althea idea works
co-creating in person and digital projects which actively sustain and nurture communities we belong to and serve.
This is my offering of services and skills for the Collective.
Connect with me to create, teach and or support you in the realms of:
UX Design and Strategy
Visual Storytelling
Arts-Based Education and Curriculum Development
At the core of my offering is experiential storytelling. I see our lived stories as the place where instructions on how we can build our community are stored.
I support in person or digital projects which actively sustain and nurture the communities we belong to and serve. I support those who are wholeheartedly following their purpose.
I see my work as caretaking and co-creating the container where you activate your story and your purpose. My process and approach is rooted and informed by kapwa relations and the purposeful work of community building. Using play and collaboration, I work at the intersection of storytelling, education and design, so you see yourself and others in the creation.
Yes, I hold a master’s degree in user experience design, 10+ years in visual storytelling and arts but my education is by the community. Since 2010, I have been holding space or sharing space that is multigenerational, queer, trans and BIPOC. I value the knowledge, the wisdom and the visions shared in these spaces.
The spirit of the collective inspires me. It is a deep honour to be a part of and be a sacred witness to humanity in the stories that move us.
In the rubbles of the failing old world
I see the seedlings we each laid down
They are the beacon
Of the new world we are birthing
Here and Now
-my prayer for our cocreation
who am i?
My name is Althea Idea A. Balmes (she/ they/ siya). I carry the Ilocano and Ilonggo lineages and stories of my ancestors in my name. We come from the islands now colonially known as the Philippines. I was born and raised in Quezon City, now living and creating in Toronto/ Tkaronto, the traditional territories of the Wendat, Peturn, Haudenasuanee and Anishinaabe People.
I follow the original agreement of the Dish with One Spoon Covenant.
I am an award winning multidisciplinary visual storyteller, arts educator and designer. My artistic work focuses on the multiplicity of our experience of migration and diasporic personhood. I tap into the ancestral, the sacred and the intangible cultures of my people. I approach this work like visual ethnographies to connect to past, present and future existence and the Unseen worlds. This work is about deepening our human experience and being a witness to alternative worldviews and realities. For my people, my hope is that the work is healing.
As an arts educator, my workshops are grounded in play, experimentation and curiosity. These workshops are designed for the Indigenous, Black and brown, queer and trans communities of whatever generation to explore our stories and deepen our connection to our innate creative selves.
My work has been programmed across Canada and internationally (France, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines). I have been published in multiple publications including Between the Lines Press. My comic residency, Cup Doodle Project (2017) was covered in the CBC Arts. Here is my short CV for those interested in doing a more detailed reading of my work.
Outside of my independent practice, I am the other half of Kwentong Bayan Collective and a member of Kapwa Collective.
Althea Idea Works is my offering for those among us doing purpose driven work such as community and arts organizations, social enterprises, artists, healers and the like. It is a culmination of my service and skills I have honed in community for the collective. My work supports in person and digital projects which actively sustain and nurture the same communities we belong to and serve.
I hold a B.A in Anthropology and International Development and a Master of Information in User Experience Design.
kapwa:
Kapwa stems from pakikipagkapwa tao, a core Filipino value of interconnectedness. It is an understanding that our (non ego) self is interwoven into the fabric of existence of others. In the most simple English translation, kapwa is the antithesis to 'othering'. It is a deep knowing of Self as shared with others.
Kapwa was first explained by Virgilio Enriquez (the father of Filipino psychology). Read more about Virgilio, sikolohiyang pilipino and kapwa as he understands it here.
I learned from one IG user (ili.likhan), who broke down kapwa as KA + PUWANG.
In its wholeness, kapwa embodies the understanding that we share the same breath and space with others. Whether being in the same room or living this cosmic lifetime with other people, is to recognize that we navigate the same earthly and spiritual conditions.
To see yourself in another person requires humility and empathy in knowing that your experience of this earth in this lifetime is shared and linked with others. To say, “kapwa” is to say we each give breath and hold space for the divine and the human experience in each of us. We are literally in this together.
Carl Lorenz Cervantes as Sikodiwa also speaks about kapwa as he understands it. He calls the Filipino worldview to be “transpersonal”. This aligns with me beautifully! I have much gratitude for him sharing his knowledge on social media as a pyschospiritual researcher. His presence reminds me that such teachings are rooted from land relations of the islands but its branches are far reaching way into the diaspora. We will alway be connected.
