Pushing art and culture outside square museum walls
A date place. A hub of activity. A venue for people of all ages and demographics. These are the things Ayala Museum director Guillermo Luz envisions for the museum ever since he took the helm of the institution last year. He wanted to make the museum livelier. He wanted to bring art out there. He wanted new audiences to come in to soak themselves in various art forms, and get them to renew their interest in our country’s rich history and heritage. And it looks like Luz has been calling all the right shots (including spamming this writer to death of e-mails about the museum’s upcoming programs and exhibitions, but this writer isn’t complaining, though) to achieve the challenges he has set for himself and the museum staff.
“My concept for the museum is to not just be a place for exhibiting art. When I came in to the Ayala Museum and had my very first meeting with the staff, we sat down and talked about the things we have done. But more importantly, I posed these questions: ‘What’s our identity?’ ‘What’s our purpose in life as a museum?’ We need to be an institution that captures art history and culture as museums are supposed to,” Luz shares.
Captured art history and culture the museum did and in a very fresh and dynamic fashion. Last year, the museum partnered with organizations such as the Purita-Kalaw Ledesma Foundation, the Filipino Heritage Festival, and Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation in showcasing collections of historical and cultural significance. More exhibitions of painting, sculpture, and installation art were also staged last year, and along with them are intimate lecture series dubbed ‘Conversations in Art’ made to “peer into the depth and significance of featured artist, and the publication of exhibition catalogues.”
More than these, however, Luz has also introduced “several layers” into the museum’s creative outreach through a number of lecture series called ‘DesignTalks’ featuring professionals from various design fields and ‘History Comes Alive!’ featuring noted historian Ambeth Ocampo.
“Lectures can be exciting, but with that said, we had to pick the lecturers very carefully. All of who has been put to sleep in school through lectures? I didn’t want that. I said, ‘Let’s go and have fun and exciting lectures that will be, if we talk about Philippine history, animated and imaginative. We should have lectures that can make us travel back in time so that we can really feel the history and get a different appreciation of it,” Luz says.
Thinking that design is seemingly an ignored field in the country, Luz decided to tap world-class designers for the first series of the museum’s DesignTalks. They had furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue, jeweler Anne Pamintuan, light designer Florian Theuer, furniture designers Budji Layug and Royal Pineda, architect Ed Calma, fashion designer Rajo Laurel, artist Rachy Cuna, and milliner Mich Dulce as guest lecturers last year.
Luz tells, “We tried to make each lecture different and fun. It’s for people who are designers and people who aren’t, people who like to understand the thinking process, the idea, the rationale that goes behind the designers’ creations. The lectures are a peek to what make designers tick and to what goes in their minds.”
Luz also says that when Ambeth Ocampo came in to talk about history, his lecture was a full-house. “He’s got great pictures, story behind the story, and back story behind the event. The true test of how popular his lectures are is how people go out of their way to listen to three or four of his lectures. He gets repeat listeners,” he claims.
The museum also launched a ‘Museology Series’ last year, presenting different aspects of museum practices from managing and maintaining collections to audience development. Year-round jazz concerts were also staged, aiming to further develop and diversify the musical experience of Filipino audiences. Art appreciation, awareness, and practice were further encouraged among underprivileged children by holding summer workshops and ‘Day at the Museum.’
Luz says they are looking forward to further foster the museum and art experience of museum goers this year by continuing to reach out to them in any way possible. One such way is the museum using technology and social-networking platforms to attract and keep in touch with its followers as well as an online magazine that is set to be launched this year, Luz discloses.
This May, the museum together with the Goethe-Institut Manila is set to bring a multimedia exhibition that rediscovers the poetry of weather, featuring cautionary and environmental works of 12 international artists that will present the relationship between nature and culture and how environmental issues are intricately connected to human affairs.
This year will see ‘Images of Nation’—a series of exhibits paying homage to National Artists. The July up to December run of the exhibit will display the works of Jose Joya. Meanwhile, a Manga exhibition will also be showcased in August; in October, the 44th Shell National Student Art Competition; and in November to December, a show that will highlight the craftsmanship and ingenuity of designer Iñigo Elizalde, artist and former art director of Rafe New York whose designs have graced the pages of Vogue and Cover Magazine.
“So far, we are happy with the response of the people. I think it’s inherent for Filipinos to like creative stuff and to be creative. We’d like to be a channel for people to get into. We want to do more. We don’t want to keep art inside the museum. For me, art has got to be out in the streets, in the malls, and in the parks. It’s been a challenge but I’d like to think we’re doing pretty well,” Luz ends. And rightly so. - Article courtesy of Manila Bulletin.
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