Fundacion Pacita Batanes Nature Lodge
Basco, Batanes, Philippines

A wind-swept hill in Tukon, next to “Fundacion Pacita”, is where Pacita Abad, one of Asia’s foremost contemporary painters, who touched so many people around the world with her rainbow of colors, exuberant smile, booming laughter, boundless energy and unabashed enthusiasm for life and art, is now at rest. Pacita Abad, the multicolored, Ivatan gypsy artist, traveled around the world finally returned to her studio home overlooking the Pacific Ocean on her beloved island of Batanes.

Fundacion Pacita was originally built as the Artist’s magnificent stone studio that she designed and built with local stone, like the traditional houses on her native island of Batanes. The Fundacion is situated on her father’s former cow pasture overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The construction of the Studio began in 2002 and was finished in 2004. After Pacita’s passing, it was donated to the Jorge, Aurora and Pacita Abad Foundation and converted into an arts and culture center for the people of Batanes. The Fundacion is now the headquarters of the Pacita Abad Center for the Arts, as well as a Nature Lodge in Batanes.

Proceeds from its operations will support two important projects: the restoration of Ivatan vernacular houses which will subsequently be converted into museums, reading centers and bed and breakfast inns and the provision of scholarships for deserving Ivatan students. The Foundation will also continue to support the Pacita Abad Center for the Arts. The Center has successfully mounted major art exhibitions, one at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and one at the Museo Pambata, featuring the artworks of emerging Ivatan young artists. It will also continue the Center’s Visiting Artists Program where famous Filipino artists conduct art workshops for Ivatans, young and old alike, to preserve the legacy of Pacita Abad.

Pacita Abad

Restoration of vernacular house

Arts Workshop with Mr Carlos Rocha –Visiting Artists Program

Painting by a young Ivatan artist

Painting for the Tukon Chapel

Watercolor workshop by Mr Roland Santos -Visiting Artists Program