Kwentong Bayan Collective: The 2025 Eastern Comma Artists in Residence

Musagetes is pleased to announce Kwentong Bayan Collective as the 2025 Eastern Comma Artists in Residence. Kwentong Bayan Collective (KBC) was founded in 2012 by Toronto-based artists Althea Balmes and Jo SiMalaya Alcampo. In the Filipino language, “kwentong bayan” is the literal translation of “community stories.” KBC’s artistic mandate is to explore a critical and intersectional approach to community-based art, labour, and education. A major part of KBC’s work is in collaboration with Filipino migrant care workers, who support Canadian families to care for children, elders, and those with complex medical needs. KBC’s comic on the history of the Live-in Caregiver Program was published in the 2016 anthology Drawn to Change: Graphic Histories of Working Class Struggle.

Musagetes is happy to continue our relationship with Kwentong Bayan Collective. They have presented at both our annual ArtsEverywhere Festival, and Rock / Paper / Scissors Book + Print Fair. As well, collective member Jo SiMayala Alcampo has been a resident artist in our Thread Residency program. More information about Kwentong Bayan Collective can be found on their website.

The Eastern Comma Artist-in-Residence program is named after a butterfly found near water sources in the eastern half of North America, and sporting comma-like markings on the underside of its wings. Held annually, this primarily literary residency has also engaged visual artists and musicians in its history. It is an initiative of the Musagetes Foundation and has its roots in a long-time programming relationship with the rare Charitable Research Reserve, which also includes the Question Mark Butterfly Fellowship, and the Long Dash Festival, an event bringing together the worlds of art and science.

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