BACOLOD City – For the first time, a Visayas-wide painting competition is being conducted in Negros Occidental following its recent launching by the Cadiz city government.
Themed “Pagsibol sa Kabihasnang Pamumuhay” (Visayan life), the art contest is open to all artists, 18 years old and above, in the Visayas region.
The tilt will culminate in January next year, in time for Cadiz City 51st Dinagsa Festival celebration.
At stake for the grand prize is P200,000.
Cadiz City’s Mayor Salvador Escalante, a known art connoisseur in Negros now, said this is an “ambitious project” to expand our reach up to the other places in the Visayas.
“But art knows no boundaries,” he stressed, adding, “we need to expand our horizons for the sake of other artists in the Visayas just waiting to be discovered.”
He institutionalized a painting contest in the city shortly before the coronavirus pandemic.
First, they started with only Cadiz artists as participants.
But when the pandemic struck the world, Cadiz artists were greatly affected too, necessitating the city mayor to look for a potent avenue for them to surmount the health crisis, and cope with mental stress. Artists were allowed to display their art works via a mall exhibit, helping them aced the COVID-19 pandemic.
The following year, he expanded their painting tilt to CaSaMa (Cadiz-Sagay-Manapla), or the Second District, and made it twice a year – every Dinagsa Festival in January and Cadiz Charter Month in July.
The contest was further widened last year, luring participants all over Negros Island.
And for the fifth year of artsy competition, the city mayor decided to open it to artists in the entire Visayan.
“We need to know more about Visayan life through art,” he said. “And Cadiz will give them a vehicle to be great people through great art works, the mayor enunciated.”
Interested artists can just sign up at https://forms.gle/5Xssz2QdT9p9pmSJ9.
Entries can also be coursed through courier between January 6-8, 2025.
For walk-ins, submission are open at Cadiz City Arena from January 9-10, 2025./PN
