The last time I was at a museum
Saffy is giving away five pairs of tickets to the Ayala Museum. To qualify, complete this statement: “The last time I was at a museum. . .” Post your entry in Comments. Obviously you have to be in the Makati area at some point within the next month for the tickets to be of any use to you. We’re accepting entries until Sunday at 11:59pm.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 6th, 2010 at 00:45
The last time I was at a museum was my first time at our National Museum. Admittedly, it is embarrassing that I saw La Gioconda way earlier in my life than I did the Spoliarium. :(
February 6th, 2010 at 01:12
Hi Jessica. I like to get those tickets.
The last time I was at a museum was when I was still in states last year. My employment contract in the US ended middle of last year and I had two weeks between my last day at work and my flight back to Manila. One of the things I did while waiting for the day to fly back was visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Il.
February 6th, 2010 at 01:49
The last time I was at a museum, I could still fit into one of those giant bubble hoops and the giant bubbles themselves. That bubble has long burst.
February 6th, 2010 at 01:53
The last time I was at a museum was standing right outside Ayala Museum and pitying myself because I didn’t have the money for an entrance fee.
February 6th, 2010 at 05:42
The last time I was at a museum, at the Mauritshuis, I had to let out a fart upon catching a glimpse of The Girl With The Pear Earring. The Japanese horde flocking around the little painting noticed the smell.
February 6th, 2010 at 05:50
The last time I was at a museum was last Januarry 23, 2010 at The Lourve. I had a mixed emotion seeing Mona Lisa in person (it was like “is this real? or another 5 euro reprinted painting/picture? and WOW! THERE SHE IS!!!). Hated the school kids who’s on a field trip running down the corridor( gosh ang layo ng pinanggalingan ko at ang ingay nila), thrilled to see Starbucks and a post office inside The Lourve and shocked to see an SM plastic carried by 2 white people.
– just sharing an experience, im not based in P.I right now. Im a correspondent of World Domination, headquarters: DUBAI.
February 6th, 2010 at 06:29
The last time I was in a museum… was soooo long ago that I don’t remember anymore! It was probably for Humanities class in college. :(
February 6th, 2010 at 07:35
The last time I was at a museum was in, I think, I was in grade 5, on a field trip. It was in The National Museum. The mummy of Apo Annu was still there and the last time I heard he was returned back to the tribe where he belonged.
And that was 26 years ago.
February 6th, 2010 at 07:49
i can’t remember when this was, but i last went to the metropolitan museum. (why did i go? i was determined to give myself a dose of culture and i was determined to learn to do things on my own. gah!) they were having an exhibit on different kimonos (breathtaking) and chairs (one can sit in that?). and that was the first time i heard the name mies van der rohe.
February 6th, 2010 at 08:12
The last time I was in a museum was when I was around 10 as part of our school field trip. Probinsyano pa ako noon. Now I am a full blooded city slicker. I am 42 now. Hehehe.
February 6th, 2010 at 08:20
The last time I was at a museum was on one sweltering Sunday afternoon in July, 2009. Since I’m a “promdi” and have of late become obsessed with Philippine history, thanks to the fourteen F. Sionil Jose novels I had read the past 7 years or so, my sister, who’s based in the heartland, decided to guide me through a 5-hour tour from the Museum of the Filipino People, the National Museum, to Intramuros’ Casa Manila Museum, San Agustin Church and Museum, and the Rizal Shrine.
To say that I was amazed by the invaluable treasures housed in those edifices is an understatement. Seeing mementos both trifle and significant evoked a multitude of emotions. I was particularly stirred by Juan Luna’s Spoliarium. Its sheer largeness was so stunning that I had goose bumps all throughout the 30 minutes we were inside the National Museum’s main gallery. It affected me so that I became heavy-hearted & teary-eyed upon taking leave.
The sight of Rizal’s prison cell at the Rizal Shrine was deeply saddening, but I was awed at the same time by various evidences of his genius. Reading Mi Ultimo Adios inscribed on one of the shrine’s entire wall while my sister simultaneously recited its English translation from memory, I stood tall and proud among foreigners admiring as well our prodigious national hero.
All in all, it was an extraordinary journey to our past. Pilipinas’ past. I say it’s a must for all Filipinos to do the same because so much of our history as a people, as a nation, is preserved there. It made me prouder to be Pinoy!
February 6th, 2010 at 08:46
The last time I was at a museum was two years ago. I realize it’s been a while, but I’m in college and there’s not a lot of time for sleep, much less museum-hopping.
We were in New York, and my parents gave me free run of the city’s museums alone, so I decided to spend the day at MoMA. Best thing about the trip was that I got in free. I was 17, which is an awkward age for the museum’s admission prices– adults 18 and above pay US$20, 16-below go in free–so the nice lady at the ticket counter slipped me the kids’ pass and I spent my 20 bucks on a souvenir.
Anyway, I got to see all the major sights: van Gogh, Rousseau, Dali, Monet, Matisse. Warhol’s soup can. Georgia O’Keeffe’s flower-vaginas. Film prints from Citizen Kane. Shark-in-a-tank.
But my favorite display was that of an enormous book in a glass case, with a small speaker hanging on the wall above it. (I think there was also a small TV screen, but I’m not sure.) The book lay open and when I bent over I saw the pages were filled with consecutive numbers in the hundred thousands.
Meanwhile, alternating monotonous voices from the speaker, a man’s and a woman’s, recited numbers. 783,623… 783,624… 783,625… etc. This goes on and on and on. I know because I stood there for 15 minutes, waiting for something to happen. Nothing happened.
Later, in the museum cafeteria while drinking overpriced coffee, I mulled over the possible meaning of that artwork. To this day I am perplexed.
February 6th, 2010 at 09:20
The last time I was in a museum was for Art class in college, 4 years ago. It was at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. I’d really love to get my hands on Ayala Museum tickets, I pass the walkway often and their catch line of “The exhibit you’ve waited a thousand years to see” really triggered my curiosity.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:11
The last time I was at a museum was for my Art Studies class. My classmate whispered to me he touched a Juan Luna painting even if it was not allowed.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:33
…was totally by accident. I brought my cat to Fort Santiago May of last year so she could get some sun and I could do some quiet reading. She somehow got loose from her harness and escaped to this little Rizal museum right across my favorite reading spot there.
Obviously I didn’t get to enjoy the museum at all since I was trying to catch her the whole time I was inside. This is technically the last time I was at a museum.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:38
The last time I was in a museum, I was a chuck-wearing, frizzy-haired college student, who thought he could view the Spolarium at the National Museum and have to settle for a tarpaulin reproduction. I was also taunted as a monkey-man from Mindoro, with everyone asking “where’s your tail?” even if in the museum, we went through an exhibition of Mangyan artifacts and there’s a myth-buster display. I guess since it was a blown-up print out in tarpaulin rendered it ineffective. Just what is it with tarpaulin that there’s an acute phoniness associated with it? Anyway, the last time I was in a museum, I enjoyed the Spanish galleon artifacts, with my college classmates. We were still poor students then, so no Carlo Celdran was provided, and the tour-talk was done by my gay classmates pointing at meztiso’s.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:48
It was a public holiday and I decided to take my kids to the National Museum. The National Musem. Of the Philippines. My country. And it was closed. We took public transportation all the way from Paranaque only to find that my national museum was closed on a public holiday. We went to the mall.
(Im not in the Philippines but inshallah I might the there within the next month.)
February 6th, 2010 at 12:08
The last time I was in a museum, I was walking in line by two’s. =)
February 6th, 2010 at 12:19
The last time I went at a museum was last year, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Contemporary art is mind boggling, new acquisitions included a room with knives hanging from a ceiling (according to the description it’s a vertical representation of truth…huh?) and an old man staring at a young man (depicts man’s sexuality and frailty).
They had a Yayoi Kusama exhibition on another floor. The whole floor was divided into rooms, and each room has either dots, mirrors or something reflective. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Yayoi Kusama, she is amazing. The conservatory let us take pictures, even though it’s usually prohibited by the MCA, because Kusama insisted on it.
February 6th, 2010 at 13:15
The last time i was in a museum was in a nightmare. i have this absurd phobia for museums….i thought they were ghostly and i thougth once i enter the walls of these repositories of the past, i’ll be sucked up in one of the old derelicts perhaps and live there for eternity..That of course is a childhood phobia…I’m grown up now, less afraid of musems i suppose but have never entered one. I want to try one (for free) so please give me a ticket and hopefully prove myself wrong about museums.
February 6th, 2010 at 13:41
Last time I was in a museum, our art studies class learned about how etchings were made. BenCab was there too. At the end of the lecture/demonstration, we were told to write down our names in paper and whoever was drawn would win a BenCab drawing that he made on the spot. I didn’t win but it was awesome having him there nonetheless.
February 6th, 2010 at 13:43
The last time I was INSIDE a museum was when I won the tickets from Jessica Zafra.
The last time I was OUTSIDE a museum was last night, sipping my caramel macchiato across the Ayala Museum while contemplating on how to reduce my blood-sugar level.
February 6th, 2010 at 13:44
The last time I was in a museum…I finally felt like an elite!
February 6th, 2010 at 14:16
the last time i was in a museum was when me and my groupmates for KAS 1 at up diliman visited the National Museum. we went there to research on how phippines is taking care of its historical artifacts and we were all shocked and disappointed on what we found out. just seeing the spolarium peeling on the edges wanna make us run to it and start fixing it with anything that will stick. the painting was breath taking but the damage felt like someone gripped our neck. havent been there since then. i hope the spolarium is ok :(
February 6th, 2010 at 15:09
The last time I was at a museum was with my dear friend, Halfdeafthinker, who won tickets for the Ring of Fire exhibit in Ayala Museum last September 30. 2009. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see it because the receptionist told us that she doesn’t know any Jessica Zafra and the tickets being given away. Sayang.
February 6th, 2010 at 15:14
The last time I was at a museum was…well, I’ve never been in a real museum before. All I’ve been to back at the province were exhibits that would go on for an entire week and never come back.
Oh yeah, there was a touring wax figures exhibit at the one and only mall in the city back when I was in the fourth grade. And that was almost 16 years ago.
February 6th, 2010 at 15:24
The last time I was at a museum was about 4 years ago when I brought my kid sisters to Museo Pambata. Funny thing is, what I found to be the greatest place on earth to explore things (like the galleon at the entrance and I even had my picture taken while I was on top), my little sisters were too reluctant to have their picture taken (kuya, nakakahiya naman may taong nakatingin. tsaka pambata lang yan.)! I was like, the first time I came here, I was all over the place experimenting and all! Now, here come my sisters who have never been inside a museum acting all cool and aloof. I was at a loss for words…
February 6th, 2010 at 17:46
The last time i was in a museum is back when i was in grade 3 at the National Museum. I remember seeing The Spolarium and being awed on how big it really was.
I hope they would again include museums as itinerary for school field trips today.
February 6th, 2010 at 17:56
The last time I was in a museum was last year in December and it was drizzling. Kid-friendly Amsterdam let me and my group bypass the long queue because I was with a toddler in strollers. It was the Van Gogh Museum.
My 8-yr old of course got a blast looking at the real paintings that they took up in class. But for me, what got me was not the paintings. It was reading Van Gogh’s last letter before he took his life. Did you know that he used a gun, shot himself but had to endure the pain for two days, before finally succumbing to death ? Artists do need their pain.
February 6th, 2010 at 18:21
Hey! I am not alone!
I was supposed to leave my reply last night and should have been the first one but I felt ashamed because it has been such a long time since I was inside a museum but after reading the comments… I found out I’m not so bad!
Here goes: ” The last time I was at a museum was in Macau in 2008.
The last time I was at a museum in the Philippines was in Cebu in 2006 and the last time I was at a museum in Manila (National Museum) was during my Humanities class in college and that’s 15 years ago!”
February 6th, 2010 at 18:27
the last time I was at a museum was 7 years ago at Musee d’Orsay. I was a student in an exchange program of sort. I had a non-working camera that used films (digital cameras were ridiculously expensive). I took pictures of Van Gogh’s even if flash was not allowed. sucks to be me that time
February 6th, 2010 at 18:42
The last time I was at a museum was during a stifling Sunday afternoon in Cebu. We were the only visitors at Gorordo Museum, an ancestral home that sheltered Cebu’s first Filipino bishop, Juan Gorordo. My two friends and I started fiddling with the grand piano, catching the attention of the guard-on-duty. It made perfect sense; we weren’t supposed to touch anything at all. But manong guard had such amusing way of berating us, saying “Tigilan niyo ‘yan, magagalit ang may-ari.” We quickly made our way downstairs; we’d choose anything but allusion to ghosts/unseen entities/irked homeowners of the late 1800s-early 1900s.
February 6th, 2010 at 20:33
The last time I was in Auckland Museum, the guards let me in without a ticket thinking I’m not yet an adult. I was already 27. Thank God for our asian genes!
February 6th, 2010 at 22:07
The last time I was at a museum, I looked at a couple of dioramas of concentration camps and wished I was at an art gallery. The “wartime hospital ward” life-sized wax tableau was a bit too realistic. The stray medals of long-gone heroes were rather unimpressive. The coffee afterwards was nice, freshly brewed. No real milk though, just nondairy creamer. Took the train that ran on the WWII railway tracks, with a bunch of rowdy Thai schoolchildren and a few gossipy ladies (and even the occasional couple). We rode to the end of the line, and there was nothing, a food court, some urinals, a pickup truck to take us back home.
February 6th, 2010 at 22:12
The last time I was in a museum was probably in my past life where I believe I was a student who could attend primary school field trips.
February 6th, 2010 at 22:18
The last time I was at a museum it was closed. More reasons to hate Mondays I guess.
February 6th, 2010 at 22:33
The last time I was at a museum was my birthday. I decided to spend it inside the museum because I felt the paintings and artifacts were all lonely by themselves. I thought poor lovely creatures, you don’t deserve as beautiful like me be trapped in these glass and walls unappreciated. So I gazed, smelled, breathed, touched (the frames only-ok), exchanged chismis, and spread happiness all over.
I guess they miss me so much now.
February 6th, 2010 at 22:56
The last time I was at a museum, ikot fare was still 1.50 (toki 1.25), the Eraserheads could still stand each other, and most Filipinos still liked Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
February 6th, 2010 at 23:18
The last time I was at a museum, I saw some of the National Artists for Visual Arts and their masterpieces. Part of the year-long centennial celebration of UP.
An Exhibition and Book Launching of The National Artists in the Visual Arts of The University Of The Philippines: Homage to the Artist as Mentor. Fernando Amorsolo, Guillermo Tolentino, Carlos V. Francisco, Vicente Manansala, Cesar Legaspi, Napoleon Abueva, Jose Joya, Abdul Mari Imao and Ben Cabrera.
Curated by Dr. Patrick Flores and Prof. Ruben Defeo
Click here to see few pieces I’ve captured:
http://kct0m0e.multiply.com/photos/album/47/Lineage_of_Mentors_The_National_Artists_for_Visual_Arts
February 7th, 2010 at 00:17
The last time I was at a museum I was determined to get my P300′s worth. And so I kept getting left behind by my classmates. :D
February 7th, 2010 at 00:29
The last time I was at a museum, I was undergoing puberty and I was more concerned with sneaking looks at my crush than looking at what Jose Rizal used during his time to excrete his bodily wastes. More than a decade has passed and I have a feeling I’d appreciate (and enjoy) a museum much better this time.:)
February 7th, 2010 at 00:54
The last time I was at a museum, I was lucky enough to come face to face with an original William Blake. Needless to say, I stared at this painting (http://www.smb.museum/smb/media/exhibition/11220/27_WilliamBlake_Nebukadnezar.jpg) for a very long time. And no, I did not eat it.
Blake, for me, was a badass. He was unrecognized during his lifetime, but he still wrote despite his demanding day job (printmaker/engraver), working class roots, and his being derided as a crazy person (prophetic visions).
If I become rich, I’ll visit every known Blake in existence. Just like Barney and his Vermeer pilgrimage.
February 7th, 2010 at 02:46
The last time I was in a museum was summer last year, when my family and I visited the Vatican Museum during our European holiday. It was sooo overwhelming, that I almost forgot that we were still going to visit the Sistine Chapel later that day.
February 7th, 2010 at 03:32
The last time I was at a museum was an attempt after a long day’s work to immerse myself into an artist’s world – and it felt good.
February 7th, 2010 at 09:36
The last time I was at a museum was last year when my best friend was still straight.
February 7th, 2010 at 12:00
The last time I was at a museum was when I brought my ex-partner to the National Museum because we were bored with the usual dinner-movie dates and thought that a trip to a museum will be something new, exciting, fun and educational all at the same time. And it was the cheapest date we’ve ever had. :-)
February 7th, 2010 at 13:30
The last time I was in a museum I read about this WWII doctor slowly dying from shrapnel wounds in Corregidor, who calmly filled-up his own death certificate. Gazing at his fading portrait I realized how brave you must be living through a time if War, where the reality of dying was something you had to struggle with and face everyday of your life.
February 7th, 2010 at 15:24
the last time i was at a museum i was in grade school. museong pambata, i think. now i’m ready to visit another one. please saffy?
February 7th, 2010 at 16:38
I was at the Met and some guy in a hurry came rushing in front of me while I was taking a picture. He apologized and I thought his voice sounded familiar. He just as quickly took off before I could say anything or take a good look at him. I looked at the picture on the LCD. It was Isaac Mizrahi. LOL. I still have the strange picture somewhere in my hard drive.
February 7th, 2010 at 18:48
The last time I was at a museum was July 2003. That was at the National Museum of the Philippines. I had a video class assignment wherein I had to take camera angle shots of a historical place. So, I went inside to inquire in their office for a permission to shoot. Walking in the hallways, I was curious to where the exhibits where because it was awfully quiet and I didn’t see any doors leading to an exhibit anywhere around. I promised myself to look for the exhibits once I finish my assignment. Aftr 1 hour, I was granted permission to shoot. I stood outside and started mounting my camera when two security guards approached me and tried to confiscate my video cam. (the horror) I tried explaining that I had a permission but when they called the main office they said the head director wasn’t around, leaving the guards to think I was lying to them. The security guards tried to confiscate my cam. At first they were polite but after I repeatedly decline to surrender my cam they became demanding. I got so pissed off that I shoved one of the guards hard. (why are thet trying to confiscate it?! I haven’t even started shooting yet! And they are harrassing a 18 yr old girl! Grr!) the guards went speechless from what I did. Then with a huff, I stomped away from them.
When I got home, I got sad when remembered that I wasn’t able to see the exhibits in the museum. Darn security guards!
February 7th, 2010 at 19:56
The last time I was at a museum was back in College when I was taking an exam for Humanities. I don’t remember what I was looking at, just that they were beautiful and that I was frantic because I didn’t know what to write (I liked Math 55 better – no essays). Buti na lang pumasa ako.
February 7th, 2010 at 20:23
The last time I was in a museum, halos kakauso lang ng microwave oven sa Pinas… Poor me T_T
February 7th, 2010 at 20:52
the last time i was at a museum was back in 2002. museo del prado in madrid. i bought these lovely pocket mirrors (goya painting) at the souvenir shop only to find out once i got home that only 2 out of the 10 that i bought don’t have cracked mirrors. until now i don’t know if i was duped by the shop clerk since she got a bunch of the items that i bought from a separate drawer or if it just cracked from all the handling that goes with travelling.
but i think it was more of the former since i remember correctly that the shop clerk already mentioned that she doesn’t have anymore stocks but since i really liked the mirrors, i kept pestering her to check. to this day i think she got back at me for pestering her by giving me those cracked mirrors. ^___^
February 7th, 2010 at 21:55
The last time I was at a museum was also the first time my friends and I were threatened to be kicked out of any establishment we were in. That was when my friends and I went to the National Museum for our Spanish class.
Our teacher was asking us for souvenir or proof that we were there, and I wasn’t listening when he said that asking the frontdesk to sign our form is okay. So I asked my friends to take photos (which was obviously prohibited) of the artifacts and after a couple of photos, someone saw my friends and gave a hefty lecture on museum policies. We swore the Spanish artifacts there that we won’t do it again. Ever.
February 7th, 2010 at 22:29
The last time I was at a museum, I crawled though the digestive system, played the piano with my feet and rode on a huey helicopter. Museong pambata.
February 7th, 2010 at 23:44
The last time I was at a museum, I practically dashed because I thought at 5:00 pm, I would not have the time to see Eiffel Tower at daytime. In the process, I ditched all the other objects of arts inside the Louvre because I had only Mona Lisa in my mind. I was so disappointed because the most popular painting of the expansive museum is a a small- framed drawing of a smiling woman. And I could not get near because there seemed to be a Korean invasion in that section of Louvre. Thereafter, I ran out only to realize that the sun was still far from setting. It was in the month of May and unlike in our country, sun sets at around 8 pm in France. It’s a good thing though because I discovered the Bir-Hakim Metro station. If you watched Last Tango in Paris, Bertolucci shot some scenes in this place.
February 7th, 2010 at 23:49
Was April 12 last year, at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. It was Easter Sunday, entrance was free. Due to our very tight schedule, my friend and I had only about an hour. With single-minded determination, we zeroed-in on Guernica. Damned if we would leave Madrid without seeing it. So there I was, squeezed in among what seemed like a million tourists, mouth agape before Picasso’s masterpiece, just a few precious minutes before closing time.
February 8th, 2010 at 01:48
The last time I was at a museum, I was with a dozen of Japanese students, looking at paintings of the Japanese aggression during the WWII.
February 8th, 2010 at 09:18
The last time I was at a museum was 11 years ago at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Everyone from our group was agog because the Monet Exhibit was on. Well, almost everyone. My family was the exception. We were more interested in having pizza at the courtyard. We spent the entire afternoon there waiting for the other members of the group to finish.
February 8th, 2010 at 16:50
ranranranran: If you or your friend won museum tickets in one of our contests and YOU POSTED YOUR FULL NAME as requested, you should’ve been able to claim your tickets. Let us know if you did post your full name. If you did, the receptionist will be enlightened and you can claim your tickets. Then Jaime Augusto and Fernando Zobel will appear to give you a guided tour and buy you martinis at M Cafe. Actually they won’t, but you can get your tickets. And if this happened months ago, why have you taken so long to report it.