PCGNY.net | News Release

New York Consulate, Trade and Tourism Offices showcase Philippines’ best on famed Fifth Avenue

PHILIPPINE CONSULATE - NEWS RELEASE
15 February 2007

NEW YORK --- In a move to more aggressively promote Philippine trade, culture, and tourism to the American mainstream, the Philippine Consulate General and the Philippine Trade and Tourism Offices in New York formally launched a program to fully use the Philippine Center and its glass façade facing Fifth Avenue as display area for the best of the Philippine Islands. The project is one of several flagship projects unveiled by the Philippine Consulate General in New York.

Philippine food and food ingredients display (Nov. 2006)

In line with this thrust, the Philippine Trade Office, from January to February 2006, utilized the Philippine Center’s glass façade to announce the 6th Outsourcing Conference and Exhibition that was held in EDSA Shangri-La later this year. From March to June, collections from Tama Gallery in Tribeca, New York, consisting of custom-made rare tropical Philippine hardwood tables, contemporary art and Philippine antiques graced the window display area of the Philippine Center.

In June, the Consulate General in collaboration with the Filipino Designers Association of the Philippines (FDAP), mounted Habi Filipina, a fashion show and window display of Philippine fashion wear that utilized indigenous woven fabric like pina, tinalak, inabel, and malong.

Exhibit of Filipino fashion wear using indigenous woven fabric like pina, tinalak,
inabel and malong (June 2006)

Then in July, the Trade Office, in cooperation with the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) and Material Conexion, a New York-based resource and consultancy company that offers ideas on new and innovative materials for designers, artists and architects, mounted “Transformations: Nature and Beyond.” The exhibit showcased prototype building and decorative materials using indigenous Philip pine natural resources such as capiz, coconut, seagrass, abaca, and even lahar (volcanic mud). In November, the Trade Office mounted “Flavors of the Philippines,” a display of Philippine food and food ingredients.

And in December, Philippine Holiday décorations were featured.

Philippine Tourism back-lit duratrans display
invites 5th Avenue sight-seers to discover the Philippines

Consul General Rebong said, “The project to fully utilize the Philippine Center display window for economic diplomacy is unprecedented.” “It is time that we took advantage of our prime location to promote the best of Philippine trade, tourism, and culture,” she added, while also noting that “the Philippine Center is within walking distance from major points of interest in New York City such as the Empire State Building, Times Square, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, The Rockefeller Center, Central Park, and, of course, signature stores like Gucci, Prada, Lacoste, Fendi, Tiffany & Co., and Piaget lining Fifth Avenue from the Southeastern tip of Central Park down to 34th Avenue.”

A seven-storey building strategically located on Fifth Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets, the Philippine Center boasts a two-storey-high glass window. While the Center hosts art exhibits by local artists all year round, its glass window has hardly been utilized in spite of its obvious advertising potential.

Currently on display at the Philippine Center are beautiful furniture and home furnishings as part of a two-month special exhibit called “Celebrating Philippine Design at 5th Avenue.” For the whole months January and February, the best of Philippine furniture and home furnishings from the collection of the country’s top furniture manufacturers and designers will be displayed at the Philippine Center. Aside from featuring a world-class collection of Philippine furniture and home furnishings, the exhibition will serve as advance promotion of the three biggest Philippine furniture exhibitions in the country this year, namely, The Cebu International Furniture and Furnishings Exhibition (26 February to 1 March 2007); The Philippine International Furniture Exhibition (27 February to 2 March 2007); and Manila F.A.M.E. International (18 – 21 April 2007 and 17-20 October 2007).

Consul General Rebong clarified that the project to fully utilize the Philippine Center’s glass display window for economic diplomacy is only one of several flagship projects identified by the once-country team consisting of the Philippine Consulate General, the Philippine Trade Office, and the Philippine Tourism Office. “Other big impact projects are in the pipeline,” she said, “including a Philippine outsourcing portal which is set for official launching by May March of this year.” She added that the backlit Dura-trans display by the Philippine Tourism Office (shown in one of the photos) will soon be replaced by a big flat-screen television that will show moving images of top Philippine tourism, cultural, and other interesting sites on a twenty-hour basis.