In Cebu City, there’s a running joke that everyone knows everyone.
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That’s hard to believe when there’s roughly a million people in the metro, yet it rings true in the way creative spaces form and flourish.
In this UNESCO City of Design, creativity connects the community. So if you really want to get to know Cebu, follow the trail of creative spaces; the places where musicians, writers, and makers of all stripes gather to create and collaborate.
This is where the city’s spirit is truly on display – and where you can feel, even if it’s just for a moment, that you’re truly local.
Photos: Lara Eviota
The pocket universe of Lost Books
Entering Lost Books is like being transported into a pocket universe, worlds away from the sweltering heat and dusty sidewalk of Osmeña Boulevard.
The ATM vestibule-turned-bookshop is smaller than a studio unit, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in character. Sketches from local artists fill the room from floor to ceiling. A mural of endemic flora and fauna hugs the space. Quirky figurines perch beside antiques and curios. Towering bookcases hold classics, young adult novels, and children's books.
More than anything else, Lost Books is basecamp for the Cebuano literature scene. Co-founder and bookworm extraordinaire Donald Villamero opened up shop after finding very few regional stories represented in London Book Fair 2024 and National Bookstore branches.
“To so many people, this is more than just a bookshop. It is home,” Donald shares.
Scour the shelves and you'll find local folktales, songs, essays, and novels by Bisayan authors like Resil Mojares, a National Artist for Literature. The bookshop also has Bisaya translations of The Little Prince, an illustrated book of the Cebuano alphabet, and the first Cebuano novel.
Here, quirks and easter eggs can be found if you dare to explore. Chat with Donald, for instance, and you might learn that the mural contains a newly discovered flower and the endangered Cebu flowerpecker.
The bookshop also has a furry employee with an adorable meow. Just ask for Jane Austen, the stray cat who wandered into their pantry and decided to stay.
And you never know what you’ll find on the bookshelves. “I didn't want to put up an inventory yet, because we want to have that element of surprise, even to us,” Donald confesses. “There’s that element of losing yourself. It's like a hidden trove of treasures.”
Reading in-store is encouraged. Grab a book, slip into a seat, and sip a cafe latte in between chapters. For quiet browsing, visit weekday mornings, or go on weekends to trade stories with a crowd. You can also ask the staff for tailored recommendations. And when buying a book, get poetic and request an old-fashioned stamp to seal the deal in ink.
Photos: Lara Eviota
The joys of creating at Cebu Making Space
This is where creatives go to work and play. Cebu Making Space is tucked on the third floor of Mango Square, past sluggish escalators and down a long corridor.
One might say it’s out of the way. But in the local language of Bisaya, there's a better word of choice: tuyoonon – to purposefully visit a place worth seeking.
Making Space is a playground for creatives. Mesh grid frames and art materials stretch across walls, exposed pipes and beams crisscross the ceiling, and wooden workstations are lined up on concrete floors. It’s a multi-room makerspace, gallery, and studio where creativity is nurtured and shared.
Instead of buying costly equipment that might gather dust after one project, people can pay by the hour or the minute to use woodworking tools, laser cutters, 3D printers, cricut and sewing machines, and more.
Co-founder and designer Stephanie Tudtud explains the concept behind the space: “When you have a drill, what you really need is the hole and not the drill itself. After you drill a hole, you no longer need the drill. Here, instead of buying a drill for yourself, you just access the tool to create what you need.”
The co-making space serves a wide range of makers, from photographers to visual artists and even aspiring builders with zero experience. One groom learned laser engraving for wedding favours, and travellers have joined puso weaving workshops to practice Filipino craft techniques.
If you just want rest and inspiration, you can sip on tea and view an art exhibition at The Tea & Gallery on-site. There might be pieces by Cebu-based fine arts students one day, and the next, a gay couple’s paintings and poems on love and devotion.
"We will try to make space for you, especially if you can't find space for the things that you want to do,” Stephanie shares.
Photos: Lara Eviota
After hours at Pavement Records
Stowed in the labyrinth-like streets of Kasambagan neighbourhood, Pavement Records feels like stumbling into someone's impossibly cool living room – if that someone happened to have impeccable taste in vinyl.
Serial musician and owner Simon Nuñez, a.k.a. King Spade, created this intimate record shop and listening bar when his dogs began destroying his vinyl collection during the pandemic. "They started to rip off my records. They started to pee on my records,” he recounts.
He’s constantly on a mission to expand his already-vast collection by travelling to countries including Thailand and Singapore to hunt for records, from Damien Marley’s island hip-hop to classic Sting and OPM gems. The curatorial criteria remains refreshingly simple: “As long as it sounds good.”
Pavement Records is decked out in serious audiophile equipment – vintage turntables, amplifiers, and headphones – and memorabilia like Bob Marley and Michael Jackson posters, concert flyers, and funky stickers. You can browse and buy from the eclectic vinyl collection or mingle with creatives over bottles of Bisaya Brew – there are no rules.
“Come as you are. Just be yourself,” Simon says, “Main goal is just to help the community, man. Not to be rich.”
So the next time you find yourself in Cebu’s streets, keep an eye out for the creativity that lives everywhere in this city. Like in a hole-in-the-wall along the Osmeña Boulevard. An unassuming corner on the hazy streets of Kasambagan. Or a retail space at the far end of an old mall.
In this UNESCO City of Design, it’s the thread that guides you to the most soul-filling spaces. You just have to find and follow it.
