Towards Art that Afflicts the Comfortable and Comforts the Afflicted

WHAT IS ARTHOC?

• House of Comfort Art Network or ARTHOC focuses on art as a powerful source of empowerment
• its art projects are collaborative, cumulative and ‘running stitch-based’
• The group concentrates on giving free art education to the poor and traumatized through exhibits, workshops and forums that include: trauma, interrupted international art project; and House of Comfort, Malaya Ka Ba?; and OTAP dolls workshops supported by Manikako, its fund-raising arm.
• It is maintained by a multi-disciplinary board composed of founding chair Prof. Flaudette May Datuin, P.H.D., Art Studies Professor, University of the Philippines; Norma Liongoren,Curator, Liongoren Gallery; Alma Quinto, visual artist, CRIBS Philippines; Dr. Rosario del Rosario, professor, UP College of Social Welfare and Community Development; Tessa Guazon and Faye Gumba, faculty members, UP Department of Art Studies.
• It sprang and takes its name from Alma Quinto’s House Of Comfort Art Project Workshops, a textile-based, modular, and portable installation of a ‘dream house’ being built in collaboration with selected artists and communities all over the Philippines. The HOC Art Project was conceptualized by Quinto for an international art project trauma, interrupted , a project involving exhibitions (Cultural Center of the Philippines, June to July 2007), ongoing forums and workshops organized and curated by arthoc founding chair, Flaudette May V. Datuin, as a result of her research on women artists of Asia.
• While workshops for trauma, interrupted and House of Comfort started in late 2005 and are still ongoing, ARTHOC was formally incorporated as a non-stock, non profit organization on November 14, 2006.

Description

1. Multi-disciplinary, but ART-CENTERED
2. WOMEN-LED, but open to partners regardless of gender
3. PILIPINAS GLOBAL, based in the Philippines, but open to local-global alliances (e.g. Fil-ams, Overseas Filipino workers, other nationalities)
4. ART is redefined as an ENGAGED PRACTICE that moves away from the individualist “fine arts” towards one THAT
   • CONNECTS US
   • LIBERATES US
   • TRANSFORMS US

   TOWARDS A MORE HUMANE WORLD that encompasses
   Health (physical, psychological, spiritual)
   Justice (legal and moral)
   Safety (environment)
   Survival (livelihood projects)
   Peace (conflict resolutions)
   Good governance (one that is enlightened and participatory)

ARTHOC Founding Board

Chair:
Flaudette May V. Datuin, PhD, associate professor, Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines

Vice-Chair:
Alma Quinto, visual artist, art educator, CRIBS Philippines

Members
Faye Gumba, faculty, Department of Art Studies, Workshops Coordinator
Tessa Guazon, faculty, Department of Art Studies, Exhibitions Coordinator
Rosario del Rosario,Phd, Director, UP Diliman Gender Office
Norma Liongoren, Owner, Liongoren Gallery

Norma Liongoren and Alma Quinto at Liongoren Gallery

Programs

I. WORKSHOPS

• House of Comfort Art Workshops by Alma Quinto. Focused on survivors of various forms of trauma (human rights violations, disasters, illnesses, the elderly, differently-abled, orphaned and abandoned children,
• OTAP Doll-Making Workshops. Focused on needy children and the youth
  
• Malaya Ka Ba? Freedom Quilt. Focused on individuals’ sense of personal, historical and social freedoms

II. FORUMS AND EXHIBITIONS

• trauma, interrupted international art exhibition. Focused on the question: what can art and artists do in the face of global suffering?

III. LIVELIHOOD AND RESOURCE GENERATION

• Manikako (MyDoll) Dolls of Hope

WHAT IS MANIKAKO?

• Manikako raises funds to support ArtHOC’s free art workshops through special booths that sell original dolls and related merchandise created by artists and other youth volunteers.
• It emanated from “Anti Barbie” doll workshops conceived and realized in a University of the Philippines Art Studies classroom. In March 2007, “Anti-Barbie” ventured out of the classroom as “Barbing Pinay for Bicol,” where UP students workshopped with out-school youths, then as “Barbing Pilay,” where UP students partnered with the differently-abled children of Naga Help Learning Center and conducted workshops in an Albay evacuation center for typhoon Reming survivors. Today, the workshops are called OTAP or Taong Pinoy/Pinay (Ota, the reverse for TAO, and P for Pinay or Pinoy). OTAP is 12-year old flying doll who has birds for parents, and whose mission is to save animals.

BACKGROUND OF THE MANIKAKO PROJECT.
In June 2007, OTAP teamed up with youth volunteers and doll-oriented groups ManikaManila and Mistula and formed Manikako, which was conceived as the fund-raising arm of ArtHOC. It enables the organization to be self-sufficient and provides livelihood to needy communities. The primary beneficiaries are the OTAP Workshops for underprivileged children.

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT?
Manikako was conceptualized by Mistula creators Joey David and Rey Tiempo. Graphic designers and ArtHOC volunteers Hannah Liongoren and Gabie Osorio developed the original Manikako merchandise. The project is being further developed by the creative team of Y&R Philippines. Other partners include doll-oriented groups ManikaManila and Mistula

WHAT DOES IT AIM TO ACCOMPLISH?
Manikako hopes to achieve the following goals:

1. To provide more art workshops to children in need.
2. To awaken the spirit of volunteerism in the today’s youth.
3. To offer livelihood to needy communities.

What You can Do

• Be a Volunteer
• Be a Donor

Account Name: House of Comfort Art Network, Inc. (ARTHOC)
Account Number:
Banco De Oro 1070154197 (S/A Philippine Peso)
Banco De Oro 1010154200 (S/A US Dollar)