JRG Halad Museum

CEBU, Philippines - If you love traditional music, Halad Museum should get you excited.

It's still two months to the observance of International Museums Day and the Gabii sa Kabilin -  our local version of "Nacht der Museen (Night of Museums)" - but the Jose R. Gullas Halad Museum is already gearing up for the convergence of traditional music buffs. Part of the activities that Halad has lined up to celebrate the significance of museums as repositories of our cultural identity is a talk on traditional music. There is also a writing workshop, in partnership with The Freeman, and changing painting exhibits.

JRG Halad Museum curator Audrey Tomada, who currently sits as president of the Visayas Association of Museums and Galleries, announces that they are tapping the expertise of a traditional music professor - perhaps from the University of the Philippines-Diliman - to speak on how such genre of music activates the heritage and cultural soul of an area as well, including the factors that form the heart of musical tradition in that area, and other related topics.

Ms. Tomada also reveals that a section of the Museum dubbed "Philippine Indigenous Musical Instruments," on the third floor, will eventually become a permanent gallery as soon as pieces from Luzon and the rest of the Visayas will have been acquired.

Again, Gabii sa Kabilin spearheaded by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. is patterned after Lange Nacht der Museen which took place in Berlin in 1997. It is a cultural event in which "museums and cultural institutions in an area cooperate to remain open late into the night to introduce themselves to new potential patrons."

Visitors are given a common entrance pass which grants them access to all exhibits as well as complimentary public transportation within the area.

JRG Halad Museum is known as a repository of Cebuano musical heritage. Music is a passion of Sir Dodong Gullas. In fact, Tomada pointed out, Sir Dodong has to use his personal funds for the upkeep of the facility.

The museum has five galleries (to include the Founder's Gallery or memorabilia gallery that chronicles Sir Dodong's revivalist spirit through an AVP on “The Freeman Past and Present”; as well as a Changing Exhibitions gallery). But the most "crowded section" every time is the Halad Music Gallery on the second floor which provides digital storage and portal of classic Visayan songs to encourage interactivity and interconnectivity among visitors and our beautiful past once only scribbled on music sheets. (FREEMAN)