Beyond the Art: The Kindness We Found at MaArte

We’ve just wrapped up our first MaArte Fair at The Pen, and while much will be written about the celebrities, collectors, influencers, and stylish crowds who came through its halls, we’d like to remember something quieter.

The kindness.

As first-time exhibitors, we as a collective arrived excited, grateful—and admittedly, a little green in the nuances of event participation. We knew there would be challenges. We just didn’t know they would come one after another.

On opening day, we discovered that our assigned room was far too dark for an art display. We had not prepared for the need for additional lighting, much less three sources. Then, almost as if on cue, a fellow exhibitor (a husband-and-wife team) walked in, saw our predicament, and lent us two lamps and an extension cord. No hesitation. No fuss. Just a simple, generous gesture. Their reason? They wanted us to have a better chance of selling.

In between that moment when our additional light source arrived and the whole room was still basking in mood lighting, came our first buyer. One of the few who ventured into the upper floors rooms, she chose a work despite the dim lighting, telling us she wanted to be our “buena mano” and keep the ball rolling. For a first-time participant, that small act felt enormous.

At egress, when our sales records were as chaotic as the last hours of the fair, the 7th-floor cashiering team patiently helped us sort through reconciliations and missing P.O.s even when they had every reason to simply leave it to us.

And sometime close to midnight, while our hungry and exhausted volunteer interns and artists waited in a long basement queue for our vehicle, another co-exhibitor offered to watch over our things so we could grab something to eat. His own vehicle was delayed anyway, he said. So why not help?

These moments may never make it into the official highlights of MaArte.

But for us, they are the highlights.

At every bottleneck, someone who could have simply minded their own business chose instead to help. Strangers became temporary teammates. Fellow exhibitors became friends. And in an event often associated with art, culture, and the upper echelons of society, what surprised us most was not the grandeur, but the grace.

Was it coincidence? Perhaps.

But we’d like to believe it was something more: a shared goodwill among people brought together by a love for art, for creating, for collecting, and for supporting one another.

And realizing that feels good.

We are deeply grateful to the Museum Foundation of the Philippines and the entire MaArte Fair 2026 committee for giving Silaw Artist Collective the opportunity to be part of this remarkable event. MaArte gave our artists a platform to meet new audiences and potential patrons, and gave our collective another opportunity to further the cause we believe in.

We came to MaArte hoping to share our art.

We left carrying something else, too: a renewed faith in the kindness of people.

Maraming, maraming salamat po. ❤️