Artisanal Heritage Studies and Creative Enterprise Center (AHSCEC)

Institutional Culture-based Creative Entrepreneurship Capability Building through the Development of
PWC MFAMSC Artisanal Heritage Studies and Creative Enterprise Center (AHSCEC)

A CHED Institutional Development and Innovation Grantee for 2018

In the light of mitigating the adverse impact of K to 12 among Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs), the Philippine Women’s College of Davao (PWC of Davao) realigns its educational direction in an inclusive paradigm that is responsive, driven and relevant by strengthening the entrepreneurial capability-building component of the educational program of the school as reflected in its curriculum and instruction, community extension and faculty as concretely articulated in the Institutional Management Enterprise (IME) and Institutional Creative Arts (ICA) programs. This and all are encapsulated in Institutional Culture-based Creative Entrepreneurship Capability Building through the Development of PWC MFAMSC Artisanal Heritage Studies and Creative Enterprise Center (AHSCEC).

PWC of Davao takes pride in its remarkable tradition of progressive education inspirited by cultural harmony amidst diversity. Recognized by the City of Davao as a pioneering “Art and Design School,” PWC of Davao shapes its educational niche in the context of preserving, promoting and developing local arts and culture imbued among the city’s 11 Kadayawan tribes, migrant Christian settlers and expatriates living together in mainstream society. In particular, PWC of Davao’s Helena Z Benitez School of Fine Arts and Design (HZB-SFAD) has inspirited this legacy through culture-based design ideation and business incubation platforms worthy to be cascaded across all disciplines of the PWC Tertiary Education Unit.

For the past 5 years, the PWC of Davao HZB-SFAD platforms have showed considerable successes in helping its students realize the potential of their capstone projects, as facilitated in its curricular program of instruction; and to real industry practice, as contextualized in its community development program. Being the pioneering and only Fine Arts and Interior Design school in Mindanao with the most varied program offerings, PWC of Davao HZB SFAD continue to trail blaze outcomes-based education translated into creative entrepreneurship while also working it out as a best practice feature for accreditation. Interestingly, its Annual Students Art and Design Exhibition (ASADE) has recently been institutionalized through ACT ONE or A Convergence To Open New Engagements and deepened through thematic research and design studio outputs anchored on culture, heritage and identity. The first offering was last March during the HZB-SFAD’s Graduation Exhibition and Show entitled IndieGenius: Exhibition of Creative Research and Design Studio Production. In the community level, PWC of Davao HZB SFAD has continuously and consistently been strengthening its collaborative engagement with Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs)/Indigenous Peoples (IPs) specifically the Matigsalugs and Bago-Tagabawa; creative industry groups and trade organizations such as the Mindanao Trade Expo Foundation, Inc. and Davao Fashion and Design Council; and government and non-government cooperators foremost of which are the Department of Tourism, Department of Trade and Industry, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, National Commission for Indigenous Peoples, and the Deputy City Mayors of the 11 Tribes of Davao.

The experience of PWC of Davao HZB-SFAD in integrating culture to its academe-industry curriculum has inspired PWC of Davao in establishing an institution-wide “culture-based creative entrepreneurship” program to strengthen curriculum and instruction, research and community extension and development components by creating an ARTISANAL HERITAGE STUDIES AND CREATIVE ENTERPRISE CENTER (AHSCEC) and strengthening capability building of both PWC of Davao stakeholders and its recipient ICCs/IPs as collaborators or co-makers of AHSCEC. The growing interconnection and interdependence of the baccalaureate program offerings in Fine Arts, Interior Design, Tourism Management, Hotel and Restaurant Management, Teacher Education, Information Technology, Business Administration, Entrepreneurship and Food Technology are latent drivers to fuel collaboration. PWC of Davao realized then that its academic offerings are full circle programs that could potentially work together productively and contribute significantly to the local creative economy. AHSCEC is anchored on PWC of Davao’s existing Institutional Management Enterprise (IME) and Institutional Creative Arts (ICA) Programs with the Mindanao Folk Arts Museum and Studies Center (MFAMSC) as a co-located venue for AHSCEC to facilitate and process the study, development, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the project.

The 1-year implementation of AHSCEC will have the following MAIN DELIVERABLES

  1. Comprehensive Culture-based Creative Entrepreneurship Program (CCEP) Module and its integration in the new curricula of all disciplines to be implemented in School Year 2018-19 onwards and PWC Comprehensive Research and Community Development Plans ;
  2. Enhanced Curricular Program of Study with culture-based creative entrepreneurship approach contextualized in the syllabi of Institutional Management Enterprise (IME) and Institutional Creative Arts (ICA) subjects in all disciplines of the Tertiary Education;
  3. Number of capability building trainings, workshops and fora on culture, heritage and identity and its complementing concepts on product design and development and entrepreneurship;
  4. Number of undergraduate research, capstone and product development outputs with business plans and acquired or loaned cultural materials and artifacts available as reference in AHSCEC and an exhibition of first batch in IndieGenius: Creative Research and Design Studio Output Production and Annual Convergence To Open New Engagements;

5. Community Partner Network Directory and MOAs of government, non-government and academe partners;

6. Model community beneficiaries and co-makers of the outputs as anchored and inspired to and by CCEP in terms of:
a. ICCs/IPs Collaborative Projects
b. Technical Skills training
c. National Certification on technical and vocational skills

7. AHSCEC Center established at the Mindanao Folk Arts Museum, Mezzanine of TED Library, 4F Mansaka Building

These deliverables of AHSCEC will meaningfully and ethically transcend traditional culture to the present and redefine the economics of creativity while being responsive to the call of internalizing a localized global identity and incubating it in ethically creative and socially significant business enterprises while promoting cultural harmony amidst diversity. PWC of Davao’s full circle academic programs, from Basic Education to Tertiary Education, will progressively work together with its identified ICCs/IPs to map and databank their existing ‘knowledge, resources, technology, systems and practices” as groundwork in product and design ideation and eventually business incubation. This will be an exciting opportunity to develop different enterprise models as outputs of the collaborative network of students, faculty, alumni and industry partners alike. These models are seen as latent drivers in building the ICCs/IPs confidence level transcending their traditional skills and available resources into mainstream products and services. In the long run, these efforts will significantly impact inclusive and sustainable livelihood schemes among the cultural communities identified plus an opportunity for AHSCEC to eventually create an educational program that would recognize and elevate traditional knowledge and skills in a new paradigm of scholarly pursuit for the ICCs/IPs.

We are hoping that through this partnership with CHED, we shall be able to break through developmental and sustainable projects inclusive of culture, heritage and identity vis-à-vis sound economics of creativity. In the spirit of an institution-wide and cohesive participation and a collaboration with our partner cultural communities, AHSCEC will not only promote local culture and a PWC culture of art, design and entrepreneurship, but also expand its reach to consistent and continuing developmental initiatives as it realizes its institutional mission and vision evident in the fully developed attributes of its graduates.

Mexican ambassador to PH visits PWC

Mexican ambassador to PH visits PWC

DAVAO CITY—Ambassador of Mexico to the Philippines H.E. Gerardo Lozano Arredondo visited the Philippine Women’s College last June 10, 2019. Ambassador Arredondo made it a point to visit Davao City in his recent trip to the Philippines and has expressed...

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AHSCEC holds inaugural exhibition

AHSCEC holds inaugural exhibition

The Artisanal Heritage Studies and Creative Enterprise Center (AHSCEC) officially launched its inaugural exhibition at the Mindanao Folk Arts Museum last May 24, 2019. The exhibition entitled “HeadPEACE: The Tangkulo of the Bagobo-Tagabawa” features the...

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