EVERYTHING was flattened in Leyte, says the Unesco team. Like Palo Cathedral

CENTURIES-OLD Guiuan Church in Eastern Samar

An initial framework for action has been drawn up by foreign and Filipino experts to repair and reconstruct precious heritage churches in Central Visayas, mostly in Bohol, severely damaged during the recent massive earthquake and Supertyphoon Yolanda.

There is a cohesive master plan to bring all actors together. There are termites all over the destroyed buildings and landmarks, and there is need for more documentation, and to beef up security in the areas around the churches.

In the recovery process, culture and art therapy are important.

The faith of the Filipino is heartening.

MOUSSA Elkadhum of Unesco Manila

These are some of the salient points discussed during the recent press briefing given by representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (Unesco) and its affiliated agencies. This was held at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in Intramuros, Manila.

Resources persons were architect Ma. Jocelyn Mananghaya of the International Council for Monuments and Sites (Icomos/NCCA); Stephen Kelley, an engineer and architect with Unesco; Aparma Tandon of the International Center for the Study and Preservation of Cultural Property (Iccrom); Vellorimo Suminguit of Unesco; and Jeremy Barns, director of the National Museum.

The Unesco and Iccrom technical persons were brought to the country by the Unesco Manila office headed by Moussa Elkadhum.

Read more:
Unesco experts ‘stunned’ by damage to heritage churches in Bohol, Cebu, Samar and Leyte

Jeneva Augello likes to help people through art expression.

"Art expression allows people to raise awareness that things might not always be as they seem," Augello explains while touring her small, but quaint, space on the lower level of the historic building in which her business is housed.

Augello, 50, is the founder and motivational force behind Artspress, 336 S. Market St., Elizabethtown. Artspress is a business based on a methodology that, Augello says, empowers participants of all ages to relax and express freely in a safe environment through art.

The Artspress concept began almost 20 years ago, and Augello worked on it as an adult art student at Winthrop University in South Carolina, while raising her two youngest children. She and her husband, Chuck, now have a combined family of six children who range in age from 10 to 31.

Augello also has worked with cancer patients, using art as a medium for relaxation and coping.

The Artspress exercises include what Augello calls the "E.L.F." experience emotion, logic and focus. These elements are included in stations within Artspress that allow the participant to do mental exercises that make the brain focus in different ways while the participant expresses himself or herself, Augello says.

The stations focus on grounding meditation (participants ground themselves by stepping on a beaded mat); movement meditation (they then trace themselves on a large white board on the ground); creative reflection (drawing exercises); and visual perspective (more drawing and emotion exercises).

The participants are not necessarily artists and do not have to have any kind of art skills, she says. However, Augello does dub them artists for the day by using "artist" before their first names when she addresses them.

"When they enter, they become artists," Augello says.

"They just have to have an open mind and be willing to express themselves and learn about themselves," Augello says.

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Artspress, in Elizabethtown, helps people relax and express themselves through art