After 2 years of renovation, Ayala Museum and Filipinas Heritage Library to reopen partially

THE AYALA Museum and Filipinas Heritage Library (FHL) — which have been closed for renovation since June of 2019 — will have a soft opening on Dec. 4, the Ayala Foundation has announced. Five spaces with new exhibits will be made accessible to the public.

In response to the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, admission must be prebooked, entries will be timed entries, and admissions capacity will be limited. All guests visiting the museum and library, regardless of age, must be fully vaccinated and will have to provide proof of vaccination upon entry for the safety of all visitors and staff. Full protocols, visitation guidelines, and reminders are available on Ayala Museum’s new website: www.ayalamuseum.org/visit.

The refurbished museum will have refreshed exhibition, event, and retail spaces designed by Leandro V. Locsin Partners (LVLP). LVLP also designed the current museum building which opened in 2004. It replaced the original museum, designed by National Artist Leandro Locsin, which was demolished.

The museum boasts of a new lobby “marked by a distinctive Asian sensibility and borrowed landscape, integrating it closer to the Greenbelt complex and its environs,” said a press release.

NEW EXHIBITS
Five new exhibitions will be unveiled at the museum’s soft opening, along with the new Ayala Museum website and the upcoming Ayala Museum app.

Apropos this year’s quincentennial celebration of the circumnavigation of the world, the exhibition “Intertwined: Transpacific, Transcultural Philippines” explores the resulting entangled cultures brought about by man’s ability to circumnavigate the world, with over 240 objects and artworks.

There is now a new gallery dedicated to artist Fernando Zobel who envisioned the Ayala Museum. Its opening exhibit is “Landscape into Painting: Fernando Zobel Serie Blanca.” The Orientations Gallery will have a display of objects from the Ayala Museum collections, which focus on the cultures and peoples of the Philippines’ islands and the nation’s past.

There will also be a Digital Gallery — a first in the Philippines — at the museum’s new lobby. Made up of eight giant screens, “the gallery enables visitors to digitally explore objects from the museum and library collections and engage in interactive and up-close conversations with art and history for free.”

The museum’s Diorama Experience, popular with generations of school children, has also been totally refreshed and be on view for a new generation to enjoy.

The rest of the Ayala Museum galleries will be unveiled by the first half of 2022.

ONLINE AND ON-SITE
The renovated museum “will be networked, multiple channels digitally connected so one can move seamlessly between them, enabling Filipinos here and abroad to readily access Philippine art and culture 24/7, as exemplified by the collections and programming of the museum and library,” said the press release announcing the soft opening.

The upcoming Ayala Museum app will have exclusive online content to support onsite exhibitions.

Meanwhile, on the newly revamped Ayala Museum webpage, guests will be able to book visits to the museum; participate in workshops, conferences, concerts, and performances; access the Ayala Museum collection online; visit new exhibitions; explore learning resources; and, link up with the stand alone Filipinas Heritage Library website.

For more information, visit ayalamuseum.org and filipinaslibrary.org.ph.