The National Museum Holds Taxidermy of Birds and Mammals
(An Advanced Course in Museology) this October
The National Museum through its Museum Education Division is pleased to invite the graduates of Basic Museology Training, science teachers and students, and enthusiasts to Taxidermy of Birds and Mammals (An Advanced Course in Museology) from October 11-15, 2010 at the Chemistry and Conservation Laboratory, National Museum.
Taxidermy is the art or operation of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of dead animals for study and exhibition purposes. The techniques of taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. In the field of museology, it is particularly important in the zoology section.
The one week training will include lectures, demonstrations and workshops, a visit to specimen collections of the National Museum’s Zoology Division, and interaction with taxidermy experts.
For more information and/or reservations please get in touch with Messrs. Mel Lagartija or Jes Arella of the Museum Education Division at telefax no. 5270278 or email us at mlagartija@yahoo.com / museum.education.nm@gmail.com.National Museum Grants Free Admission
In collaboration with the Civil Service Commission’s celebration of Civil Service Month, the National Museum shall waive the entrance fees of all officials and employees of government offices who wish to visit the museum this coming September 2010. Said offices include constitutional bodies, departments, bureaus, offices and agencies, local government units, state colleges and universities, and government-owned and controlled corporations. Free admission shall be granted upon presentation of a valid government office ID. The National Museum, however, emphasizes that the said free entrance shall be limited to the government employee and shall not be extended to the companions of the ID holder.
Their families and the general public, on the other hand, can view the exhibits for free during the whole month of October in celebration of Museums and Galleries Month. The Museum hopes that this initiative will encourage the people to visit the Institution and enjoy the exhibits while learning from the displays of the country’s rich cultural heritage. Proclamation No. 798, passed on September 12, 1991, declares October as Museums and Galleries Month in the Philippines.
For more information, please contact the Museum Education Division at telefax 527-02-78 or email education@nationalmuseum.gov.ph.
Lecture on The Life and Works of Juan Luna
Held at the Hall of the Masters
A lecture entitled The Life and Works of Juan Luna y Novicio was conducted last August 26, 2010 at the Hall of the Masters, National Arts Gallery of the National Museum. The event was the first of a series of three collateral lectures for PAMANA: Heritage of a Nation exhibit.
Art scholar and university professor Santiago Albano Pilar shared his life’s work of research that provided him with a wealth of knowledge and intriguing anecdotes about Luna, in a two-hour lecture participated by more than 150 students, teachers, and cultural workers. He described in detail the Spoliarium, Luna’s most celebrated work, and discussed extensively events behind its completion and success.
A slide show of Luna’s works also emphasized the fact that the Spoliarium was by no means the only important painting completed by the artist. Literally hundreds of finished paintings, numerous studies for larger canvasses, and countless more sketches exist as testament to the volume of work of the artist and the genius of the man. Most of Luna’s works still lie on foreign soil, such as The Death of Cleopatra, Roman Ladies, and The Battle of Lepanto, the latter being a personal commission by the then King of Spain, Alfonso XII. Still, Prof. Pilar envisions these masterpieces returning home one day, as with the case of Luna’s once lost collection in New York now housed at the National Arts Gallery; the much talked about Parisian Life; and of course the Spoliarium.
Towards the end of the lecture, Pilar disclosed a little known version of that fateful day when in a fit of rage Luna shot and killed his wife and his mother-in-law. It was the eyewitness account of Andres himself, Luna’s only son, who was then a young boy and present at the time of the incident. The professor revealed similarly interesting bits of information about Luna and many others of his myth-surrounded paintings.
The lecture on the Life and Works of Juan Luna is a collateral activity of the exhibit PAMANA: Heritage of a Nation - Juan Luna y Novicio. Santiago Albano Pilar is a prolific art books author and a professor at the University of the Philippines. He has won numerous awards including the Ten Outstanding Young Men of 1980 for Art History. The lecture was spearheaded by the Museum Education Division in coordination with the Arts Division, both of the National Museum.