Visitors take a shine to gold exhibit in New York
THE GLAMOROUS Filipino contingent and noted guests attended the opening last week of Asia Society Museum’s new exhibit, Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms.
The event held at Asia Society New York featured a ceremonial ribbon cutting, speeches from dignitaries, musical performances, a live auction and a gourmet Filipino dinner. Guests then gazed at over a hundred gold pieces including gold necklaces, chains, waistbands, bangles, ritual bowls and ceremonial weapons recently discovered in the Philippines but dating back to between the 10th and 13th centuries. The precolonial gold objects are on loan from the collections of Ayala Museum and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
The exhibit is only the start of a season of programming at Asia Society that will highlight the richness and diversity of Philippine culture and current affairs, and that will explore its cuisine, performing arts, film, design and literature. Next month, the institution will present this year’s Asia Game Changer of the Year Award to champion boxer Manny Pacquiao.
“This is truly a great day for the Philippines, for the United States and for all who care about our shared histories,” Asia Society’s president and CEO, Josette Sheeran, said at the gala event. “I have traveled to the Philippines numerous times, often as a humanitarian leader in times of great challenges and troubles brought by rains and floods. But what I learned on all of those trips is that this is a land of unparalleled warmth and welcome, and—as you can see tonight—beauty.”
The objects currently on display at the Asia Society Museum attest to a thriving maritime trade in the region with design influences that can be traced to Indian, Indonesian and Chinese art.
Gala Benefit Committee cochair Doris Magsaysay-Ho thanked her cochairs Loida NicolasLewis and Fernando Zóbel de Ayala. “We thought how wonderful it would be to bring a spotlight on the Philippines as it hosts Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) in November. And we thought, why not also highlight our heritage, and our arts and culture?
“This is so exciting for every Filipino to be able to see this in New York and for the world to learn about this world of the Philippines before the Spanish came,” she added.
The items on loan are only a fraction of the thousands of gold objects discovered in the country in the last 50 years. José L. Cuisia Jr., ambassador of the Philippines to the United States, remarked that the exhibition is a “great reason to be proud of our ancestors and our heritage.”
“Taking a look around and marveling at the artifacts on display will make one realize what commonalities our Filipino ancestors shared with our Indo- nesian, Indian, Chinese and other Southeast Asian brethren,” Cuisia added.
“[Asia Society] was built and envisioned 60 years ago by John D. Rockefeller III based on his love for Asia, and his essential insight that the future of peace and prosperity in the world depended on the trust and friendship between the United States and Asia,” Sheeran said.
“Tonight we are celebrating a new era, a new beginning for the Philippines, presented through its golden past.”
The evening also marked the opening of Video Spotlight: Philippines, an exhibit of contemporary Filipino video art, and Filipino Design Now, an installation celebrating the artistic visions of renowned and emerging Filipino designers.
“As the world gathers for the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, and New York fills with presidents and prime ministers from all over the world, we will bring them to see this celebration of the Philippines here at Asia Society,” Sheeran said.
Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms will be on display through Jan. 3, 2016.
Visit www.AsiaSociety.org/Philippines2015 for details. To arrange a group tour of the exhibit, call +1 2123279237 or email philippinegold@asiasociety.org.