Cherie Alfiler

Cherie Alfiler completed her MA in Anthropology and BA in Social Sciences specializing in Cultural Heritage Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University. She worked for various projects of the Institute of Philippine Culture and became part of the IPC-DSA Scholarship Program for Young Filipino Social Science Professionals.

Dr. Patrick Flores

Patrick Flores is Professor of Art Studies at the Department of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines and Curator of the Vargas Museum in Manila. He is the Director of the Philippine Contemporary Art Network. He was one of the curators of Under Construction: New Dimensions of Asian Art in 2001-2003 and the Gwangju Biennale (Position Papers) in 2008. He was a Visiting Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1999. Among his publications are Painting History: Revisions in Philippine Colonial Art (1999); Past Peripheral: Curation in Southeast Asia (2008); Art After War: 1948-1969 (2015); and Raymundo Albano: Texts (2017). He was a Guest Scholar of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles in 2014. He was the Artistic Director of Singapore Biennale 2019.

Rhys Himsworth

Rhys Himsworth has curated exhibitions, conferences, collections and residencies. His curatorial career began as a student in 2003 when he curated the exhibition ‘White Noise’, an exhibition of students from across leading london art schools. Since then he has curated a series of exhibitions for the bi-annual art and design conference,Tasmeem, in Doha, Qatar, which included works by local and international artists, designers, and architects. He has also curated the artists’ projects for Fanoon: Center for Printmedia Research, a series of artists’ projects that resulted in a permanent collection and exhibition. From 2016-2018 he curated the international panel of speakers at the Southern Graphics Council annual conference and from 2011-2018 he was responsible for the selection of artists in residence at VCUQatar as well as the accompanying exhibitions of the resident artists.

Dr. Emelither Kihleng

Emelihter Kihleng is an indigenous poet, curator and teacher. She was born on Guåhan (Guam) and raised in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia and Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. She earned her PhD in Pacific Studies from Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2015. From 2019-2020, Emelihter served as the inaugural Curatorial Research Fellow, Oceania at MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg, Germany where she co-curated In the Shadow of Venus: Lisa Reihana and Pacific Taonga and curated Kilel oh Kapwat: Reconnecting Pohnpeians with Our Past. For the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT10) at Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, she co-curated Urohs Fever, part of a larger exhibit, Air Canoe, focused on the arts of central Micronesia. Emelihter currently holds a digital residency with fellow poet/singer Hinemoana Baker at the Übersee-Museum in Bremen, Germany as part of the #NEOCollections program. She also co-edited the first anthology of writing by indigenous Micronesians, Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia (UHP, 2019) and published her first collection of poetry, My Urohs, in 2008.

Maricel Montero

Maricel Montero is the former Executive Director of Museo Pambata. She joined Museo Pambata in 2001 as the Children’s Advocacy Coordinator and became the Executive Director in 2007. Her work centers on cultural education, social development  and children.  

In the 90s she worked for 10 years in Stairway Foundation, Inc., a rehabilitation center for street children in Mindoro using nature and the arts as a form of therapy. As the education coordinator, she developed a curriculum for street children to love learning and get them back to the educational system. 

In 2001, she was one of the facilitators of Breaking Barriers, Building Peace and Love for Country – a Museo Pambata workshop that was conducted in various regions all over the Philippines for the Values teachers and public high school students. As the advocacy coordinator, Museo Pambata responded to the all-out war in Mindanao in 2002 by conducting fund drives through storytelling and letter writing exchange to children in the evacuation centers. She also represented the foundation in the first Asia Pacific Grantee Conference of Motorola Foundation in Shanghai in 2011 presenting the “I Love My Planet Earth Room”, a theme room featuring exhibits that show how we work

with the environment. In 2008 and 2012, Museo Pambata spearheaded the First and the Second Asian Children’s Museum Conference in Manila and was given special commendation for inspiring new children’s museums in Asia by the Hands-On International and the European Museum Academy. In 2012 she represented Museo Pambata in TOYCO – a Toy Conference organized by the European Museum Academy in Istanbul. She was also one of the facilitators of the Zero-in workshops in Manila, Davao and Bacolod. 

Maricel is also a part time faculty of the Arts Management Program of the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde and a volunteer resource person for the Three Acts of Goodness Program of the Fo Guang Shan Mabuhay Temple.

Jamie Pacena

Jaime Pacena II is a curator, visual artist, filmmaker and teacher based in Maginhawa Street in Quezon City. As a visual artist his exhibitions extend to Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Japan, Korea, Hongkong, Italy and Australia. He works as a video director for the advertising and the music industry and founded, as the creative director, a multimedia art collective for cultural exchange called Bliss Market Laboratory (BMLab). Pacena also is active as a teacher at Asia Pacific College under the Multimedia Arts Department and the in-house Curator for CANVAS.PH and Marahuyo Art Projects. He was a grantee of Jenysys Programme for Creators by the Japan Foundation in 2010, Arts Network Asia Singapore in 2012, The Asia Center Cultural Exchange Program by the Japan Foundation under BMLab in 2018, 2020 and 2021. He attended the Rikuzentakata Artist-in- Residence in Iwate Japan in 2013, 2016 and 2019. He was one of the Philippine Delegates of Sheffield Doc Fest 2021 facilitated by the Film Development Council of the Philippines, for his project in development, CUTSph. He is currently developing his script for his 1st feature film under the Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop Batch 24 titled Kono Basho.

Mary Ann Pernia

Currently with the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Mary Ann Josette Pernia has worked in museums (Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Museo De La Salle in Dasmarinas, Cavite, and the Lopez Museum) since graduating from the Humanities program of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Inspired by Dr Brenda Fajardo, Ms Pernia has focussed on museum education. Ms Pernia is a member of AGMAM (Alliance of Greater Manila Museums, Inc) and ICOM-Philippines. She used to teach subjects under the Philippine Arts program of the University of the Philippines in Manila.

Miguel Paolo Rivera

Miguel Paolo Rivera is an Instructor at the Political Science Department, Ateneo de Manila University and currently the Coordinator of the Ateneo Martial Law Museum, a digital museum housed at the university’s School of Social Sciences. He received his M.A. in Political Science, major in Global Politics from the same institution in 2014 and has been teaching for the Department of Political Science since then. His current research interests are in political theory, aesthetics and politics, and democratization.