Arts Journalism Matters Fellowship 2025: The Green Angle | 3 participants selected!
ASEF culture360 and the University of Philippines Open University are pleased to announce the selection of 3 arts journalists from the Philippines, who will participate in the upcoming Arts Journalism Matters Fellowship: The Green Angle.
The Arts Journalism Matters Fellowship, is a hybrid residency and mentorship programme that aims to provide long-term capacity building, networking and peer collaboration opportunties for emerging arts journalists from Asia and Europe.
Learn more about the selected journalists.
Denzel Yorong is an independent writer and media producer. He has written and directed documentaries and branded content for clients such as Habitat for Humanity and National Geographic. Apart from multimedia and communications, he also writes essays and art reviews for Esquire Philippines and Cartellino Digest. His essay on the National Artist campaign for a Cebuano painter was recently shortlisted for the 2025 Ateneo Art Awards – Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prizes in Art Criticism.
Denzel is interested in exploring how imagination and policy can sustain each other.
“I am guided by a singular question that continues to shape my work and curiosity: While artists have the duty to reflect the times, do they also bear a moral obligation to envision a sustainable future? My motivation to join this residency stems from a desire to explore this question further, through the lens of local practices, policy, and artistic labour.”
Maverick Avila is a journalist, researcher and creative artist. As a playwright and director, his recent projects include “Sama sa Mga Duwaan ni Inday” (Just Like Inday's Toys) for Kulukabildo Festival in Cebu in 2022 and “F.L.A.M.E.S.” for the Eksena Festival in Manila in 2023. He has also produced and written some selections of short films and documentaries, such as “Panag-iya” (Ownership), a documentary film about the rise in dump-and-fill (reclamation) projects in Cebu.
As a journalist, Maverick believes that the media play a vital in providing a platform for artists to amplify their voices
“In my storytelling, I aim to situate artists within their context, their milieu, motivations, and intentions. I strive to tell intimate stories often overlooked by mainstream media, perhaps due to word limits or external pressures. My goal is to craft narratives that are in-depth yet accessible to audiences.”
Jamella Samson is a photographer and visual artist. Through photography, painting, and printmaking, she explores grief as both a personal and ecological process, seeing art as a way to connect, heal, and alchemise. She is keen on eco-psychology and trauma-informed practice, and in how images can hold space for empathy, memorial care, and storytelling.
Through the Fellowship, Jamella hopes to deepen her understanding of how art can hold space for healing, not only for people, but for the environment we live in.
“I hope to contribute a perspective that bridges psychology, ecology, and visual storytelling. Exploring how creative practices can help communities process loss, cultivate care, and rebuild resilience. By engaging in collective reflection and dialogue, I aim to strengthen how I approach art as both research and activism, in capturing work that encourages deeper empathy for our ecology.”
Learn more about the previous editions of #ArtsJournalismMatters: