Leaving an Era Behind...

This Saturday, October 27, 2012, as we turn off the lights at the Museum , I can not help but feel so heart broken. Maybe Odhe feels it too…. Maybe because there are only 2 of us manning the GSIS Museum, the deafening silence  enforces that melancholic feeling…….

From the Upper Gallery down to the lower galley , we turn off the lights of the Museum. I am startled by the seeming emptiness of the place yet there are still artworks hanging on the walls……I feel I am going to a familiar place with   unfamiliar sights, sounds and feel.…..

Gone are the rural scenes and the light and shadows  from the works of Fernando Amorsolo ,  gone are the religious icons seen from the works of Botong Francisco , the long ago scenes from the Jose Blanco’s  paintings and gone is the Bayanihan and  its  spirit by Vicente Manansala that  greets us at the lower gallery. No more are the shapes and colors of the   HR Ocampo abstracts. It feels strange…. 

The sadness becomes deeper as we gaze at the murals by Fernando Amorsolo and  Roger San Miguel , knowing that soon they might be leaving the GSIS Museum…It is an eerie feeling  looking at the museum from the Upper Gallery bereft of its long time occupants and now the walls that have cradled the works of the masters , are now cradling new artworks , as if the babies that these walls have cradled have grown up and left the nest …now the Museum will be cradling new woks , new babies that we hope to see grow up and join the long list of Filipino masters…..

We close the doors of the Luna room , feeling we are closing the door to an era, to a time when a Parisian Lady  use to sit and gaze at visitors coming in……On Monday , we are preparing to open the doors of the Luna Room …….and see another world , another time?  Ha ha ha….it would still have the time period we have been so familiar coming in, with one big difference, no more Parisian Lady …….

For now , I am, we are, struggling to familiarize ourselves with  our new occupants, our new  babies and dealing with missing the old masters …. But life goes on..the Museum  staff  will be  meeting, exploring and embracing  new artists, events and exhibits…….because we believe……J