It lacked the hubbub usually associated with art auctions. At the Art 40 event, in which 39 paintings by various contemporary Filipino artists were up for bidding, art collectors quietly filled in small slips of paper with their going bid and dropped these into colorful house-shaped boxes.

By 6 p.m. when the winning bids were announced, the silent auction, organized by ABS-CBN broadcast journalist Julius Babao on the occasion of his fortieth birthday, had raised some PhP2.5 million. Along with proceeds of other paintings sold at fixed prices at the event, the money would go into building 25 to 30 houses for the Gawad Kalinga Art 40 Village in Caloocan City.

Art collectors slipped their bids into these colorful, house-shaped boxes.

Masterpieces for a village
“By building houses, you don’t just improve people’s homes,  you also improve their lives,” says Julius, who has been a supporter of Gawad Kalinga for some time now.Gawad Kalinga is an initiative that aims to reduce poverty and build 7,000 houses between 2003 and 2010.

Julius was inspired by his wife, Christine Bersola, who in 2006 volunteered to build a house with her high school friends at the Gawad Kalinga village in Fairview, Quezon City, as a birthday project. Since then, the couple has made it a point to pool resources to build a house every year to celebrate their birthdays.

Broadcast journalist Julius Babao’s 40th birthday cake was decorated with the Art 40 logo and mini houses similar to those seen in the Gawad Kalinga villages.

This year, Julius’ birthday is made even more special as more than 120 contemporary Filipino artists agreed to give 50 percent of the proceeds of their works to build an entire village.

Art patron and doctor Joven Cuanang, whose weekend home in Antipolo was the venue for the auction, is amazed how Babao’s project attracted the enthusiasm of many.

“It was an easy thing to do. It was as if the wells of goodwill flooded and infected everyone,” he says of the project, which he describes as “volunteerism at its best.”

Even Babao, an art collector whose passion for visual arts started when he first saw an Onib Olmedo painting, couldn’t believe how easy it was to convince artists to join the cause. His initial aim was to gather only 40 artists, but many came and were happy to help. The auction had gathered more than 120 contemporary Filipino artists, many of whom have achieved distinction both locally and abroad.

It’s a generous gesture with an impact that will resonate among more than 200 poor Filipinos who will soon have roofs over their heads, homes they can call their own, clean water, and, it is hoped, a better life.