Hi there. Some of my Filipino American Arts students may have emailed you by now. Their soon due mid-semester project is to conduct an interview, oral history style, with a Filipino American artist, and to present this artist and his/her work to the class. They may be asking you how you came to your particular art discipline, who your mentors were/are, what your process is from idea to finished piece, and what the role of community (not specifically Filipino, but I do believe artists necessarily have communities) has been throughout your career.
When I took Asian American Community Arts at SFSU, one assignment was an oral history report on an Asian American arts organization. That was probably 2004? 2003? I interviewed Sarah Gambito and Joseph Legaspi about Kundiman, how and why it came to be, how and why they do what they do, what they think are the community’s needs their work meets. I like the idea of the oral history, the stories which academic texts may not necessarily include, the inclusion of “in their own words” versus only our interpretation in academic language of the artist/organizer’s intentions.
