Educating a 5 year old about arts, culture and history in Tacloban City or Leyte in general is a challenge.
We do not have museums nor do we have art galleries.
I always take advantage of mini-shows such as the one staged by the municipality of Palo. The "Enchanting Palo Art Exhibit and Mini Museum" is open up until tomorrow, the 20th. This date also happens to be the Leyte Gulf Landing celebration.
Amidst controversy regarding preservation, conservation and restoration of the old Municipal Hall, I must say that the new one is really pleasant to the eye. The use of wood is dominant and the influence of Spanish style architecture and interior design is very obvious. My friend, Giles Daya, who helped curate the exhibit describes it as eclectic. I say it is similar to the Bahay na Bato. It is airy. It overlooks the town plaza and church and has lots of space to entertain guests and even dance around. What is lacking is a huge organ at the corner!
There were also Filipiniana dresses worn by old matrons after World War II on display. Most of these was owned by Concing Monge.
This old hat was owned by Pascual Monge and was worn in 1898.
Here are modern barongs. Although I doubt anyone will wear this on a regular day. This is good only for street dancing or modeling.
There were photos taken by prominent photographers from Palo.
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| Artist: Raul Agner |
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| Artist: Archie Zabala |
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| Artist: Rico Palacio |
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| Sculptures |
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| Dioramas |
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| Done on October 18, 1988. |
There were religious artifacts on display:
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| The Monstrance or Ostensory |
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| The Ciborium which holds the consecrated host. |
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| I originally thought this as the tsokolate beater. However, this is the Aspersory or the Aspergillum which holds the holy water. |
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| This is how how hosts were made a long long time ago. |
Other antiques featured in the exhibition:
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| An antique rocking chair. |
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| A bench that should not be exposed to sunlight. |
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| A vintage lamp owned by Mayor Petilla. |
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| A bullet riddled helmet. I bet this one died right away. |
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| Water canteens. I think the flat bottomed one is designed so you can heat water in it. What do you think? |
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| A water pitcher and an old clothes iron. |
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| Are these the Mickey Mouse money or fiat peso? |
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| The Karatong, an early warning device. |
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| Some old wine bottles. |
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| The education of Yumi. |
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| Some poems written by Illuminado Lucente. The Malabad nga Magtiayon is my favorite. We got to perform this back in college for Dr. Sugbo's class. |
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| I've always loved these glass windows and the ornate wood carvings. |
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| And capiz shell windows. |
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| And wooden tiles which are obviously expensive. |
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| An old lamp or lampara. But I doubt if this is antique or vintage. It still has a tag tied on its neck saying it is a souvenir from the 1990's. |
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| An old box turned into a vase. |
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| An old chest. |
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| A lusong. |
The highlight of the exhibit is the dancing McArthur. Just drop a coin and he'll start to move. Yumi gave this guy a hard time by dropping 5 pieces of 1 peso coin. We are lucky to be his 1st customer. He was still in a good mood and highly energized.
CONVERSATION