Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Museo Kordilyera to Open on January 31 at UP Baguio

[Press Release] The University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB) will hold the formal opening of its ethnographic museum, the Museo Kordilyera, on January 31.

The event caps seven months of preparatory activities reckoned from the museum’s soft opening on June 23, 2016. After the formal opening this month, the museum would be open to the public where they will view three inaugural exhibits - on tattoos as body archive from the research work of anthropologist Dr. Analyn Salvador-Amores; a retrospective of the works of the late anthropologist Jules de Raedt; as well as selected ethnographic photographs by Roland Rabang of the UPB College of Arts and Communication.

The inaugural exhibits were the result of more than a year of curatorial work undertaken by Professor Emeritus Delfin Tolentino, Jr., Prof. Victoria Diaz, archivist Cristina Villanueva and Dr. Salvador-Amores. The curators’ selection of works to be featured in the museum follows the concept of the ethnographic museum in which it is “distinguished by its integral connection to the scholarly work of the faculty from the different colleges of the University.”

Guidance on the physical layout and museum content were provided by museum consultants Ma. Victoria “Boots” Herrera, director and chief curator of the Ateneo Art Gallery, Dannie Alvarez, administrator of the Yuchengco Museum, and Peter John Natividad, art collections management consultant of the Lopez Museum and Library.

Dr. Salvador-Amores, who is also the museum’s director said that this and succeeding scholarly works from the faculty that will be featured in the museum are works “dedicated to regional culture, (since the museum) will serve as a repository of the tangible and intangible heritage of the Cordillera.”

She added that the focus of the museum which is ethnography points to its “essential connection to anthropology,” as the discipline partakes of a particular “mode of anthropological research and discourse known as ethnography.”
Photo credit: Museo Kordilyera
The museum, she said, will focus “on the collection, preservation and display of objects associated with the unique societies and cultures of the Cordillera region.

The Museo Kordilyera is a three-level structure with only its reception level visible on the surface. Vice-chancellor for Administration Prof. Jessica K. Cariño said this follows the university’s policy that the structures should integrate with the university’s terrain and topography for “sustainability and preservation of ecology.”

She added that structures at UP Baguio should be “future proof,” explaining that the cost of maintenance for the use of the facilities in the succeeding years should be at the minimum.

Most of Museo Kordilyera’s essential facilities are at the second and third ground levels which include a permanent collection and curatorial space for ethnographic materials; a temporary exhibition space for loaned exhibitions and collateral activities by students, faculty and alumni; a visitor’s room for museum orientation purposes; an audio-visual room; and a museum shop and café.

The Museo Kordilyera is part of an infrastructure development plan initiated by Chancellor Raymundo D. Rovillos. This development plan had been approved and funded by the UP system under the administration of university President Alfredo A. Pascual.

[This is a press release by the University of the Philippines Baguio. For more information, you may contact Roland Rabang of the university's Office of Public Affairs. Or call them at 444-8719.]