SIXTEEN Thomasian artists, including the late National Artist Arturo Luz, were honored in the Outstanding UST Atelier Alumni Honors 2024, which recognized exemplary graduates of the defunct UST School of Fine Arts and its successor colleges.
The UST Atelier Alumni Association Inc. (USTAAAI) feted five artists with the posthumous Edades Award, named after the late UST Fine Arts School founder, National Artist Victorio Edades, while 11 others received the Atelier Alumni Honors during the awards ceremony on July 2 at Art Lounge Manila in Alabang.
Headlining the roster of Edades Award recipients this year was Luz, a National Artist for Visual Arts, who was a graduate of the old UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts and became a trailblazer in Philippine abstract expressionism.
Luz was named into the Order of National Artists in 1997 and died in 2021 aged 94.
Joining him as an Edades awardee were conceptual and contemporary art pioneer Roberto Chabet, veteran filmmaker and production designer Cesar Hernando, and renowned Angono-based painters Angelito Balagtas and Salvador Juban.
USTAAAI President Marissa Pe-Yang said the awards align with the alumni association’s motto, which is “Aspire to Inspire.”
“It is my fervent hope that this honor and medal ceremony will serve as an inspiration to our awardees to always strive for artistic excellence and inspire our future Thomasian art practitioners to pursue their dreams,” she said.
The Outstanding UST Atelier honorees include furniture designer Milo Naval, composer Herbert Hernandez, and visual artists Jeffrey Almario, Threeszend Castillo-Almario, Benjamin Cabrera, Marcelino Rodriguez, Roger Santos, Sonny Palles, and Nestor Ong.
UST Industrial Design Chair Romano Macaisa and longtime College of Fine Arts and Design educator Manuel Dacanay Jr. also received the award.
“When I was thinking of the project, first and foremost, I really wanted to honor the professors and educators,” Pe-Yang told the Varsitarian in Filipino. “I thought that all their lives, they were there teaching, and yet they barely received recognition.”
Edades awardees were given the “Awakened Inspiration” medallion, while Outstanding UST Atelier honorees received the “Brainstorm Amidst Creation” medallion, both designed by UST advertising arts graduate Janos Delacruz.
Internationally acclaimed Thomasian artists Edgar Doctor, Nemi Miranda, Ramon Orlina, Fil Delacruz, and Raul Isidro sat on the screening committee of the 2024 Outstanding UST Atelier Alumni Honors.
The awards ceremony was followed by the launch of the all-Thomasian fundraising exhibit “Vision Paradigm,” organized by the USTAAAI in partnership with the UST Office of Alumni Relations.
