Our Projects
Since it was established in December 2017, the Alfredo F. Tadiar Library has importantly served as a vibrant hub of research, learning, and culture for communities in San Fernando, La Union as well as in the broader Northern Philippines. Through its various projects and activities, the Library has served and inspired diverse constituencies of students, local residents, retired senior citizens, and recent migrants and visitors to the area to become learners, writers, artists, and knowledge-producers. It has organized and held participatory workshops in writing, and zine and art making, collective and community art exhibitions, lectures, monthly film screenings, a small press expo fair, and community dialogues that have led to its increased recognition and visibility as a leading independent, community-focused, collaborative educational and cultural institution in La Union.
Artist Workshops and Exhibitions
The Alfredo F. Tadiar Library sponsors artist-led workshops and exhibitions designed to draw in members of local communities as participants in forms of art making. We seek creative workshops that approach new, contemporary, or traditional forms of art making as a meaningful social practice that enables community members to address social themes and issues of importance and relevance to their lives and the broader contexts that shape them.
Exhibitions of artwork generated in the workshops are collective endeavors, allowing participants to collaborate with the artist to contribute and curate the products of their own artistic practice.
Writers & Artists Residency Program
The Alfredo F. Tadiar Library Writers and Artists Residency Program aims to provide dedicated time and space to writers and artists who are working on projects related to the objectives and mission of the Library, including generating knowledge and culture in the core areas of our collection. We are especially happy to support projects that contribute to the strengthening of local communities, the flourishing of people’s life capacities, and the exploration of creative and imaginative possibilities in the direction of progressive change.
The Library provides 2-4 week long residencies, with accommodations in the Tadiar House (Balay da Judge) in Catbangen, which includes a creative studio space for writing or making art.
