 130th founding anniversary this year.
The faculty began the 60th-anniversary commemoration in 2025, marking the 1964 merger of Philosophy and Letters with the Bachelor of Arts programs of the defunct College of Liberal Arts to form the Faculty of Arts and Letters.
The Bachelor of Science programs remained with the College of Liberal Arts, which became what is now the UST College of Science.
For the Blanco brothers, the mural fulfilled an idea that began during their undergraduate years at the University.
“Aside from what we’re doing in college, we were drawing. So it was one of our dreams…we said, ‘The wall here is very bare.’ Eventually, we’ll paint it,” Michael told the Varsitarian.
Michael described the mural as an expression of gratitude to the Artlets community and the formation they received at the University.
The panorama begins with a Spanish galleon rendered as part of an abstract wave, representing the Dominican friars and scholars behind the faculty’s establishment.
It also depicts figures in the faculty’s history, including alumni and former deans. Also depicted is Jose Rizal, who, while not an alumnus, took up philosophy courses in UST.
At the center is the official crest of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, beneath which are an open Bible and a rosary symbolizing the role of the Catholic faith in the faculty’s humanities tradition.
The Varsitarian is also featured in the mural, with two students depicted reading copies of the University’s official student paper.
Alongside motifs representing the achievements of Artlets alumni is a newspaper carrying a commentary on corruption in the Philippines.
“But if you can read that, the newspaper in the middle, there’s a message there that after 40 years, the problem of corruption is still there. It’s still here. It’s not going to disappear,” Michael said.
“The challenge for us as the Arts and Letters [alumni] is that we have to fix that. We need to influence people so that corruption should disappear in everything,” he added.
The mural combines impressionist and pointillist techniques associated with the Blanco family and is mounted on a custom-built plywood stretcher.
At the bottom-right corner of the mural are children reading a book, representing future generations of Artlets. Enzo Miguel D. Mejia
