Manila - Amidst all the bad news here and abroad – this year has already been judged the most politically violent year in recent history – Manila‘s Museo Pambata, which has got a new lease on life in Mayor Fred Lim‘s administration – has captured an international honor.
It has launched the first Asian Children‘s Museum Conference which was held at the historic Manila Hotel February 23 to 26th. There is special historical significance in the site. The building housing the Museum, the former Elks Club, plus the Manila Hotel and the former Army and Navy Club, were all conceived and constructed in the early 1900s as part of the city planner Daniel Burnham‘s plan for the city of Manila.
Children‘s museums are a relatively new concept in Asian countries. Museo Pambata is the first in the Philippines. Much of the concept of the Museo was guided by the development and success of the children‘s museums in Boston and Washington DC, which its founder, the late Fanny Aldaba Lim, and her daughter Dr. Nina Lim-Yuson, president of the Museo Pambata, visited and eventually created here.
The theme of the conference is, appropriately "Children‘s Museum as Bridges for Peace." The four-day conference brought together museum workers, educators, peace builders, parents and students from all over the world to discuss the theme of starting with the very young to build peaceful adults in a conflict-ridden world. Children‘s museums are not static displays. They are hands-on exhibits which children can touch, see and smell objects and learn how they work.
They serve as an exciting alternative type of education. While in a conventional classroom, children sit and listen or take notes while a teacher lectures, then parrot back the information on tests, at the children‘s museums children wander at leisure through interactive exhibits, which at the Museo Pambata include the history and culture of Old Manila, exhibits on the environment and its importance, science through play, career options, crafts one can learn, the human body and how it functions, and dolls, toys, and artifacts from other cultures. The more they learn of themselves and the world around them, the more likely they are to help create a better future. "Peace and conflicts can exist at so many levels," explains President Nina Lim-Yuson. "In their families children can analyze how their identities are connected to family members. They can move on to discovering their role in the community and country." Children‘s museums can be bridges to understanding conflicts, and help create peaceful adults.
The more that children understand of other cultures, the more they can contribute to global harmony. The conference discussed developing exhibits that promotes peace and programs designed to bridging peace within the home, schools, and society. There was also a workshop on books and story telling and how books help children understand peace. Museum directors discussed the challenge of attracting local communities for fund-raising, marketing and volunteer work for childrens museums. The Philippine National Folk Dance company, The Bayanihan, offered a culturethrough-dance performance for the overseas guests, who were also treated to a visit to the National Museum of the Filipino People and the Ayala Museum.
Speakers and moderators from Thailand, Canada, Israel, Singapore, the Netherlands, Japan and South Africa attended. In addition to Dr. Lim-Yuson and her staff, John Silva of the National Museum participated, as did Lilibeth la O of the museum in Negros, Teresa Ang See, director of the Museum of Filipino Chinese, and Cecile Guidote-Alvarez of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and members of the Museo Pambata Foundation. Manila Mayor Fred Lim welcomed the guests on the first day as well as discussed the importance of a children‘s museum to the city.
Source: www.mb.com.ph (28 Februari 2008)
