UPV MACH: GINHUPTAN Collectors Series

UPV MACH launches GINHUPTAN Collectors Series
Featuring the art gifts of Chancellor Dionisia Rola to UP Visayas Hanas Changing Exhibition Gallery 2.

In celebration of the UP’s 115th Anniversary

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Dionisia A. Rola – The Woman and Her Art Legacy

Dr. Dionisia A. Rola, PhD (b. 1 November 1920) is a trailblazer in more ways than one.

She was part of the initial faculty members deployed to the newly opened UP Iloilo in 1947. Led by Dean Tomas Fonacier, the pioneers called themselves T(h)omasites, referencing the group of 600 American teachers who came to the Philippines aboard USS Thomas in 1901.

As Dean of UP Baguio (1967-1970), Rola enlarged the arts festival started by her predecessor to the National Arts Festival, which became the hallmark of her administration. The festival drew musicians and visual artists who later became big names in Philippine art.

When she became the Dean of UP College Iloilo in 1975, she established the Visayan Studies Program, (now the Center for West Visayan Studies, which is the first local studies center in the region). Chancellor Rola was also instrumental in the establishment of UP Visayas and became its first Chancellor.

The UPV Art Gallery, which opened in 1985 at the back of the old Little Theater, was her brainchild. Converting the Main Building into a cultural center was also her dream.

She likewise brought excitement to the cultural life of Iloilo by supporting the summer art workshops starting in 1975, and conducted by then UP Fine Arts Dean Jose Joya. Additionally, she facilitated the holding of art exhibitions of artists in the roster of the now defunct Galerie Dominique owned by Ilongga Nikki Coseteng.

Dr. Rola encouraged the local artists by buying their works that were shown in makeshift exhibition spaces in UP and elsewhere in the city. Several of these personal purchases were intended for the university. The artworks in her personal collection are from the 1960s to the early 2000s.

Chancellor Rola’s support for the struggling or established artists never waned and continued even long after her retirement from UP Visayas. Likewise, several artists, colleagues, and student groups gifted her with artworks as expressions of their admiration and respect for Chancellor Rola.

In 1997, Chancellor Rola bequeathed to UP Visayas over 50 pieces of her personal collection of paintings, prints, and drawings.
In her speech during the first exhibition of the donation, she self-effacingly stressed that she never thought of herself as an art collector; instead, she considered herself as a steward – thus making the donation an act of turning over the stewardship to a new custodian.

In 2019, Chancellor Rola, gifted the University again with some more of her art possessions.

The artworks that make up Chancellor Rola’s personal collection testify to her visionary passion, her great heart, and her noble soul.

Source: UPV OICA Facebook