Ed. — From the Sunday, Aug. 13, print edition.
VIRGINIA BEACH — Rose P. Daria has been a champion for the arts in Virginia Beach for more than four decades.
But to be named the “champion for the arts” this year in Virginia Beach is a bit overwhelming.
“I was, indeed, surprised,” Daria said after the city announced the award last month. “Even though most of the recipients – I know them – they are the elite group in the community, and I’m only in the bottom totem pole. But when it comes to productivity and involvement and volunteerism, I think I level up with them.”
Daria accepted the award during a ceremony at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Town Center on Thursday, Aug. 3.
“The award is the arts and culture equivalent of ‘First Citizen,’” said Dr. Cynthia Romero, chair of the Virginia Beach Arts & Humanities Commission, during an interview before the ceremony. “It is given to a nominee who has impacted the city in remarkable ways by advocating, supporting, volunteering for and producing arts and cultural content while guiding and leading organizations to greater resilience, success and reach.”
Daria was nominated by Dr. Arlene Fontanares. She cited Daria’s work with the Council of United Filipino Organizations of Tidewater, which built the Philippine Cultural Center of Virginia in the Kempsville area of Virginia Beach in 2000, and her service as director of the center’s School of Creative and Performing Arts. Daria also served as a longtime board member of the Sister Cities Association of Virginia Beach.
“Her longstanding foundational efforts and dedication continue to promote the vision of sharing and promoting our Filipino arts and culture and have sustained our cultural presence across the city, the Hampton Roads region and the commonwealth,” Fontanares wrote in the nomination.
“Because of her unwavering service and support for the arts community as a financial investor, a volunteer leader and as an inspirational guide for our youth,” Fontanares added, “Rose P. Daria epitomizes the spirit of an arts advocate.”
Daria was born in the Philippines in the 1940s but immigrated to the U.S. and studied to be a nurse practitioner. She and her husband lived briefly in Europe but returned to the U.S. after having children, and they settled in Virginia Beach.
“I looked for Filipino groups because I want my children to know the Filipino way of life,” she said during an interview. “Luckily, I was able to find the Filipino Women’s Club, who was the only thriving organization at that time.”
Daria started teaching Filipino dance and planning pageants. Over the subsequent decades, she took on leadership positions with the aforementioned groups, ultimately serving on the city’s Arts & Humanities Commission, which she calls the pinnacle of her arts career.
“You can really see that the commission wants the citizens of Virginia Beach to receive and to see the best part of an art show,” she said. “Even though we all came from different walks of life, we have our own specialty.”
People on the commission worked together to make decisions about supporting important arts organizations in the community. She said her work with the commission made her happy because she learned much about aspects of the arts while supporting them.
Daria admitted she is uncomfortable in the spotlight.
“My life has been spent in the background, in the sideline, backstage,” she said. “It’s never in front. … My joy is whatever I think, whatever I plan, and then, when I see people doing it on stage, that is my joy. That’s it. That’s a part of me.”
Romero said it is humbling to have role models such as Daria.
“We now are in that role of relaying that true diversity and celebrating that unique identity as a Filipino American with others,” she said, “and particularly those younger Filipino Americans that may not have been connected to our community as much as we have. It’s an incredible responsibility, but also an amazing joy for us to be able to follow the examples that were set before us.”
The Champion for the Arts award was established in 2016 as part of the Virginia Beach Arts Plan 2030. Past winners — in chronological order — include Barbara Lewis, Tom and Juanita Felton, Barbara and Andrew Fine, Meredith and Brother Rutter, Nancy Creech and Marynell Gordon.
For more information about the Arts & Humanities Commission, visit culturalaffairs.virginiabeach.gov/commission-grants. Visit philippineculturalcenter.org for more information about Daria and the work of the Philippine Cultural Center of Virginia.
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