I had looked forward to an exciting year because last year was already exciting enough as it was. Mostly because our best exhibit, World of Pun, was visited by 3 National Artists. I nearly hyperventilated when I saw them. Hehe.

We were pressured to outdo ourselves the following year. I kept thinking, "Gad, how will we top that?" We were doubly pressured by the fact that we were having a major turnover of power. Gerard Cadlum passed off his Director (Dean) hat to Robert Besana and suddenly, we weren't just concerned with AB Multimedia Arts anymore. Robert and I were given the responsibility of handling APC's School of Multimedia Arts, which had three clusters under it:

• IDC (General Education) - headed by Elsa Borja
• ERC (English Resource Center, which trains foreigners) - headed by Eliz Reyes
• ABMA (AB Multimedia Arts)

The great thing about the first two clusters is that they are manned by two highly competent leaders. As for ABMA, I think we all did pretty well on our first year of governing, so I would just like to enumerate the highlights.



ROSTER OF FACULTY
I'm extremely proud to say that our very own Director Robert is highly active in the artists' circuit. He just recently had a one-man exhibit, Dislocated Connection, at Nineveh Art Space. He's also managed to participate in a couple of TutoKKK exhibits. If you read Preview Magazine, you might remember that TutoKKK was featured sometime in 2008.

Many of our faculty members are experts in their fields, some are noted contemporary artists and some are multi-awardees. Let me just give you a peek:

• Arleen Cuevas, whose film, "The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela" was:
  - Best Feature Film, Teddy Awards, Berlin Film Festival, Germany
  - Grand Jury Prize, Cinemanila Film Festival, Philippines
  - Best Feature Fiction, Zinegoak Film Festival, Spain
  - Best International Feature, New York LGBT Film Festival, USA
  - Showtime Vanguard Award, New York LGBT Film Festival, USA
  - Jury Award, Cinema City, Serbia
  
  Oh and she recently tagged a spot in the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
  
  
• Cris Dumlao, first summa cum laude of ABMA, a graduate of UP Fine Arts, major in Painting and one of the three exhibitors in "World of Pun", had 2 of her covers chosen in Artinsite Magazine
  
  
• Elvert dela Cruz Banares:
  - Has screened local and international film festivals in USA, Canada, Japan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, China, etc.
  - 3-time Gawad CCP Awardee
  - AAP Winner
  
  
• Agnes de Vera
  - Animator, "Urduja", first full-length 2D Animation in the Philippines
  - Lead Animation, "Little Mermaid 3", nominee in ANNY AWARDS
  

These are just a few of them (if I enumerated them all, I'd run out of space) because the others are members of TutoKKK, like Kirby Roxas, Jay Pacena and renowned curator Nuqui Cuizon.


STUDENT AWARDEES
Our faculty members aren't the only ones who are active on the scene during this school year. We also have a couple of student winners. The last time we had won something major was when the ABMA30s collaborated with CSIT kids for the video game Republika, which made it to First Place in UgotGame Game Development contest and won Viewers' Choice Award at the INTEL game demo contest in 2007. This year:

• Efren de Guzman, shortlisted at CCP's "Juan for Trees"
• Jomel Alviar, "Aparador", Best Director at PWU's Independent Film Group

FACULTY-STUDENT JOINT PROJECTS
Since we subscribe to a mentoring system, many of our students are already being featured in MTV and Myx.


Xenoa 2: Clash of the Bloods
A film by Sean Lim. Effects were done by the ABMA50s and 60s (fourth year and third year respectively).

Book-O Juice
An exhibit of illustration books presented by ABMA70s and 80s, in cooperation with Power Books. This was organized by guest professor Carl Hattley.







Calla Lily Music Video for "Hintay"
Letter Day Story Music Videos for "Ikaw Pa Rin" and "Pasitib"
Documentary: GMA Case Undisclosed: The Pagoda Tragedy
Professor J Pacena's collaborations with the ABMA70s. "Ikaw Pa Rin" was featured in Myx's Bandarito while "Pasitib" is actually being used as Revicon's jingle. "Hintay" made it to the Daily Top 10 Charts and held the #1 spot for a few weeks.

Jeepney Joyride Music Video for "LILIM"
Directed by ABMA73's Armand Bentigan, "Lilim" is actually his project for Video Production 1 class under Arleen Cuevas.




STUDENT EXHIBITS
Last Year: 8 exhibits, 8 venues
This Year: 19 exhibits, 19 venues




There. That finishes off the fun-filled school year and these are just the highlights that could be seen from the outside. From the inside, we have been unifying and mobilizing the teams in order to continuously improve, developing a harmonious curriculum that graduates can be proud of. I worked on it little by little when I was still a part-timer. Now that Robert and I have each successfully formed our dream teams, work has become a little bit more fascinating and enjoyable.

I do so love seeing our students be productive in media and art circles, even before they graduate. I hope to see more of these in the coming year.


Signed:

Beatrice Margarita V. Lapa, MIM
Assistant Director
Asia Pacific College - School of Multimedia Arts

APPPORT
My consultation hours are in the morning, especially for Wednesdays and Fridays. Please do not consult with me on Wednesday and Friday afternoons as those are heavy-duty lecture classes and my students need my complete attention.


DIGIMED
Please check the Moodle all the time. Your syllabus (complete course outline) is there, as well as your deliverables. If you do not meet a deadline, you get a 0 for that activity. (Like what happened with the deliverable for last Wednesday. They went undelivered.) If your name is not in the Moodle, you get an R because I do not have a record of your existence.


EVERYONE
Please do not call my cellphone in the afternoons. I have classes in UP and my professors are not as lenient as your ABMA professors. They are three times as strict as me and Sir Crame and can be five times as cranky as a woman with PMS. (They're also very smart, so I give respect where respect is due. I hope you do the same.)

Also, come to me if you have any concern that needs signatures/approvals from the department heads. As long as your request is reasonable, I will sign your documents. Dean Robert is now handling external projects that he brings into APC. Very busy with SoMA issues, among other things that a dean is supposed pay attention to (ABMA is just one of the three clusters under SoMA). So I'm now doing the internal issues since ABMA is my turf.

And please take note of the heads of your School (SoMA). There are three clusters under it:

IDC - Interdisciplinary Cluster (General Education); headed by Ms. Elsa
ERC - English Resource Center, headed by Ms. Elise
ABMA - AB Multimedia Arts, headed by Ms. Bea (me)

Lastly, please don't ask me to sign "Change of Grade" and "Load Revision" forms without the approval and signature of your professors. Even if I can, I will never overturn anyone's grades. Follow the hierarchy (what subjects fall under what departments), so that we'll all lead peaceful lives.

Oh and yeah...you will always find me in any of the 6th floor labs, so if you want quick results, find me there. ^_^

Thank you.