Balay Kreative 2.0: Rebuilding With Intention
Veecaps Sip-n-Paint Nite, Balay Kreative Workshop Series, 2021
Balay means home
Not just a structure. Not just a room with four walls. Home is something lived into. Something shaped by the people inside it. Something that holds you while you are becoming.
When we landed on the name Balay, it came after evaluating countless options. We realized we weren’t simply proposing a cultural center or launching another arts initiative. We were trying to build a home — a place where Filipino artists could create unapologetically Filipino work, where culture bearers were centered rather than consulted as an afterthought, and where creative life could gather without dilution.
That clarity mattered.
Where It Began
Balay began in 2018 through a competitive and contentious city process to envision a Filipino American cultural hub in SOMA Pilipinas. The politics were real. The stakes were high. There were different ideas about what this center should be and who it should serve.
What distinguished our proposal was a willingness to start over and ask a simple question:
What do culture bearers and artists actually need?
We didn’t assume we knew the answer. We conducted outreach sessions. We listened. We gathered ideas. Artists spoke about space, yes — but also about visibility, collaboration, experimentation, and professional pathways. What emerged was less about constructing a monument and more about building a living ecosystem.
Instead of rushing into permanence, we decided to test those ideas.
We launched a series of pop-ups to experiment with format, scale, and energy. Our first studio space was intentionally a pop-up — a prototype. It wasn’t meant to be the final form of Balay. It was a laboratory.
That first studio taught us a great deal. We learned how artists moved through space. We learned what types of gatherings generated collaboration. We learned how much informal time mattered. We learned that proximity produces collectives.
Kapwa Gardens, 967 Mission Street, San Francisco, Ca
At the same time, Kapwa Gardens became another kind of test bed — this time for performance and gathering. It allowed us to explore what a future Balay performance space might feel like: outdoor energy, community visibility, multidisciplinary programming, and cultural celebration woven into daily neighborhood life.
Neither the studio nor Kapwa Gardens were endpoints. They were experiments.
Balay was never meant to be static. It was meant to evolve.
UNDSCVRD Court, SOMA Pilipinas 2018
The First Real Moment
The first moment Balay felt real wasn’t a launch event. It was quiet.
It was just me and Cir in an empty studio space in 2020. Cir needed somewhere to work. We had a room. He began painting the floors with a geometric pattern — transforming blank concrete into intention.
There was no audience. No press. Just possibility.
As he painted, I could see the future of the space before it existed — artists filling the room, conversations overlapping, collaborations forming.
During COVID, that room became a kind of refuge. Artists who had been isolated finally had a place to gather safely. It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t polished. But it was alive.
That was Balay at its core: not a program schedule, not a brand, but a feeling of creative refuge.
Why Balay Exists
Balay exists because creative people — especially Filipino and BIPOC artists — deserve infrastructure that honors their full selves.
We created conditions where artists could:
Connect with like minds
Find new collaborators
Host workshops for other curious creatives
Build friendships that extended beyond the studio
Form new collectives rooted in shared vision
Out of those relationships new groups like BITUIN & Common Thread emerged and MuMu expanded — not because we mandated it, but because proximity and shared intention make new ecosystems possible.
Balay was never about programming volume. It was about depth.
It was about creating the conditions where artists feel seen, supported, and inspired enough to build with one another.
Balay Kreative Resident Artist Panel Discussion, Be Free Festival 2023
Ancestor Altars 2024 at Sentro Filipino: The San Francisco Filipino Cultural Center
A Culture of Warmth, Not Walls
As we move into Balay 2.0, clarity matters even more.
We are not building a closed circle of insiders.
We are not recreating old political tensions.
We are not cultivating a space where people feel watched or evaluated.
We are cultivating warmth.
Warmth means you feel invited to explore.
Warmth means growth is possible.
Warmth means experimentation is allowed.
Balay has always been a place where artists could try something new without being measured against someone else’s standard. Where cultural identity could be expressed with pride rather than performance. Where collaboration was encouraged over competition.
We are not here to call people out.
We are here to call people in — into deeper practice, into stronger relationships, into shared cultural building.
If Balay is a home, it must feel like one.
Rebuilding With Intention
Right now, Balay is in a rebuilding phase.
There is no permanent studio open daily. There is no bustling public schedule. There is intention. There is reflection. There is preparation.
We are actively looking at available spaces within the district. We are in conversation with other organizations that want to be part of building the next iteration of Balay. We are exploring synergies, shared models, and new alliances — not just to secure space, but to ensure that whatever comes next is stronger, more integrated, and more responsive than what came before.
Balay has always grown through collaboration. That will not change.
The first visible step in this next chapter is the relaunch of Kreative Growth — an intimate, application-based opportunity for two visual artists to create new work around the concept of Mahal: love, value, devotion, worth.
Kreative Growth is intentionally small.
It is not designed to serve everyone at once.
It is not a broad entry program.
It is a focused container for depth.
Choosing two artists allows us to move with care and attention. It allows us to refine how Balay supports artists in this next phase.
Rebuilding does not mean rushing.
It means strengthening the roots before expanding the branches.
Who Balay Is For
Balay is for people who are creative and open.
It is for those who are curious about culture.
Those who want to build alongside others, not above them.
Those who understand that art is both personal and communal.
Balay is not for people who are closed-minded, territorial, or uninterested in contributing to shared creative life.
This isn’t about exclusivity.
It’s about resonance.
Balay 2.0
Balay 2.0 is not a reinvention. It is a refinement.
We began by fighting for a new vision.
We tested ideas through pop-ups.
We opened a studio as a prototype.
We activated Kapwa Gardens as a performance experiment.
We watched artists find one another.
We watched new collectives form.
Now we move forward with clearer intention.
Home is not nostalgia.
Home is an active practice.
Balay is not just a space.
It is a relationship between people who choose to create together.
And we are building it again — carefully, collaboratively, and with warmth at the center.