Where museum is synonymous to dinosaurs, and library is, well, an iTunes collection, where lies the future of the likes of the Lopez Museum and Library? Well, how about cyberspace?
The golden boy itself, the Lopez Museum was inaugurated on February 13, 1960. Celebrating its 50th anniversary at the Rockwell Tent last Thursday, February 18, the Lopez Museum launched its commemorative publication “Unfolding Half a Century”.
Clan patriarch Eugenio Lopez, well-known as an industrialist foremost, was a collector of Philippine arts and letters: paintings, artifacts and books, among others. Resulting from the man’s quest of history, as well as a passion for collection, the Lopez Memorial Museum and Library was born. Fifty years on, the institution has amassed over 600 works in various media.
Oscar M. Lopez, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Eugenio Lopez Foundation, Inc., narrated how Don Claro M. Recto asserted in his speech during the inauguration in February 1960, “Without a sense of a past, and a without a notion of a shared destiny, the country and its people are condemned to a living death, and a lack of an identity.”
< height="315" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/oscar lopez ED. " alt="" /> Oscar Lopez
At its inception, the Lopez Memorial Museum and Library served as a source of learning, albeit without classrooms or professors. It undertook the humble mission to enlighten the youth devoid of a sense of history.
“As (the Lopez Museum) looks forward to its next 50 years, the mission remains unchanged. That is to teach through the objects and artifacts it houses, for those who care to reach back to a past in order to develop a clear sense of future as a nation and as a people,” declared Lopez in his welcome speech.
In the course of the last half-century, the Lopez Museum has outgrown its space. High on the agenda is a relocation to Rockwell, along with other companies in the Lopez Group.
< height="383" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/mercedes lopez-vargas ED(1). " alt="" /> Mercedes Lopez-Vargas, Director-Lopez Memorial Museum
The next five decades is seen as a challenge by the institution. Already abreast with the new century, the Lopez Museum has implemented modern means by which to be more relevant and accessible. Their website www.lopez-museum.org/ is in touch with what is appealing to the youth, to communicate in the method they are familiar with. It has also been aggressive in digitizing material and making them accessible virtually through the world-wide-web.
“Finding ways to tell the stories of our past and our heroes in a different way. Its relevance to our evolution as a nation will continue undiminished. Like other repositories of our past the Lopez Museum will continue to serve as a guiding light into the future,” Lopez elucidated.
At the Rockwell book launch and anniversary celebration, young and promising artists had their share of the limelight. Modern dance, performance art, contemporary music was as appreciated by the likes of Juvenal Sanso and Alejandrino Roces, in the audience.
< height="435" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/ding roces, juvenal sanso. " alt="" />(L-R) Alejandrino Roces, Juvenal Sanso
Aptly, the event was a promise of The Lopez Museum and Library as a confident icon, in bold acceptance of the progressing horizon on which it set its sight.
< height="404" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/modern dance ED. " alt="" /> Dancer Myra Beltran
< height="560" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/performance art ED. " alt="" /> Performance artists
< height="435" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/tessa prieto and rosan cruz ED. " alt="" />(L-R) Tessa Prieto, Rosan Cruz of Benpres
< height="338" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/ayala museum ED. " alt="" /> Guests from the Ayala Museum, (L-R) Ditas Samson, Rinna Sevilla
< height="521" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/gabby lopez ED. " alt="" /> Gabby Lopez
< height="525" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/lawrence tan ED. " alt="" /> (L-R) Photographer Wyg Tysmans, Lawrence Tan-Woo Consultancy
< height="363" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/janet torral ED. " alt="" /> (L) Janette Torral-Digital Pinoy/IMMAP Director
< height="315" width="420" src="/global//UserFiles/march ventosa. " alt="" /> (center) March Ventosa, Sr. VP ABS-CBN
The Lopez Memorial Museum and Library “Threads: The Museum as Site for the Weaving of Tales” will run at the Rockwell Power Plant Mall North Court from February 19 to 25.
Visit www.lopezmuseum.org.ph for more details.
adobo magazine. The Word on Advertising.
