Kwentong Bayan Collective
Short bio
Kwentong Bayan Collective (KBC) is a Toronto-based artist collective founded in 2012 by Althea Balmes and Jo SiMalaya Alcampo. KBC’s artistic mandate is to explore a critical and intersectional approach to community-based art, labour, and education. In the Filipino language, "kwentong bayan" is the literal translation of "community stories".
We are grateful to the indigenous knowledge keepers and community members who teach us how to be in relation with the land and respect the original agreement of the Dish with One Spoon Covenant.
Kwentong Bayan Collective (KBC) is a Toronto-based artist collective founded in 2012 by Althea Balmes and Jo SiMalaya Alcampo. KBC’s artistic mandate is to explore a critical and intersectional approach to community-based art, labour, and education. In the Filipino language, "kwentong bayan" is the literal translation of "community stories".
We are grateful to the indigenous knowledge keepers and community members who teach us how to be in relation with the land and respect the original agreement of the Dish with One Spoon Covenant.
Collective Profile
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.
In 2017, the Graphic History Collective commissioned KBC to create an art poster to intervene in the Canada 150 conversation. KBC’s Visual Timeline of Caregiving Work in Canada poster examines the 150+ year history of care work by racialized women in Canada. Subsequently, this artwork has been published in academic textbooks, taught in high school, college and universities, and presented in mural form at galleries in Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, and Noisel, France.
From 2017-2018, KBC participated in the Artists in the Library program at the Toronto Public Library. KBC facilitated a weekly meet-up, at the Lilian H. Smith branch, for people to make comics and receive feedback from professional artists. This year-long program culminated in KBC organizing the first Filipino Zine Fair in Toronto.
In 2019, KBC partnered with Mississauga Culture and the Small Arms Inspection Building to create a public arts program in Etobicoke. The project was entitled, HABI: Weaving Stories of Migrant Labour and Indigenous Resurgence and explored indigenous history, labour, migration, and our relationship with the land.
In 2020-2021, KBC completed a year-long arts residency at Myseum of Toronto, presenting Stories of Collective Care in the Time of Covid-19 that explored how communities in Toronto benefitted from mutual aid practices during the global pandemic, and Here and There - a collaborative storytelling event that highlighted personal experiences of care workers who worked on the frontline during the pandemic.
In 2022, KBC contributed to the group exhibition, Together While Apart at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre featuring artwork and stories based upon experiences that women and gender-diverse people faced during the pandemic.
In May 2023, Kwentong Bayan Collective participated in a Careworkers Retreat in Vancouver, B.C. organized by Caregiver Connections Education and Support Organization (CCESO) and the Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights (CDWCR). Our newest collective member, Melanya Liwanag Aguila joined us and facilitated embodied movement-based activities that highlighted the value of care work.
In November 2023, KBC created a movement-based performance for the book launch of Care Activism by Ethel Tungohan, the Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism. KBC’s interactive performance affirmed the history of activism and leadership by migrant care workers in Canada.
From October 2023 to September 2024, KBC facilitated Circle of Care, a monthly grief support group for the 2SLGBTQIA+ BIPOC community. We facilitated art activities that encouraged self-awareness through creative expression. Participants explored their personal experiences with grief, and the impact of global events on our collective mental health, and we shared a community meal each month.
In 2024, KBC created a prototype Liberation Jeepney to embody creative resistance and community-engaged art. Community members supported us at the Toronto Pride and we plan on developing this project in the future.
Kwentong Bayan Collective are the 2025 Eastern Comma Artists in Residence. 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.
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.
In 2017, the Graphic History Collective commissioned KBC to create an art poster to intervene in the Canada 150 conversation. KBC’s Visual Timeline of Caregiving Work in Canada poster examines the 150+ year history of care work by racialized women in Canada. Subsequently, this artwork has been published in academic textbooks, taught in high school, college and universities, and presented in mural form at galleries in Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, and Noisel, France.
From 2017-2018, KBC participated in the Artists in the Library program at the Toronto Public Library. KBC facilitated a weekly meet-up, at the Lilian H. Smith branch, for people to make comics and receive feedback from professional artists. This year-long program culminated in KBC organizing the first Filipino Zine Fair in Toronto.
In 2019, KBC partnered with Mississauga Culture and the Small Arms Inspection Building to create a public arts program in Etobicoke. The project was entitled, HABI: Weaving Stories of Migrant Labour and Indigenous Resurgence and explored indigenous history, labour, migration, and our relationship with the land.
In 2020-2021, KBC completed a year-long arts residency at Myseum of Toronto, presenting Stories of Collective Care in the Time of Covid-19 that explored how communities in Toronto benefitted from mutual aid practices during the global pandemic, and Here and There - a collaborative storytelling event that highlighted personal experiences of care workers who worked on the frontline during the pandemic.
In 2022, KBC contributed to the group exhibition, Together While Apart at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre featuring artwork and stories based upon experiences that women and gender-diverse people faced during the pandemic.
In May 2023, Kwentong Bayan Collective participated in a Careworkers Retreat in Vancouver, B.C. organized by Caregiver Connections Education and Support Organization (CCESO) and the Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights (CDWCR). Our newest collective member, Melanya Liwanag Aguila joined us and facilitated embodied movement-based activities that highlighted the value of care work.
In November 2023, KBC created a movement-based performance for the book launch of Care Activism by Ethel Tungohan, the Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism. KBC’s interactive performance affirmed the history of activism and leadership by migrant care workers in Canada.
From October 2023 to September 2024, KBC facilitated Circle of Care, a monthly grief support group for the 2SLGBTQIA+ BIPOC community. We facilitated art activities that encouraged self-awareness through creative expression. Participants explored their personal experiences with grief, and the impact of global events on our collective mental health, and we shared a community meal each month.
In 2024, KBC created a prototype Liberation Jeepney to embody creative resistance and community-engaged art. Community members supported us at the Toronto Pride and we plan on developing this project in the future.
Kwentong Bayan Collective are the 2025 Eastern Comma Artists in Residence. 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.
