BusinessMirror article by VG Cabuag
Property developer Megaworld Corp. will build three more cultural museums within its malls or hotels in its mixed-use developments all over the country to drive more foot traffic in its malls.
Tefel Pesigan-Valentino, vice president, and head of marketing and business development of Megaworld’s shopping mall arm, said the focus is to place culture and the arts in its properties.
The company broke ground on its second museum located inside its Lucky Chinatown Mall in Binondo, Manila, the company’s second.
“As we build communities, we want to understand culture and heritage. We want it to become a venue for people to interact with each other and tell stories,” she said.
The other sites include its development in Mactan-Cebu, which will focus on the 500th founding anniversary of the Philippines; and in Pampanga and Arcovia in Pasig, she said.
Valentino said it takes four years of research and curation to put up a museum.
The Binondo facility is located at the fourth level of Lucky Chinatown’s Building A. The museum features 18 galleries, with each focusing on various influences and historical events that have shaped the cultural, social and economic threads of Binondo.
The new cultural landmark, recognized by the National Historical Commission and National Commission for Culture and the Arts, is envisioned as a community space and heritage project that lends a visual retelling of the rich history of Binondo.
“It has always been our goal to integrate arts, culture, history and heritage in the overall character of our developments. With Lucky Chinatown being at the center of a community characterized by its rich history, we wanted to extend this passion for the arts and culture to the mall experience and eventually boost tourism in this part of Manila,” said Kevin Andrew L. Tan, the company’s senior vice president for commercial division.
Chinatown Museum is the second museum of Megaworld following the opening of the Iloilo Museum for Contemporary Art, the first museum of its kind in Visayas and Mindanao region, inside its Iloilo Business Park township in Mandurriao, Iloilo, last year.
“We conducted thorough research and consultations for this project, and we collaborated with members of the academe, respected historians and prominent figures in the community in order to provide an accurate and comprehensive representation of Binondo’s rich history. We went beyond a historical presentation of facts and we even developed the museum’s very own app to make it educational and, at the same time, entertaining, especially to the young audience,” Tan said.
The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday. The company will charge P150 as its regular admission rate.
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