The “Music Museum”

To bring Filipinos and music closer to each other, Ayala Land, Inc. could set up “Music Museums” in each of its developments. 

 The concept of the “Music Museum” plays on the concept of museums as a repository of items or relics from the past, but could also be amalgamated with the Ayala Foundation’s aspiration to make these institutions an active element in shaping society through culture and the arts.

As such, the Music Museum could provide access to a library of Filipino music, which will continuously be updated. To make it self-liquidating, the Museum could charge a fee per visit to users, similar to the revenue generating scheme of the Filipinas Heritage Library.

However, to expose its audience to the wide variety of musical genres, performances could be staged here as well. To encourage attendance, the Museum should be within easy access to high traffic elements of ALI developments, such as malls and restaurants. A nominal fee could be charged, and these concerts could be mixed with free performances to a) keep audiences interested and watching for new artists and b) as a gesture of gratitude to loyal patrons of Ayala Corporation’s products and services.

It could also be rented out as a venue for exclusive and private concerts, for corporate and individual clients.

The Music Museum could also debunk the idea that museums are enclosed in buildings and edifices. Like traveling exhibits of painters and other visual artists, the museum could stage traveling performances. How do we then differentiate these performances from the usual concert tour mounted by pop stars? It could be staged in small arenas, with an educational element where the performers are not commercially inclined, such as folk musicians and the like.

For instance, a traveling Music Museum performance could be staged in a University theatre, which will be accompanied by a short lecture on the music to be performed at a later time.

Another concept could be to collaborate with restaurants, for instance featuring Spanish cuisine and a flamenco guitarist.

Or it could catalyze collaborations among musicians and visual and other performing artists. The possibilities are endless: ballet, modern dance, sand art, shadow puppet theatre, as long as music is involved.

The programme could also include music as therapy by involving wellness experts, such as yogi and Pilates instructors, meditation and mental health professionals.