“THE ARETÉ” is the proposed name for the Ateneo Creative Hub which will soon rise in front of the Ricardo and Dr. Rosita Leong Hall.
According to University President Jose Ramon Villarin, SJ, the Areté is envisaged to be an “iconic hub” which will bring together the different disciplines to create a space for creativity and innovation.
During the ground blessing ceremony for the site on April 23, Villarin explained that the hub is named as such because it resonates with what the Greek word areté stands for: Excellence, goodness and virtue.
“Both Plato and Aristotle espoused this notion of excellence that is ultimately tied to the fulfilment of one’s purpose or function—the act of living up to one’s full potential. This, along with the Ignatian magis, is precisely the spirit we hope to nurture and cultivate in this new complex,” he said.
The Areté, designed by W.V. Coscolluela & Associates, is a four-story building with two wings joined by a bridgeway.
The arts wing will house a museum, a 900-seat hall, a 250-seat black box theater and an art library. A print institute and art restoration facility are also under consideration.
The museum will be the new home of the Ateneo Art Gallery, with three galleries on the upper ground floor for the permanent collections and three more galleries on the third floor for continuing art exhibits and the Art Gallery’s Prints and Drawings Collection.
The hall will serve mainly as a theater and concert hall, but it can also be transformed into a lecture auditorium and cinema.
Villarin said that the hall will be home to the Ateneo’s artistic cluster and will also host major performing arts productions of groups outside the university.
Across the bridgeway will be the Learning Innovation Wing which will feature rehearsal spaces for various performing arts, work spaces for the visual arts and non-traditional classrooms called “sandboxes.” These sandboxes are meant to serve as laboratories, workshops, studios and experimental classrooms for faculty and students from different disciplines.
Moreover, the wing is set for the establishment of the Ateneo Cordon Bleu Institute. The Ateneo Graduate School of Business-run institute will serve as an avenue for Ateneans to receive premium education in hotel and restaurant entrepreneurship studies.
Villarin announced that as of April 23, the university has 75% of the funding for the hub in pledges and commitments.
Ground breaking is projected to happen in July with complete construction seen by early 2016.
Hatching creativity
For Villarin, creativity can be achieved through the interplay of disciplines and their constant enrichment by culture and the arts. “My image of this interlocking and interweaving of disciplines is the banig or the nest.”
This image matches the organic sculpture by Niccolo Jose that marks the site of The Areté.
As explained during the blessing ceremony, The Blue Eagle’s Nest is a tribute to the eagle that builds a protective structure to safeguard its offspring. Likewise, the university is building the hub to nurture creative talent.
The nest contains two eggs which represent the wings of The Areté that will incubate the creative spark in students, transforming it from a potential to effective involvement, participation and praxis.
Villarin added, “It is not enough to intertwine or to weave together people, talents and disciplines. You will need to soak this banig in an atmosphere—the liberal and liberating atmosphere—of culture and the arts. And when you do this, you grow creativity.”
