Metropolitan Museum of Manila opens the exhibit SIGLA AND SIKAP: Exulting the Filipino Industry

In celebration of the Filipino’s enterprising spirit, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila opens the exhibit Sigla at Sikap: Exulting the Filipino Industry which features more than thirty Bangko Sentral artworks that capture the Filipino at work.

Sigla at Sikap celebrates the resilience of the Filipino worker –the mat weaver, the food peddler, the farmer, the vegetable seller - who have made the country’s regional economy vibrant throughout the different stages of Philippine history. As it displays works of artists, from different time periods and different persuasions, that extol the varied forms of Filipino industry, the exhibition captures the Filipino worker at his finest --diligent, patient, honest, creative, and optimistic.

Sigla at Sikap also touches on the great role that micro enterprises serve in answering unemployment in the country. The informal sector, or the unregistered businesses that operate at a low level of technology, employ about 10.5 million Filipinos, or a little more than 10% of the 92 million Filipinos. Small and medium sized enterprises, through the aid of loan-giving institutions like rural and government banks, propel a dynamic business environment in places such as remote barrios and depressed inner cities; creating occupational opportunities to communities and individuals that include housewives, out-of-school youths, and even the elderly.

In these small enterprises, women play non-traditional yet vital roles. They often multitask as owners, managers, administrators, accountants, salesmen, and/or marketers. Through the exhibit, women are publicly recognized for the challenging and pivotal roles they undertake as entrepreneurs, and for the transformative, positive, and multiplier effect they bring to their community. This recognition has been bestowed by Filipino artists to these hardworking women, silently yet powerfully, through their art. This can be seen, for example, in Jose Blanco’s magnificent Puto Bungbong or Norma Belleza’s colorful Magpuprutas, two of the artworks from the BSP Collection featured in the exhibit.

The exhibit opened on July 3 and will run until January 30, 2010 at the Galeriya Bangko Sentral of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.

As a collateral to the exhibit, the Museum will offer a bag-making workshop slated on the first half of the month of October. The workshop will employ used paper like old newspaper and magazines as the main material in the production of bags. It will run for 12 sessions with each intensive session lasting for 3 hours. The Bag-Making Workshop will be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila on October 6, 8, 10, 13, 15 and 17, and will be facilitated by bag expert Ms. Lulu Ocampo. The morning session is at 9-12 noon while the afternoon session will take place at 1-4 pm.

The fee for the bag-making workshop is P5,000.00 per head which is inclusive of materials. A group discount of 10% is given to groups of 5 people and also to those who register for the program on or before September 22, Tuesday. Registration entails full payment or a 50% down payment. For inquiries and enrollment to the workshop, please call the Museum’s Marketing Department at 523-0613 or 521-1517.

The Metropolitan Museum of Manila is located at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Malate, Manila. It is open from Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 6 pm.

For details about the exhibit and its collateral activities, the Museum can be reached at 523-7855 or 536-1566 through the Exhibitions and Education Programs Department. Online inquiries can be directed to info@metmuseum.ph. The Museum can be reached online at http://www.metmuseum.ph.

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