Background
In 2001, a PETA artist-teacher was commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation Southeast Asia Regional Office to conduct a research on how various art forms have been used by diverse groupings in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) to effect social change. Special attention was devoted to the role of performing arts, most especially theater, as public education tool for gender & sexual health advocacy.
The research came out with Creative Communities In Mekong, a report that aims to serve as a baseline data for developing a comprehensive program to promote gender, health, and sexuality (through the arts) within the Region.
PETA took interest in the report, as it urged us to look beyond the boundaries of our work, and sparked an interest in us to establish, renew, and expand our network in the Southeast Asian Region, most especially to fellow artists from GMS.
Subsequently in March 2003, PETA, through its Women's Theater Program, organized the first Asia-Pacific Festival-Conference of Women in the Arts. PETA was able to reach out and invite 36 artists-advocates from the GMS. Through performances, workshops, and discussions, delegates from the sub-region left us with a very powerful impression that Mekong is a wealth of talented & socially committed artists grounded with strong cultural forms and practices that are rooted in the lives and heritage of its people. But it also showed us the need for sustained support in the areas of capability building, creating new bodies of works, networking and organizational development, in order to strengthen the capacities of the artists-advocates and advance the cause of the Sub-Region.
This led to the Philippine Educational Theater Association's launching of the PETA Mekong Partnership Project last September 2004. It seeks to facilitate the development of various artistic forms for advocacy by mobilizing the arts community to intensify public debate on gender, sexuality, and health issues within the Greater Mekong Sub-Region.
With four decades of experience in making theater for the people, we now seek to broaden our reach to a wider margin of the global society. We want to assert our commitment to social development and empowering people through the arts by developing and strengthening our network with the "creative communities" who share the same vision. Through the Mekong Partnership Project, PETA affirms its commitment to theater as an alternative to peoples education and development and reasserting a pride in cultural diversity in the face of the various threats to human security.
Project Thrust
Building partnership and support for advocacy on gender, sexuality and health through theater and performing arts.
Project Goals
- Enhanced knowledge through public debates and discussions around gender, sexuality and health issues
- Increased creative initiatives and innovative approaches to gender and sexual health advocacy
- Developed capabilities for creative expression and advocacy around these issues
- Established community of committed and progressive artists-advocates of gender, sexuality and HIV/AIDS issues.
Strategies & Project Components
- Mekong Performing Arts Laboratory
An annual 3-week intensive training course on theater for advocacy on gender, sexuality, and health. - Mekong Creative Communities: Arts for Advocacy Annual Fellowship
A partnership and support program through theater and performing arts. Project assistance is given to the performing arts community (individual or group) to do advocacy performances & art projects that tackle gender, sexuality, and health issues. - Research and Documentation
Research and publication of various creative initiatives in addressing gender, sexuality and health issues in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region through theater and performing arts.
The Project operates with the support of The Rockefeller Foundation.
You can contact us at:
PETA Mekong Partnership Project
350/2061 Ratchada-Chuanchom Mansion
Soi Ladphao 23, Ladphao Road
Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900 THAILAND
Telephone: (66-2) 909.2649 or 939.0200 to 4 local 2061
Tel/Fax: (66-2) 930.7851
e-mail: peta_mekong@yahoo.com ; peta@truemail.co.th