I’m pleased to announce the publication of my article in Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia:

Geronimo Cristobal, “Intellectual and Social Currents in the Establishment of the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura (1821–1834),” Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 41, no. 1 (2026): 1–45.
https://doi.org/10.1355/sj41-1a

The article revisits the origins of the Academia de Dibujo y Pintura, widely regarded as the first secular institution for artistic instruction in Southeast Asia. While the school is often attributed to the painter Damián Domingo, I situate his work within a wider network of Enlightenment-minded reformers, merchant patrons, and civic organizations in early nineteenth-century Manila.

I argue that the Academia emerged from these overlapping social and intellectual currents, particularly those fostered by the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, which promoted technical education and the cultivation of a creative class in the Spanish Philippines.