Making Connections

Bellas Artes Projects is a non-collecting, non-profit art foundation that aims to initiate dialogue between artists and their audiences.

- MJ Jose

I have always been fascinated by how art captures ideas and tells stories of a particular culture or point in time,” says Jam Acuzar, founder and director of Bellas Artes Projects. The daughter of a businessman (Jerry Acuzar is the owner of cultural heritage park Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar) and an interior designer (Tess Ochoa), Acuzar grew up surrounded by creative minds. Taking an Art History course and working in art-related initiatives abroad strengthened her growing interest in the subject, inspiring her to set up Bellas Artes Projects, a non-profit art foundation, in 2013.

The foundation’s headquarters is the former Enriquez Mansion, now part of Las Casas in Bagac, Bataan. The mansion itself was the very first fine arts school in the Philippines, which the foundation reinaugurated as Escuela de Bellas Artes. Now a space that nurtures creativity, collaboration, and experimentation, it provides support to both artists and craftsmen, largely through the residency opportunities extended by Bellas Artes Projects.

BRANCHING OUT