Caption: This is the mural of the Hawak Kamay logo designed and created by John Asilo, Co-Director of the Hawak Kamay Collective. This mural was used for Hawak Kamay’s first AUArts Gallery Crawl on November 10, 2023. (Jhan Nickozs Consignado Labitoria, CMRU.ca)
Members of Hawak Kamay sit down to recount their experiences as Filipino artists, their hopes to bring about better Filipino representation through Hawak Kamay and their art, and finding their identity. In this video, we meet Thea Galang, the founder and creative director of Hawak Kamay, John Asilo, co-director of Hawak Kamay, and Valyntine Cala, their curator and photographer.
In the video are some moments from their interviews.
About the Hawak Kamay Collective
The Hawk Kamay Collective is a group of Filipino artists from the Alberta University of the Arts, The University of Calgary, and Mount Royal University that provides a safe space for Filipino artists of all mediums to be able to express themselves and their art. Originally intended to be an exhibit for the November 2023 Gallery Crawl, Hawak Kamay soon found themselves together for longer than intended. Now, they’re dedicated to ensuring representation of Filipino culture is present in AUArts, after Thea Galang, the founder of Hawak Kamay, said she “noticed a lack of representation of Filipinos in the universi[t]y”. So far, the collective has collected $400 in grants for its members, and hopes to get more for the next Gallery Crawl in the coming year.
Hawak Kamay’s Mission
The Hawak Kamay Collective’s goals
- Increase Filipino representation in Calgary educational institutions
- Providing a safe space for Filipino Artists with similar experiences
- Share, educate, and inform others about Filipino cultures
- Helps its artist students obtain grants to fund their projects and art.
- Exhibiting art by Filipino artists
- Collaborates with Filipino artists of all mediums
Note From Author
I’d just like to thank everybody who helped in the creation of this production, Shanille Briand, Terril Orsten, Kevin Thorn, Aldi Lloshi. And, of course, a big thank you to the members of Hawak Kamay Collective, Thea Galang, John Asilo, and Valyntine Cala
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