Sketching Cagayan de Oro’s vanishing heritage

PRESERVING MEMORIES Armed with sketch pads and pencils, local artists and young participants gather downtown to document Cagayan de Oro’s vanishing heritage, capturing historic landmarks and the city’s architectural character before modern redevelopment erases their traces. —Photos from Cong B. Corrales and Carmen Art District CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — Like-minded residents in this “City of Golden Friendship” have banded together to preserve the locality’s past grandeur and charming heritage before they are lost to time. There are no strict rules, gallery dress codes, entry fees, age or gender restrictions, and no fancy or expensive gadgets required. What they have are sketchbooks balanced on their knees, pens and ink, folding wooden stools set up on dusty sidewalks, and a shared, quiet urgency to capture a city gradually slipping through time. Article continues after this advertisement When the Carmen Art District issued an open call for an informal urban sketching gathering downtown, it unlocked an unexpected groundswell of interest. READ: Rediscovering Cagayan de Oro Architecture students from the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) sat alongside 12-year-old novices, seasoned visual artists and corporate workers eager to trade glowing computer screens for paper and graphite. On Aug. 2, this diverse gathering lined the busy junction of Capistrano and Cruz Taal streets, sketch pads, pencils and ink bottles in hand, transforming an old downtown cinema and its surrounding heritage structures into a living, open-air studio. The initiative grew organically from informal conversations among local creatives searching for tangible ways to document Cagayan de Oro’s historic edifices before modern redevelopment sweeps them away. Article continues after this advertisement Artist Kathz Gaid, a member of Urban Sketchers Manila, brought the idea to fellow co-founders Kelly Ramos and Nathalie Mariano: scout a heritage location, drop a pin online and let the public assemble on the curb. PRESERVING MEMORIES Armed with sketch pads and pencils, local artists and young participants gather downtown to document Cagayan de Oro’s vanishing heritage, capturing historic landmarks and the city’s architectural character before modern redevelopment erases their traces. Casual setup “In the third session, that was when we opened it to the public,” Ramos, owner and art director of Carmen Art District, told the Inquirer. Article continues after this advertisement “We told everyone there were no requirements, no fees — just bring a pen or pencil and sketch with us. People really just started coming. We were surprised by how many were already sitting alongside us,” Ramos added. The casual setup quickly fostered spontaneous community connections that traditional studio spaces rarely provide. During a gathering outside the historic Velez House along the boulevard, the homeowner came outside and chatted with the artists on the pavement, sharing the building’s origins and architectural quirks. What they have are sketchbooks balanced on their knees, pens and ink, folding wooden stools set up on dusty sidewalks, and a shared, quiet urgency to capture a city gradually slipping through time. That documentation later took on a poignant, tragic weight when the Velez heritage house was razed by fire after the sketchers had gathered there and drawn its wooden architecture. “At least we accidentally immortalized the Velez house with that sketch session before it was gone,” Ramos told the Inquirer. Operating out of an ancestral home in the Carmen district, the art collective views these old edifices not merely as nostalgic drawing subjects but as vital cultural touchstones standing precariously at the crossroads of commercial growth. For Ramos, who served as a curator for five years at the La Castilla Museum in Liceo de Cagayan University, urban sketching offers a hands-on, democratic way to rescue forgotten or neglected heritage sites from obscurity while stimulating local tourism and civic awareness. Capturing historic landmarks and the city’s architectural character before modern redevelopment erases their traces. ‘Irreplaceable’ “These old houses are either abandoned or sitting unused, yet they remain irreplaceable cultural treasures we ought to appreciate,” Ramos said. “Urban sketching promotes that appreciation. It becomes an immediate jumping point for discussions on the layered history of Cagayan de Oro.” The movement has also earned support from veteran cultural advocates. Nicolas Aca, resident artist and gallery curator of Capitol University’s Museum of Three Cultures and chairman of the City Historical Commission, joined a recent gathering to show his support and champion the grassroots effort to document old and historic structures through sketching. “For now, we encourage artists to sketch historical sites and old structures of the city. A lot of artists participated, asked questions, and were really engaged. In the future, we are considering an exhibition of these outputs for educational purposes,” he told the Inquirer. ARTFUL STROKES Local artists put their sketches to paper To maintain the initiative’s open spirit, organizers deliberately avoid formal hierarchies, membership rosters or centralized group chats under the Carmen Art District. “We want it to be as inclusive and informal as possible so that anyone can join without any barriers or gatekeeping,” Ramos said. “If participants want to make their own group chats within their networks, they can, but our goal is simply to hold a regular session and that’s it.” On Aug. 16, the group held another sketching session at the Montalvan ancestral house on Burgos Street, followed by a sketch walk toward Gaston Park, where seasonal plants were on display. The artists returned to the streets on Aug. 28, as the city celebrated its annual patronal fiesta, the Higalaay Festival. Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Your subscription has been successful. This time, they sketched the distinctive yellow-and-red, two-story wooden heritage house at the corner of Velez and Hayes streets, preserving another irreplaceable fragment of Kagay-anon memory from oblivion, one stroke at a time. /cb