BFA majors have the opportunity to be active participants in learning situations outside the classroom.
International/National Networks. Ateneo Fine Arts is a founding and active member of two international performing arts organizations—the Asia-Pacific Bond of Theater Schools (APB) and the ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts (UNITWIN). Founded in 2007, the APB is a regional consortium dedicated to a cross-cultural sharing of information and resources for theater training among 27 member schools from 19 countries in the Asian and Pacific region. Established in 2015, the UNITWIN exchanges ideas and practices in the performing arts among over a hundred countries and 500 schools around the world with festivals held every two years.
The Department has also been a member in good standing of the Asian University Network for Culture and the Arts (AUN-CA) since 2018. Back home, the Ateneo Theater Arts program is working toward the creation of the Association of Philippine Theater Schools in cooperation with theater program directors in 17 colleges and universities across the country. The Department has been consulted as well by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in the formation of the Academy of Philippine Theater.
Ateneo Art Gallery & Ayala Museum. Art Management and Information Design majors have access to the painting and sculpture collection of the Ateneo Art Gallery. The gallery offers the opportunity for AM majors to curate a show or assist in one while ID majors contribute their visual skills in promoting the gallery's yearlong series of exhibitions. Furthermore, the Ateneo Art Gallery has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Ayala Museum in Makati so that student interns in Art Management can work in the museum to gain necessary experience and skills.
Student Organizations. Theater Arts majors have long been members of the three theater organizations of the Ateneo, namely Tanghalang Ateneo, Entablado, and Blue Repertory. Members of these organizations who are not BFA majors in turn often take FA courses to enhance their theater skills.
Creative Writing majors have not only been members of but have also taken on editorial responsibilities in Heights, the Ateneo’s official literary and artistic publication. CW majors are also involved with the Guidon and Matanglawin, the Ateneo’s student newspaper and magazine in Filipino, respectively.
BFA majors have taken to founding their own organizations in recent years. WriterSkill was founded by and continues to be comprised of CW majors while Grids (formerly Artillery) is an organization founded and currently led by ID majors.
Faculty Networks. The Department of Fine Arts faculty is comprised of practitioners of various artistic disciplines and has facilitated student contact and interaction with professional institutions beyond the Ateneo. These include the Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Museum of the Philippines, the Heritage Conservation Society, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Philippine Educational Theater Association, and three international federations: the Asia-Pacific Bond of Theater Schools, the ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts, and the Asian University Network for Culture and the Arts.
On-campus Facilities. Areté is home to the Department of Fine Arts and most of its facilities including classrooms, computer labs, and performance and exhibit spaces. Named after the Greek word for “excellence” or “virtue,” the Areté is the Ateneo’s creativity hub. It aims to be the central space where the university’s liberal arts and sciences converge and houses a state-of-the-art 900-seater theater and concert hall, a 250-seater black box theater, an art library, the Ateneo-Le Cordon Bleu Institute, non-traditional classrooms that serve as laboratories for stimulating creativity and innovation called “sandboxes,” studios for theater rehearsals and productions, the new Ateneo Art Gallery, and the new offices of the Fine Arts Program.