National Museum Archives - The Urban Roamer

An Inauguration at the Museum: the National Museum and presidential ceremonies

June 27, 2022 by The Urban Roamer

With the inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr as the Philippines’ 17th president, the National Museum of Fine Arts marks the first time in a long while that an inauguration ceremony would be held here since the Commonwealth times.

The National Museum of Natural History…Finally

June 7, 2018 by The Urban Roamer

We have waited years for this. Finally, that time has come! The Urban Roamer refers here to the National Museum of Natural History, which has finally opened its doors to the public last May 18. And judging from the queue of people who line up to visit, the newly-opened building of the National Museum has been received quite well, despite the fact that not all sections of the building itself are not open yet.

The opening marks the culmination of a three-year project to convert the American-era structure into a modern museum that Filipinos can be proud of. Is it worth the hype though? We shall see…

Manila1945: Wrecked and Rebuilt

February 11, 2015February 11, 2015 by The Urban Roamer

The Battle of Manila that raged from February 3-March 3, 1945 decimated a lot of structures in the city. With the limited resources available for disposal in those times, not all of them managed to be rebuilt after the war, some of them even took a long while for them to be completed. As we continue the #Manila1945 series here, we will be taking a look at some of these structures that were destroyed and have managed to rise again from the ashes of war, though some of them never looked the same way as before.

Manansala’s Philamlife Paintings at the National Museum

June 6, 2018April 3, 2014 by The Urban Roamer

When the Urban Roamer got the opportunity to visit the Philamlife Building at Ermita during its (sob) final days, one of the things I was fixated upon was the artworks whose artist was a mystery to me at that time. Thanks to a reader, I found out that those artworks were actually done by Vicente Manansala himself, National Artist for Visual Arts alongside with colleagues like Fernando Amorsolo and Botong Francisco.

The paintings are a a series of 7 commissioned works completed by Manansala in 1961, the same year the Philamlife Building was completed, done in the cubist style Manansala was known for.

Vicente Manansala (courtesy of iloko.tripod.com)

While the issue about the fate of the Philamlife Auditorium was in full rage for several months last year, curiously there was not much news about what was to happen to those paintings considering these were done by a National Artist.

That question was answered with a satisfying resolution today as the National Museum of the Philippines announced over its Facebook page that these 7 paintings can now be seen in one of the halls of the 3rd floor of the museum’s National Art Gallery named aptly, “Philam Life Hall.”