ARTS & CULTURE: Free Admission to the National Museum of the Philippines starting today, July 1

Starting July 1, everyone – locals and foreigners alike – can now enter the National Museum for free. Yes, you've read that right. FREE.  That’s just about the Best. News. Ever. to come out yesterday. 

Early yesterday evening, The National Museum announced on their facebook page that

Admission to the National Museum is now permanently free of charge for all visitors, Filipino or foreign, to its museums nationwide. 

A policy of free general admission has been established, effective July 1, 2016, by the Board of Trustees of the National Museum, in order to build upon significant spikes in viewership, especially among younger Filipinos, that have been observed in 2013-2015 and to date in 2016, when general admission has been made free of charge for various traditional reasons such as National Arts Month in February, National Heritage Month in May, and National Museums and Galleries Month in October. 

Enhancing universal access by all Filipinos to what we proudly exhibit as our national patrimony and heritage has always been a primary concern, and with this new policy we hope to reach more people than ever before, both by encouraging visits to our museums, and by bringing the National Museum's programs and resources to communities throughout the national capital and all the regions of our archipelago.  

By this measure of free admission, which is supported, in terms of the nationwide operations of the Agency, by a solid institutional budget drawn ultimately from all Filipino taxpayers through the national budget, we hope to better achieve our goals, and fulfill general expectations, of serving as a true national museum institution dedicated to the benefit of the entire Filipino people and the wider world.

With this, there's no more excuse not to learn about our own culture as a people as well as to say that art is just for the rich. As the National Museum is trying to tell us, art is for everyone.

The National Museum of the Philippines is located along Taft Ave. in Ermita, Manila.
It is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. 

I had the entire gallery all to myself and so had this solo shot with the award-wining "Spolarium" by Juan Luna. 

TRAVEL NEWS: International Museum Day May 18

Today is International Museum Day!
And the theme for this year is "Museums and Cultural Landscapes."

May 18 has been celebrated worldwide as International Museum Day since 1977. According to the The International Council of Museums (ICOM) Website, celebrating this day hopes 'to raise the awareness of the fact that "Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples."' The celebration happens on the day itself or on a weekend, or for an entire week.

Here in the Philippines, National Museum is celebrating International Museum Day today, May 18. Visitors will be given all sorts of goodies to mark the day. But it has also been offering free admission since the May 3 and would last until the end of the month.

© Aissa Domingo and the National Museum of the Philippines (2016)

On the other hand, Ayala Museum will be celebrating the occasion on May 20, Friday. In line with this year's theme, they will be holding an event called "Roots." It means to celebrate the enthnolinguistic diversity of the Philippines and there will collaborative art installation and a food fair featuring regional flavours. Food Fair participants will be Island Gems, Malgos Cheese, Malagos Chocolate, Destileria Limtauco & Co, and KKK Coffee.

Celebrating International Museum Day on May 20, the Ayala Museum and Library operating hours and free admission is from 12 nn - 8pm. Registration will end by 730 pm.  Image from the Ayala Museum Website

TRAVEL NEWS: PAL to offer phone and Wi-Fi service on board

Now, you can update your relationship status on facebook or instagram your current meal while thousands of feet above sea level. That is if you’re flying Philippine Airlines, the country’s flag carrier.

Asia’s first is going about to offer phone and Wi-Fi services on its flights as it signed on the services of OnAir.

“PAL and the global service provider of inflight connectivity solutions would retrofit Mobile OnAir and Internet OnAir on PAL aircraft starting next month to allow passengers to call, text, tweet, email and surf the Net.

The service would be available by the middle of the year on PAL’s Airbus A330-343s and Boeing B777-300ERs flying across the airline’s extensive network in Asia Pacific, Australia and North America.” 

For the full article, click here.
For more information on inflight connectivity company OnAir, visit: http://www.onair.aero