CANVAS Projects for 2008 in a Nutshell

Here's a rundown of our upcoming projects, in case you want to keep track.

The next big show is Si Lupito at ang Barangay Sirkero, based on the winning story of CANVAS' 3rd Annual Romeo Forbes Children's Storywriting Competition, written by Rowald Almazar, with paintings by Jose Santos III.

October 2008 will see something different - Looking for Juan - an art and music extravaganza featuring new original paintings and songs by some of the best young artists and rock bands, all exploring What It Means to Be Filipino. We're partnering with Songstream Studios, and we have an impressive line-up:

* Plet Bolipata : Cynthia Alexander
* Elmer Borlongan : Dong Abay
* Fred Esquillo : Loquy
* Karen Flores : Drip
* Manny Garibay : Noel Cabangon
* Winner Jumalon : Up Dharma Down
* Mark Justiniani : Joey Ayala

We have three more full-color books set to be published this year:

* Crux, which we recently showcased at the Ayala Museum featuring Manny Garibay's paintings and Gelo Suarez' poetry.
* Message in the Sand, an environmental children's story, especially written for CANVAS by a Charmaine Aserappa, a UK writer and international bestseller. How we got this story commissioned is a story in itself that we will share in a future entry. :-) Roel Obemio (two of his studies for the story are shown in this post) will be our artist for this project.
* A trilogy of short ecofables featuring the art of Plet Bolipata (The Hummingbird), Ivee Olivares-Mellor (The King and the Royal Trees), and Liza Flores (The Star Thrower), which will be launched in December.

Then, of course, we have our two ongoing competitions: The 2008 Romeo Forbes Children's Storywriting Competition, and the Oblation Nation Art Competition.

And finally, there's CANVAS Downstream, our continuing experiment with e-commerce, an existing and soon to be growing presence on Amazon.com, as well as our line-up of exhibitions for 1/of Gallery, which we are finalizing and will also post shortly.

It's going to be a busy, busy and extremely fun year. We really hope you all continue to join us for the ride. :-)