Meet The Other Met

When one says something about the Met in Manila, it actually would mean either of the two locations in the city. The Urban Roamer has already introduced you to one of them, the Metropolitan Theater. Today, we shall get ourselves acquainted with the other Met, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.

Despite the name, the Met Museum here is not actually associated with the more famous Met Museum found in New York. And to be honest, the Met Museum of Manila is not as prominent as other museums in the city. Nevertheless, it has its own charms which makes it an interesting museum to check out.

Opened in 1976, the museum prides itself as a venue for Philippine contemporary art, as the museum features works in various mediums from prominent contemporary artists.

Owing not only to its proximity to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the fact that the museum is partly financed by the BSP, the museum also holds considerable artworks from the BSP collection, most especially pre-Hispanic gold and jewelry, as well as some artworks like some done by Felix Resurrection Hidalgo.

The museum also holds some special exhibitions, the most recent one being the Met Open 2014, the first time such an event was held in the museum. It is a special benefit exhibit which “that will bring together a diverse and strong collection of modern and contemporary art created in the Philippines based on the time frame of the survey exhibition The Philippine Contemporary: To Scale the Past and the Possible.”

There were a lot of interesting contemporary art on display for the open, especially works of new artists who are making their mark in the local art scene.

The Metropolitan Museum of Manila is open from Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:30 PM though their Gold and Pottery galleries are only open from Monday to Friday. Entrance is at P100. So do check it out and support Philippine art.

For more information, visit the museum website at www.metmuseum.ph.