ART PRESERVATION

Bilog’s Training Center is located at Bait, Mansalay (the trip from Calapan to Mansalay involves at least 5 hours of travel). The Center is Bilog’s very own School of Living Traditions (SLT). An SLT is one where a living master/culture bearer or culture specialist, in this case, Bilog, imparts to a group of young people (from the same ethno-linguistic community) the skills and techniques of doing a traditional art or craft. NCCA Guidelines further state that ‘the mode of teaching is usually non-formal, oral and with practical demonstrations. The site maybe the house of the living master, a community social hall, or a center constructed for the purpose.’

 

The establishment of the SLT is in response to the UNESCO declaration that there should be two approaches to the preservation of cultural heritage: one is to record it in a tangible form and conserve it in archives; the other is to preserve it in a living form by ensuring its transmission to the next generations. The SLT addresses the second approach.

 

The program for the establishment of SLTs is also anchored on the mandate of NCCA to ’conserve and promote the nation’s historical and cultural heritage by encouraging and supporting the study, recognition and preservation of endangered human cultural resources such as weavers, chanters, dancers and other craftsmen, as well as the conservation and development of artistic, linguistic and occupational skills that are threatened.’