“SALAM,” the Arabic word for peace, was spelled out on canvas as a subject of one of the paintings in the exhibit during the SUGPAT Arts Festival on April 8, 2016 at Silcare Center, MASEPLA 1 Transitory Site, Mampang, this city.
The arts fest which featured works depicting the hopes and dreams of the artists, serves as a showcase of the outputs of the participants of ADZU’s Center for Culture and the Arts’s SUGPAT Arts for Development Program.
Movies produced by the film maker-participants were also shown. The films deal with issues they face on a daily basis such as discrimination, bullying, and inter-cultural diversity. Some of the titles include Pinta, Iskul, Sugal, Punda and Awun Ngan Ko (I Have A Name).
Funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Sugpat Arts program has trained more than 200 out-of-school and at-risk adolescents aged 12-17 from the MASEPLA Transitory Site in barangay Mampang who were displaced during the siege in 2013. The program trains participants in different art forms such as Photography, Puppetry, Film, and Visual Arts.
SUGPAT, a local term understood by majority of the ethno-linguistic groups in MASEPLA, means “to connect”, “to merge”, “to join”.
