Mobile Museum Boxes Exhibit

Posted on:  |  National Museum of the Philippines Posted in News and Events, Uncategorized.

Mobile Museum Boxes Exhibit launched at the Santa Barbara Centennial Museum in Santa Barbara, Iloilo

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Discover the richness of Visayas biodiversity by visiting the Mobile Museum Boxes traveling exhibition “Conserving the Natural History of the Visayas Region” at the Santa Barbara Centennial Museum in Santa Barbara, Iloilo.

The exhibit was opened to the public on February 14. Santa Barbara LGU officials led by Mayor Rema Somo, together with representatives from the Departments of Education and Tourism, the academe, and cultural workers from Iloilo, graced the opening ceremonies.

The Mobile Museum Boxes is a joint project of the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) – Botany and Herbarium Division, the Western Visayas Association of Museums, Inc. (WVMI), and the Forest Foundation of the Philippines (FFP).

The 12 museum boxes were brought and launched in Eastern Samar State University in Borongan, Eastern Samar in 2019 and were transferred to the University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman, Northern Samar. It was brought to the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban and Visayas State University in Baybay, all in Leyte province. Samar and Leyte have forest-protected areas supported by the Forest Foundation of the Philippines. After almost two (2) years of no mobility in Baybay because of the pandemic, the Mobile Museum Boxes were again resumed their travel to National Museum Bohol in Tagbilaran in October 2021.

Forester John Rey Callado, Museum Researcher II of the Botany and National Herbarium Division, stressed the importance of conserving Visayas forests as they host unique flora and fauna in his walk-through tour of the exhibition. He called on the educators to utilize the exhibition as a learning tool to raise public awareness on the importance of preserving and protecting the environment to biodiversity.

Santa Barbara Tourism Officer Irene Magallon invites the public to visit the museum from Mondays to Fridays, 9 AM to 4 PM following local health protocols. The Mobile Museum Boxes will be in Santa Barbara until April 13, 2022.

Text from National Museum Western Visayas

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines

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Part 2 of “The Basi Revolt by Esteban Villanueva”, National Cultural Treasures, in Know Your North

Posted on:  |  National Museum of the Philippines Posted in NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE PHILIPPINES, News and Events, Uncategorized.

The beauty of art is that it can be interpreted in diverse ways.

Your #NationalMuseumPH continues to celebrate the National Arts Month with the rest of the country by now sharing with you the second short feature film on the 200-year-old “The Basi Revolt” paintings that were declared collectively as National Cultural Treasure in 2009.

A part of the video documentary project on the historic artworks, this short film focuses on the wealth of images found in all of the 14 oil on canvas comprising “The Basi Revolt” series that, as National Museum Director-General Jeremy Barns points out in this feature, have “elements that are really appealing, or arouse curiosity, or focus your attention”.

The film thus draws us into some of the panels, and up close, we get a sample of the images and how they are perceived, inviting us to also look deeper as well as challenging us to delve back into history and have our own take at the illustrations.

At the filming in September 2021, Deputy Director-General for Museums Dr. Ana Labrador talked about the NMP’s aim to open up the narratives on the paintings, for people to “develop their visual eye, and look at them from their own histories, their own ideas, their own kind of responses”. Without a very prescriptive approach into interpretation, the agency rather engages viewers of “The Basi Revolt” into deciphering the details and contributing to the making of narratives on the artworks.

The video documentary on the “The Basi Revolt” paintings that are attributed to Vigan landowner and mestizo Esteban Pichay Villanueva was part of the commemoration of the paintings’ 200th year in 2021. Conceptualized during the pandemic together with a new publication featuring contemporary Ilokanos’ views of them, the video was seen to contribute to the NMP’s campaign as well as continue its online presence while museums were closed last year or open on a restricted basis due to the continued threat of COVID-19.

The video documentary project is a product of the collaboration between the NMP and the transportation company Victory Liner, Inc. (VLI), with award-winning documentary filmmaker Gabriel Malvar at the helm. Under the parties’ Memorandum of Agreement signed in July 2021, the film on the “The Basi Revolt” is part of the VLI’s “Know Your North” series of documentary films that took off in 2017. Malvar, who produces the “Know Your North” with his outfit The Extra Miles Productions, envisions developing several short features on “The Basi Revolt” as a way to continue celebrating the paintings’ bicentennial.

We hope you again enjoy this one while we await the release of the main documentary! So, don’t forget to regularly check this page for more on “The Basi Revolt”!

#TheBasiRevoltPaintingsAt200  
#TheBasiRevoltPaintingsBicentennial
#KnowYourNorth
#TheExtraMileProductions           

© 2022 National Museum of the Philippines with the Victory Liner, Inc.

“The Basi Revolt by Esteban Villanueva”, National Cultural Treasures, in Know Your North

Posted on:  |  National Museum of the Philippines Posted in News and Events.

Finally, a preview of “The Basi Revolt” (1821) paintings documentary that is part of the Victory Liner’s Know Your North series! After the pandemic-induced delay, we will be able to show you a number of short features leading up to the main one to celebrate the National Arts Month in February.

Your #NationalMuseumPH is happy to share this first video on the paintings by award-winning documentary filmmaker Gabriel Malvar. He shares with us the determination to continue celebrating the bicentennial of the historical paintings, which took place last year. In this four-minute video, the National Museum of the Philippines’ Director-General Jeremy Barns gives an overview of the 14 panels depicting the Basi Revolt of 1807 that in 2009 were collectively declared as National Cultural Treasure. He shares his insights while guiding us through some of the images in the panels that, apart from portraying scenes in the historical event, provide “glimpses of Philippine life at the time”.

Ilokana soprano Rosette Marie Aguinir of Vigan also renders lines of the Iloko folk song “O Naraniag a Bulan” (“Oh Bright Moon”) towards the end of the short feature, creating a haunting tone that reminds latter generations of Ilokanos one of the darkest episodes of their colonial past.

The video documentary on the “The Basi Revolt” paintings that are attributed to Vigan landowner and mestizo Esteban Pichay Villanueva was part of the commemoration of the paintings’ 200 th year. Together with a new publication featuring contemporary Ilokanos’ views of them, a video would contribute to the NMP’s campaign as well as continue its online presence since most of our museums were closed last year due to the continued threat of COVID-19. The partnership with the transportation company Victory Liner, Inc. (VLI) through Mr. Malvar and The Extra Mile Productions was forged through a Memorandum of Agreement in July 2021. Having developed the “Know Your North” project in 2017, they willingly agreed to join the NMP’s remembrance of the paintings’ milestone and the event that inspired it. More short features will follow as we anticipate the launch of the main documentary on the 200-year-old “The Basi Revolt”paintings in February. We hope you will enjoy this video. Please send us your feedback, and tune in for future programs!

#TheBasiRevoltPaintingsAt200
#TheBasiRevoltPaintingsBicentennial
#KnowYourNorth
#TheExtraMileProductions
#MuseumFromHome
#NMPIlocosRegionalMuseumComplex

©National Museum of the Philippines (2022), with the Victory Liner, Inc.