Ayala Museum

Why Ayala Museum is special ?

Ayala Museum, located at the heart of the Makati Central Business District, Philippines, is a breathing space amidst the hustle and bustle of Metropolitan Manila. Whenever visiting the country, the museum is surely one of the best places to lose yourself in amazing contemporary art and uplift your spirit through the Philippines’ inspiring history.

Among the museum’s highlights is its collection of archeological artifacts, notably the Gold of Ancestors: Pre-Colonial Treasures in the Philippines, which serve as a testament to the Filipinos’ rich ancestry and inherent craftsmanship. An impressive selection of trade ceramics from Southeast Asia and China from the Roberto T. Villanueva collection are also on display in the exhibition A Millennium of Contact, signifying the history of the country’s flourishing economic relationship with its neighbors. Art and the Order of Nature in Indigenous Philippine Textiles provides a new way of seeing this traditional craft. The textile collection was generously donated by Mercedes Zobel and a selection of which has been analysed by the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London, UK.

The museum also has on exhibition The Philippine Diorama Experience, visually narrating the many milestones of Philippine history through 60 handcrafted dioramas, some of which are featured in the international Google Art Project.

Source: http://www.ayalamuseum.org

What to explore at Ayala Museum?

First Floor - Changing Exhibits

Second Floor - Philippine Diorama Experience, Maritime Vessels exhibits

Third Floor - Paintings by Filipino Masters (Pioneers of Philippine Art, Images of Nation exhibits)

Fourth Floor - Special Collections (trade ceramics, pre-colonial Philippine gold, national costumes)

Annex (in front of Greenbelt 5 ground floor entrance) - ArtistSpace

Filipino Heritage Library

The Filipino Heritage Library is located at the sixth floor of the museum. It is known to be one of the electronic research centers in the Philippines. It houses more than 13,000 contemporary volumes on Philippine history, art, language, religion, and the social sciences, and more than 2,000 uncommon titles, maps, and photographs. Additional features of this library include the digitization of its collection, CD-ROM publishing, development of web pages, and electronic databases. Moreover, through its numerous Library Link initiatives in the past, the library has set up an online search engine that provides access to more than 357,000 Filipiniana database records from over a hundred partner libraries nationwide.

Ceramics Study Center

Aside from the pieces of tradeware vessels from the Roberto T. Villanueva collection, one section of the museum provides researchers with study collections including books and several publications on art and history of ceramics courtesy of John D. Forbes.

The Ceramics Study Center is available to researchers from Monday to Friday, 10:00 AM to 12:00 NN and is located at the fourth floor of the museum building.

Museum Café

Museum Café opened in 2004 and is located opposite the entrance of the museum and adjacent to Greenbelt complex. In 2012, the owners of M Café- local restaurant group Raintree Restaurants, closed the café for a renovation and re-opened in October 2012 with an expanded and new dining concept- Kabila Filipino Bistro.

M Café provides its guests with contemporary Asian and Western, café style cuisine. Broad selections of dishes are put under categories such as Snacks & Bites, M Dim Sum, Salad, Pizza Rustica, Noodles & Pasta, and Asian Inspirations. Kabila Filipino Bistro features mostly traditional Filipino cuisines such as Pork Bagnet, Sinuglaw, and Dinuguan.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

How to get to Ayala Museum?

It takes 18mins driving from Ninoy Aquino Internatioal Airport and 9 mins walking from Station Dr.

Ayala Museum is located at the corner of Makati Avenue and De La Rosa Street, nearer the Arnaiz Avenue (Pasay Road) end of the popular thoroughfare. It is right across The Link, The Landmark; adjacent to the PLDT building and Greenbelt.