The call for local female artists to pick up their brushes and join the first-ever all-female nationwide art competition has sounded for the second time.

Following the success of last year’s launch of Sining Filipina, the pioneering competition that highlights the Filipino woman’s perspective communicated through art continues to allow Filipinas to take up significant space in the art world.

Despite the tight three-week deadline, more than 730 entries were submitted during last year’s competition. “We’ll triple that!” said Fidel Sarmiento, president of the Art Association of the Philippines, which was founded in 1948 by Purita Kalaw Ledesma, adding that he had been inundated by queries ever since he posted about the contest on his social media accounts.