The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) is the leading institution in the country that plans and implements programs for the development and promotion of the arts—music, dance, theater, visual, literary, cinematic, and broadcast arts. Since 1969 when it was created by President Ferdinand E. Marcos, it has sponsored programs and activities such as festivals, exhibitions, competitions, and publications to preserve, promote, and enhance the artistic and cultural heritage of the Filipino people, and to develop audiences that will appreciate and support artistic and cultural work. As the national center for the performing arts, it houses several performance venues as well as areas for both permanent and changing exhibits. It is home to nine resident companies that present regular seasons of productions, workshops, and outreach performances: Ballet Philippines, Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company, Philippine Ballet Theatre, Philippine Madrigal Singers, Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, Tanghalang Pilipino, and UST Symphony Orchestra.

Sitting on a 60-hectare complex on Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City, the CCP is part of a vast international network of arts and culture organizations that provide exchange opportunities between Filipino artists and artists from all over the world. This network also brings in performances and exhibitions that allow local audiences to experience arts and cultures from elsewhere. These organizations include the Association of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Center, the Conseil International des Organisations de Festivals de Folklore et d’Arts Traditionnels, the World Dance Alliance, the International Theater Institute, the Asian Theater Alliance, the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information, and the ASEAN–Korea Traditional Music Orchestra.

The CCP is composed of several departments that promote arts education, direct outreach and exchange programs all over the country, mount productions and exhibitions, manage cultural holdings, and develop its assets. In its first two decades the CCP focused on what were later perceived as elitist performing arts— theater, ballet, opera, and similar shows—a bias that was shaped by its first board of trustees chair, then First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos. Following the successful EDSA revolt against Marcos and his martial rule and the subsequent change in the country’s leadership, the CCP expanded its scope to include literature, film, and broadcast arts, among others. It also reoriented its direction to emphasize original Filipino artistic and cultural expressions rooted in the Philippines and the participation of the regions in the definition of a national culture.