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Nestor O. Jardin, president of the Cultural Center of the
Philippines, was bestowed the 2008 John D. Rockefeller III award for
outstanding professional achievement by the Asian Cultural Council
recently at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City. Jardin is the
second Filipino to receive the prestigious award, after the late
National Artist for Music Jose Maceda in 1987.
A distinguished arts advocate and educator,
Jardin is credited for devoting his career to championing the arts
and artists in Southeast Asia and the Philippines, and for working
to create an environment where such sectors can flourish. Being a
CCP President, Commissioner of the National Commission for Culture
and the Arts, and Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Philippine
High School for the Arts, Jardin is “a cultural leader of rare
energy, commitment, and vision who has set an extraordinary example
both regionally and internationally.” He led the creation of the
Philippine Cultural Educational Plan, a comprehensive national plan
for the arts and cultural education, and has unceasingly worked to
bring opportunities to artists in the country and abroad. He began
his artistic career more than 30 years ago as a dancer with the UP
Filipiniana Dance Company and later as soloist with Ballet
Philippines. In 1981, Jardin studied arts management with grant
support from a 1984 Jaime V. Ongpin Scholarship at the Asian
Institute of Management, an Asian Cultural Council fellowship in
arts administration in the same year, and in 1989 an Asean-CIDA
scholarship to study at the Banff Center for Management in Canada.
He subsequently served as Artistic Director of Ballet Philippines,
President of the CCP Dance Foundation and vice-president of the
World Dance Alliance before being vice-president and Artistic
Director of the CCP in 1996.
The Asian Cultural Council’s John D.
Rockefeller 3rd Award was established in 1986 through a special
endowment from the JDR 3rd Fund. The annual award for outstanding
professional achievement commemorates the deep and long-standing
interest of John D. Rockefeller 3rd in Asian art and culture. The
John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award honors an individual from Asia or the
United States who has made a particularly significant contribution
to the international understanding, practice, or study of the visual
or performing arts of Asia.
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