Legarda Encourages Frequent Visits to Museums

In celebration of International Museum Day (May 18), Senator Loren Legarda encouraged everyone to make frequent visits to museums to enrich people’s understanding of their culture and history.

“I hope we can all take time to make regular visits to our museums to immerse in our history and culture. This will help strengthen national identity and pride,” Legarda said.

“Our National Museum organizes lectures and workshops that help us better understand and appreciate our heritage as well as the culture of our neighbor countries. It offers free entrance during Sundays and on special occasions such as International Museum Day, National Heritage Month in May, and Museums and Galleries Month in October. These are efforts to encourage frequent visit to our museums,” she added.

In line with this, Legarda invites everyone to attend the Basey Mat Weaving Demonstration and Workshop on May 26 and 27 at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila, featuring mat weavers from Basey, Samar.

The weaving demonstration is part of the Lecture Series on Philippine Traditional Textiles and Indigenous Knowledge, which Legarda initiated in 2012 to perpetuate weaving and indigenous knowledge.

The Senator has been working with the National Museum to organize lecture series and demonstrations particularly on weaving at the Hibla ng Lahing Filipino, the country’s first permanent textile gallery.

Legarda is the patron of the Hibla gallery, as well as the Baybayin: Ancient and Traditional Scripts of the Philippines gallery, and the Rice, Biodiversity and Climate Change exhibit—all of which are her projects with the National Museum.

“We have a very rich heritage, so rich that we have a lot to learn and understand about the practices, traditions, and way of living of our ancestors; we have to embrace the culture that is unique to us, so we can have a better understanding of our roots and of who we are. Our museums will help us learn about these things,” she stressed.

Legarda, who chairs the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities, has also proposed the creation of folk art museums in every region in the country.

These regional museums will feature traditional folk art collection aside from the local archeological finds, objects of art, and other local cultural treasures.