Longtime Fil-Am leader named ‘Champion for the Arts’ by Virginia Beach

Rose Daria has been named 2023 Champion for the Arts by the Virginia Beach Arts & Humanities Commission. FACEBOOK

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia – Filipino American community leader Rose Daria was named 2023 Champion for the Arts by the Virginia Beach Arts & Humanities Commission for making a significant impact on the city’s vibrant cultural and arts scene through volunteer service and philanthropy.

The Arts & Humanities Commission unanimously voted to recognize Daria, a former commission member, for her decades of community service, including working with the local Filipino American community in forming the Council of United Filipino Organizations of Tidewater, VA Inc. (CUFOT) whose purpose is to build a place for preserving and promoting Filipino culture and heritage.

Along with a group of 31 other family leaders in the community, the CUFOT Board of Trustees financially backed the effort to make this dream became a reality in 2000, with the opening of the Philippine Cultural Center of Virginia (PCC) on Baxter Road in Virginia Beach.

Daria led a volunteer effort to form dance groups, which included several Filipino women as instructors of cultural dances, designers, and makers of costumes and locators and/or creators of performing props, such as music, bamboo poles, glasses with candles, straw hats, and castanets.

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The dance groups recruited youth 5-18 years old to introduce them to the unique Filipino music, dances, geography, agriculture, way of life, and all aspects of culture. They have been invited to many local events such as the Neptune Festival, the Azalea Festival (now the Norfolk NATO Festival), Harborfest, and church celebrations and community gatherings to showcase the Philippines.

Once the PCC was built in 2000, the CUFOT / PCC School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCAPA) was established, with Daria as the director until 2020. She has also been the artistic director for many annual Filipino contests, including the Mrs. Philippines of Virginia from 1979–2019. She continued in this role in 2023, helping celebrate the 125^th anniversary of the Philippines Independence Day.

Daria has also been a longstanding board member of the Sister Cities Association of Virginia Beach, for which she has also been preparing and coordinating the on-stage competition for the Youth Ambassador Program.