MANILA, Philippines — Plans for a contemporary museum in the Philippines are now back on track after initially being delayed by the pandemic.
Real estate company Ayala Land initiated plans as early as 2018 to build the Contemporary Art Center in Circuit Makati, where the original Santa Ana Park racetrack once stood.
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The pandemic put a stop to any plans that were announced in January 2020 but revived it in late 2023, and the company officially announced development would begin once more.
The Contemporary Art Center is eyed to be a "world-class museum" and "permanent home for contemporary art" in the country, joining nearby cultural spaces the Samsung Performing Arts Theater and Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater.
The architects behind the structure are Los Angeles-based Thai designer Kulapat Yantrasat and Filipino architect Ed Calma, the latter having been behind The Mind Museum in Bonifacio Global City and the College of St Benilde’s School of Design and Arts building in Manila.
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Yantrasat himself is a world-renowned architect who was recently tapped to build new wings for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre in Paris.
The museum will have a 2,200-square gallery space dedicated to three galleries (one major and two minor ones, all of them two storeys), a 400-square meter educational space, an outdoor events space, and areas where public art will stand.
The Ayala Foundation will manage the center's operations though the search for a museum or artistic director is ongoing.
As it is situated by the Pasig River, construction of the Contemporary Art Center is in support of the river's Espalanade Project.
Target completion of the structure is by 2027, but the area will it stand behind Circuit Makati is already half-boarded up.
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